Zeppelin Blitz

by Neil Storey

  In Aldwych, where bombs also fell in the street, the Strand Theatre was slightly damaged, four people were killed, five seriously injured and ten slightly injured. The wooden shed of the Belgian War Refugees Committee clearing house was seriously damaged. The new extension of the Law Courts was damaged by a small fire caused by incendiary bombs. The upper storeys of two of the old houses in New Square, Lincoln’s Inn, were wrecked by the HE bomb that fell on them, but the explosion did not penetrate to the lower storeys, thanks to the solidity of the buildings, which date from 1697.

  The fragments from the bomb that exploded in Old Square chipped large pieces out of the stone and brickwork of the surrounding buildings, and seriously damaged the sixteenth-century stained glass windows of Lincoln’s Inn Chapel. The Chancery Lane bomb badly damaged the roadway, smashed the water and gas mains, wrecked the fronts of the buildings on the east side and broke all the windows of Stone Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn, on the west side. Flying fragments of stone seem to have done as much harm as the splinters of the bombs themselves. In Gray’s Inn, the hall and some houses in the square were wrecked, and in Hatton Garden and Farringdon Road several buildings were burned by incendiary bombs.

  Entrance of the Strand Theatre, Aldwych, after suffering blast damage during the Zeppelin raid of 13 October 1915.

  The next bombs dropped by L-15 fell in the roadway at Finsbury Pavement. Two HE bombs damaged several buildings, including one under construction. One soldier and three other people were killed, and ten injured. Another bomb fell on a small hotel in the Minories, partly demolishing it and damaging a number of houses nearby in the Minories, Aldgate and Houndsditch. One person was killed and eight injured, and a horse was also killed. The next two HE bombs fell on either side of the London, Tilbury & Southend (Midland) Railway between Great Prescot and Royal Mint Streets. Several tenement houses in Great Prescot Street, Chamber Street and Leman Street were damaged and six people injured. Leman Street Station was slightly damaged. The last bomb, also an HE, fell between Wellclose Square and Princes Square. A tarpaulin factory was wrecked and several other buildings were damaged. No human casualties occurred here, but a horse was killed.

  Damage to the London & South-Western Bank on the corner of Aldgate High Street and Minories, East London, after the raid of 13 October 1915. (IWM)

  L-15 went off over the London and the West India Docks to Limehouse, turning sharply northwards when fired on by the Woolwich AA guns, and disappeared. During her course over London L-15 had been energetically but fruitlessly bombarded from 9.25 to 9.35 p.m. by the guns of the London AA defences, which seemed quite unable to reach her; the Zeppelin was flying at an estimated 8,000–9,000ft. Considerable damage was done by falling shell fragments, chiefly in Poplar and Limehouse. A house was also hit in Oxford Street and the Westminster Public Library in Great Smith Street had its roof damaged.

  On leaving the river at Limehouse, around 9.30 p.m., L-15 went straight north over Hackney and Leyton and turned north-east to Woodford and Barkingside, passing the latter place at 9.45 p.m. She was fired at by the guns at Loughton (until the trigger lever jumped after the fourth round), Hainault Farm, Grange Camp (Waltham) and Kelvedon Hatch between 9.40 p.m. and 9.55 p.m. Ground fog prevented the ascent of most aircraft, but two RFC aircraft went up from Joyce Green and Hainault at 8.10 p.m., patrolling until 9.50 p.m. when they returned and another two went up, but they all returned with nothing to report. The B.E-2c, flown by Second Lieutenant John ‘Jack’ Slessor R.F.C. from Sutton’s Farm, went up at 9.40 p.m. and had more luck. He spotted L-15 in the searchlights, started off in pursuit and attempted to drop his anti-Zeppelin grenade, but lost sight of his target after passing through cloud. Slessor thus has the distinction of being the pilot of the first plane to challenge a Zeppelin over British soil. This young pilot went on to become Sir John Slessor, Marshal of the Royal Air Force, 1950–52. The flying conditions were indeed difficult that night and two out of the five aircraft that went up crashed on landing. L-15 passed the Kelvedon Hatch gun going east at 10.00 p.m, heading back to the sea over Suffolk. It was fired upon by a pom-pom of the RNAS detachment at Rushmere and dropped four HE bombs in response, which fell harmlessly. Ten minutes later she passed Woodbridge, at a height of 5,000–6,000ft, and was fired on by a Maxim there. Making no reply to the attack, L-15 went on east of Wickham Market at 11.35 p.m., north of Orford at 11.45 p.m. and out to sea near Aldeburgh at 11.55 p.m.

