Zeppelin Blitz

by Neil Storey

  L-17 was under the command of Kapitänleutnant Herbert Ehrlich, who reported that he was having problems determining his location due to dense cloud, when suddenly a searchlight broke through the overcast sky to starboard. He claimed that he saw the glow of ‘blast furnaces’ nearby and that he came under small arms fire as he steered to attack.

  Ehrlich made two runs over the ‘industrial area’ during which he claimed to have silenced the battery attacking him and extinguished the light. In reality, he had drifted in over Sheringham at 6.40 p.m. and had been caught in the searchlight of the RNAS station at Bayfield, near Holt. He had jettisoned the majority of his bomb load onto it. Ten HE bombs landed 200 yards from the station, five in a field to the south-east, and five more to the south some 400 yards away causing no greater damage than a few craters in open ground. Five more bombs and an incendiary fell on Bayfield Lodge, nearby. One of these wrecked a barn and a greenhouse, blasting out tiles and glass but, fortunately, injuring no one.

  L-17 then turned south to Letheringsett, on the way dropping fourteen incendiary bombs in a field and a wood near Bayfield Hall, but causing no harm. A further HE bomb was dropped in Letheringsett. The History of 25th County of London Cyclist Battalion records:

  In late January 1916 a Zeppelin raided Holt and every telephone line west of it was broken. No lives were lost, but a draft of recruits just arrived from the Depot had a shake-up in their quarters at Letheringsett, which was close to a searchlight station the Zeppelin was apparently anxious to locate and destroy.

  L-17 remained in the Holt area for some time, then headed south-west by way of Reepham and north of Norwich, where she was spotted at 8.10 p.m. She was finally recorded out to sea, south of Great Yarmouth at 8.30 p.m.

  The two remaining Zeppelins (L-11 under Oberleutnant zur See von Buttlar, carrying Zeppelin chief Peter Strasser, and L-20) came in by the Wash and crossed onto land near Sutton Bridge at about 7.10 p.m., where they parted. L-11 travelled westward and L-20 pursued a south-west course.

  L-11 dropped her first bomb (an incendiary), which did no damage at Holbeach at 7.40 p.m. and then turned north-west, setting a course in the direction of the manufacturing districts of south Yorkshire. Shortly after 8 p.m., L-11 dropped one incendiary bomb and three HE bombs on Digby and four HE bombs on Bloxholme Park, two of which did not explode. The Zeppelin kept on her course, passing south of Lincoln, until she reached Retford where she circled for some time around 9.50 p.m. She then altered course to travel north towards Gainsborough and then south-east to Lincoln, dropping an illuminating flare at Hackthorn at about 10.30 p.m.

  L-11 then went off at high speed in the direction of Hull and, shortly before 11 p.m., dropped a large number of bombs at Scunthorpe, aiming at Frodingham Iron & Steel works. These works, having received no warning, were in full blast and the untapped furnaces must have offered an easy mark. Sixteen HE and forty-eight incendiary bombs were dropped. All of them missed the Frodingham Works, but several of them fell on the premises of the Redbourne Iron Works, which were closed down and in darkness. Two men were killed there, but the damage done was inconsiderable, involving only slight injury to the engine and boiler house. In the town of Scunthorpe four workmen’s houses were practically demolished. One man was killed, two men injured seriously and three men and two women slightly. One bomb dropped on a railway siding damaging the metals. A quantity of window glass was also broken in the town.

  Having expended his bombs, the Zeppelin commander made eastwards for the sea and passed near Humberston at 11.35 p.m. He was fired on with thirty-four rounds as he went, by a pom-pom at Waltham wireless station, and finally left the coast north of North Somercotes at 11.45 p.m.

  L-20, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Franz Stabbert, held a somewhat erratic course once overland. After parting company with L-11 at Sutton Bridge at 7.10 p.m., she went westward to Peakirk at 7.40 p.m. and on to Uffington, near Stamford, where she dropped an HE bomb five minutes later, with little effect beyond breaking a few windows. L-20 was then on a westerly course, which brought her north of Oakham and Leicester. She was then attracted by the lights of Loughborough, which seem not to have been reduced. She made for the town and, at 8.05 p.m., bombed it. Leicester, it may be noted, was in darkness and escaped a visit, as did Nottingham, where lighting was also restricted.

  Four HE bombs were dropped on Loughborough. One fell in the back yard of a small public house, damaging outbuildings and shattering glass. Another fell in a main thoroughfare, and a third in a garden, both smashing a good deal of glass. The fourth dropped in front of the Empress Crane Works, which had not put out its lights until the first bomb dropped. Considerable damage was done to windows and doors but the machinery was unaffected. Four men were killed, two in the street and two in houses, and seven men and five women were injured. One of the injured men was a soldier employed on munition work.

  Leaving Loughborough, the Zeppelin dropped an HE bomb, which did not explode, in a field and went north-north-west to Bennerley and Trowell where, at 8.27 p.m., seven HE bombs were dropped, one falling close to a railway viaduct but luckily doing no damage except to a signal box. A cattle shed was wrecked by another bomb.

  At 8.30 p.m. the airship appeared south of Ilkeston, where fifteen HE bombs were dropped at the Stanton Ironworks, Hallam Field. The moulding and blacksmith’s shops and the stables were damaged and the schoolroom attached to the church at the ironworks wrecked. Two men were killed and two injured.

  After Ilkeston the Zeppelin turned south-west in the direction of Burton-on-Trent where, at 8.45 p.m. about a dozen incendiary bombs were thrown. This was the first attack on Burton, which was visited by three airships between 8.45 and 9.45 p.m. Fifteen HE and twenty-four incendiary bombs were dropped in all. It is probable that L-20 had now exhausted her HE bombs and had nothing but perhaps a dozen incendiary bombs to throw on the town, which seems to have been showing a certain amount of light. It had only been possible to reduce gas pressure and dim the public electric lights to some extent half an hour before the first bombs fell. It proved impossible to distinguish between the bombs dropped at Burton by three different ships, or to assign particular damage to a specific Zeppelin.

  Much damage was done to the breweries of Messrs Bass, Messrs Allsopp, Messrs Ind Coope & Co. and Messrs Worthington. At Bass’s Brewery, an engine house was partially demolished and at Allsopp’s, the sawmill was wrecked by HE bombs. At Ind Coope’s, the malthouse kiln was destroyed by fire, and at Worthington’s the hop room was partially burnt out, both by incendiary bombs. A malthouse was also destroyed at Worthington’s by an HE bomb. At Charrington’s and Robinson’s Breweries HE bombs landed in their yards, doing no damage to buildings. No casualties occurred at the breweries.

  The most extensive damage was caused in Wellington and Snobnall Streets, where nine houses were wrecked and several damaged. Five people were killed and many injured. In the High Street, two shops were partially wrecked, and the Grammar Schoolhouse was partly destroyed with two people killed and several injured in it. At Christ Church mission room and vicarage an HE bomb dropped between the buildings, destroying masonry, blowing out windows and doors and killing four people and injuring others. Further bombs dropped near a billiard hall, damaging it and killing one person, and on the Midland Railway Company’s goods depot, where a warehouse, siding and trucks were partially destroyed and