  L-16 was commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Werner Peterson, and made landfall at Bacton at 6.40 p.m. She was fired upon by the Maxim gun detachment just as L-14 and L-15 had been. The Zeppelin then travelled west-south-west, and dropped a bomb at Banningham at around 6.50 p.m. No harm was caused. Peterson then altered to a southerly course, passing over Costessey, west of Norwich, at 7.20 p.m., then north-west to Attlebridge and then south-west to Attleborough, where she dropped a petrol tank at 7.50 p.m. and another, a few minutes later, at Eccles. She moved over East Harling at 8 p.m. and to the west of Thetford ten minutes later.

  Passing over Suffolk and Essex, L-16 was fired upon by a Maxim at Chelmsford. Visible lights are believed to have attracted the Zeppelin commander to Sawbridgeworth. Approaching over the junction of the River Lea and its tributary the Beane, seven incendiary bombs were thrown, all of which fell in fields close to the swimming bath, doing no damage.

  The first HE bomb fell on allotments at the Folly, and the second at Priory New Road, both on the banks of the Lea. Windows and roofs at the Folly were damaged. A house in Frampton Street was demolished. The third HE bomb fell in Bull Plain, where one house was demolished, five others (including the Conservative Club) wrecked, and the museum and eleven other houses slightly damaged. Five men were killed outside the Conservative Club, two of whom were prominent townsmen – the borough surveyor and a well-known organist. A child was killed in the demolished house, a man injured in another house and four men and three women injured in the street.

  The fourth and fifth HE bombs fell at the junction of Maidenhead Yard, Mill Bridge and the Wash. A flour mill was partly wrecked; some stables and outhouses badly damaged; a brewery, wine stores and seven shops were also affected; and the windows were broken in about twenty houses. A woman was seriously injured and two men slightly injured in Maidenhead Yard. Two artillerymen were also injured there.

  Twelve incendiary bombs fell at the same time on Old Cross, near the Municipal Library and School of Art. The building was slightly damaged, as were also a brewery and several other houses and shops near Old Cross.

  L-16 passed over St Andrew’s Church, and dropped her sixth and seventh HE bombs, one in the North Road just beyond its junction with the Hertingfordbury Road, and one in a garden, accompanied by seven more incendiaries. An artilleryman was killed in the road and a man injured. A private residence, a motor works and an inn were wrecked; and twenty-nine houses in the North Road, sixteen in St Andrew’s Street and two in Hertingfordbury Road were slightly damaged.

  The Zeppelin followed the line of the North Road and the River Beane, and dropped an eighth HE bomb which failed to explode, and three incendiaries, in gardens between the road and the river, followed by the ninth HE bomb which exploded in the road near the hospital gate. The hospital suffered slight damage, and also St Andrew’s Rectory and five other residences close by. Another artilleryman was wounded and two men killed.

  Finally, L-16 dropped five more HE bombs and one incendiary on fields west of the hospital, doing no damage and causing no casualties.

  In all, eight men (including one soldier) and one child were killed:

  George Cartledge (56), Fore Street

  Arthur John Cox (21), 50 Victoria Road, Great Yarmouth (Acting Bombardier in 2/1st Norfolk Battery, East Anglian Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, stationed at Hertford. His body was returned for burial at Great Yarmouth (Caister) Cemetery.)

  George Stephen Game (4), 37 Bull Plain

  James L. Gregory (55), York House, Fore Street

  Arthur Hart (51), 61 Po
rt Vale

  John Henry Jeavons (67)

  Ernest Thomas Jolly (27), Hampden House, Ware Road

  Charles Spicer (30), 38 Thornton Street

  Charles Waller (43), 34 Hertingfordbury Road

  A further eleven men (including three soldiers) and four women were injured.

  Peterson took L-16 off over Bengeo in a north-easterly direction, passing Little Hadham at 10.15 p.m. and approaching Newmarket at 10.45 p.m. Here, the Zeppelin was attacked by a Maxim on the heath and turned off northwards, passing Soham at 10.55 p.m. Crossing into Norfolk and moving south of Narford around 11.20 p.m., Swaffham at 11.25 p.m., and Dereham at 11.35 p.m., the Zeppelin was north of Aylsham by 11.55 p.m. and proceeded out to sea at Mundesley at about 1.05 a.m. Ten minutes later, L-16 passed the Haisborough lightship, going east.

  L-11, under Oberleutnant zur See Horst von Buttlar, crossed between the Cockle and Newarp lightships at about 7.30 p.m. and then went north. Turning south-west, the Zeppelin passed over the Haisborough lightship at 8.15 p.m. and came in over Bacton at 8.25 p.m., where she was fired on by a Maxim armoured car of the RNAS. Then making her way inland at 8.45 p.m., L-11 circled over the parishes of Horstead, Coltishall and Great Hautbois, dropping bombs.

  Four HE and three incendiary bombs fell in Horstead parish in open fields, breaking a few panes of glass in the cottages nearby. In Coltishall and Great Hautbois L-11 dropped nine HE bombs, two of which did not explode. All these dropped in fields not far from the Great Eastern Railway station at Coltishall. The only damage done was a shed partly blown down and a few more panes of glass broken. Seven incendiary bombs were also dropped around three cottages. These bombs were quickly put out by pails of water. There were no casualties.

  Norfolk National Reserve with one of the unexploded HE bombs dropped by L-11 in fields not far from the Great Eastern Railway station at Coltishall, Norfolk, on 13 October 1915.

  ‘LET FLY THEREFORE!’

  Zeppelin commander Horst von Buttlar recorded his personal account of one of the early missions for his book Zeppelins over England (1931):

  We started off at 10.00am, made the North Sea coast an hour later, and then, shaping a westerly course, kept the German and Dutch coast in sight. At twilight our position was just north of Terschelling, and at an altitude of about 2500ft we veered west and continued our journey. According to my calculations we ought to have made the English coast between 11 and 11.15 p.m. The ship was darkened; that is to say, all lights were put out in the car and even the use of pocket electric torches was forbidden, our object being to approach the coast as secretly as possible and without being observed by any craft searching out at sea.

  It was 11.30 p.m. and still there was no sign that we were approaching land, although the shipping below certainly seemed to be growing more plentiful. Here and there through the pitch-black night we had been able to observe the side-lights of the small steamers and now and again also the lights of fishing smacks. It now occurred to me that the ship was making less headway, for the lights below us took longer to move away. The west wind, which during the day had been only a gentle breeze, had now apparently grown somewhat stronger and was making our progress more difficult; the consequence was that it was taking us longer to reach the English coast than we had reckoned it would. I looked at the clock and was horrified. It was midnight! And still there was no land in sight.

  Half past twelve and still no land! Since we had last ascertained our position near Terschelling a good four hours had elapsed. I had our fuel gauged; it was terribly reduced. Should we turn back? We had only enough petrol for another seven hours and still there was no sign of England!

  After coming all that distance, however, and on the very point of reaching the English coast, I was determined to push on at all costs. On our return journey we should be able to find some way out of the difficulty. For if the wind from the west really had increased in force, it would be a great help for us on our way back and we should reach home all the quicker. I therefore decided to continue on our westward course until 1 a.m. at the very latest and if by that time I had not made the English coast I should turn back for otherwise I would most certainly never be able to reach the most westerly airship base at Hage, near Norden, in East Friesland.

  At that time a flight of this kind was much more of a strain than it is today [1931]. For instance the cars were open on all sides and this made it extremely cold up in the air, particularly as it was mid-winter. The only car that possessed a small wind-screen was the forward one, but it was just sufficient to protect the steersman and the maps on his chart-table, from the icy blast during the flight. It was 1 a.m. and still no land was in sight! Should I turn back after all? Suddenly a thin shaft of light came into view. The misty arm of a searchlight darted across the sky. It was probably looking for us. We were over England! Then we saw a number of faint lights beneath us, myriads of them. We must be over some town. Let fly therefore!

  Schiller hurried aft to drop the hundredweight bombs. I was just able hurriedly to discuss my plan of action with him and told him that I proposed to sweep over the town, which we could just faintly discern, by coming up from the south, turning west and then going off east and arranged with him that when a bell rang he was to begin dropping the bombs.

  Steering a south-westerly course, we kept over our objective and climbed to a height of about 3,500ft. It was impossible to take the ship up any higher and I did not wish to make her too heavy, for if an engine broke down or one of our gasbags got hit, I should not have any reserve buoyancy left with which to control her. By this time Schiller must be at his post – now! Then the lights could be seen below. Whitish-green beams came up through the mist again and began searching the sky. They crossed each other. Drew nearer, their light grew brighter and suddenly covered the ship’s envelope in a blinding glare. They’ve got us! Little red spots of fire appear below. They were the anti-aircraft batteries. I gave Schiller the sign. Then I climbed slowly in a spiral to a height of 4,500ft above our objective.

  The chief engineer artificer helped the Wachoffizier in the bomb-cabin to drop the bombs, for the incendiary bombs had to be thrown out by hand. A pin had to be taken out to make them ‘live’, after which they were flung in a gentle curve overboard, to crash and burn below a moment later and burn merrily. Meanwhile the Wachoffizier dropped the three one-hundredweight bombs. By this time the space between us and the ground had become a perfect inferno of gunfire and bursting shells – shrapnel meant for us.

  When all the bombs had been thrown, I leant well out of the car and saw a fiery ‘6’ burning gaily below. Now we must get back. At a height of 4,500ft we were soon out of reach of the English anti-aircraft batteries and steered a course south-east by south back toward the North Sea.

  The Zeppelin proceeded eastward to Wroxham (8.50 p.m.) and south-west to Thorpe, near Norwich (9 p.m.) where, just north of this latter location, L-11 was fired upon by the 1/1st Leicestershire Royal Horse Artillery TF on Mousehold Heath. From Thorpe she headed towards Acle at 9.10 p.m. and out to sea at Great Yarmouth at 9.15 p.m.

  Buttlar described this short and futile trip over Norfolk as a significant attack in West Ham and Woolwich, but did claim that he ‘had great difficulty in fixing his position owing to being fired at.’

  The four Zeppelins reached the vicinity of the Norfolk coast together, and waited for one another between the Haisborough and Would lightships. They crossed the coast at the same time, approximately 6.30 p.m. They steered a course in close proximity to one another. After going as far as Norwich, two of the ships seemed to be doubtful of their position. They both followed the course of the River Wensum, then turned south-west again, the formation being three airships ahead and one astern. On reaching Thetford the airships opened out fanwise; two ships (L-15 and L-16) continued on a direct course towards London, two more (L-13 and L-14) laying their course west and east of London respectively. Thus far, the scheme seemed to have worked out according to programme.

  Intelligence Su
mmary

  On arriving at Braintree, L-15 inclined westwards, then circled and attacked the metropolis from the north-west, being over the city at 9.25 p.m. She was under heavy, but inaccurate gunfire, and her bombing of the city was deliberate. After expending the bombs she returned to Germany, passing over Ipswich. L-13, which meanwhile had laid her course more to the west, must have seen the attack of L-15 with the accompanying reflections of searchlight beams in the sky. L- 13, however continued on her course down the valleys of the Colne and Thames and up the River Wey. She them bombed the vicinity of Guildford.

  The German communiqué stated that the Hampton Water Works near London had been bombed but it is very difficult to imagine that the commander of L-13 could really have thought that he was actually over Hampton, since the lights of London must have been visible to him some 15 miles away and he had already seen the searchlights at work on L-15. The report was probably mendacious.

  It is possible that L-14 on her southward journey may have mistaken the estuary of the Thames for that of Blackwater and consequently came under further south than she intended before heading for London. It was soon after 11 p.m. that L-13 and L-14 met twice, once near Oxted and again at Bromley. After crossing the path of L-13 at Oxted, L-14 headed direct for London but apparently shirked the crossing of the city and bombed Croydon instead. After having thrown all her remaining bombs she turned north-east for home. There is no doubt that the bombing of Croydon by L-14 had been watched by L-13. L-13 then turned to the west again and dropped her remaining bombs on Woolwich before going home.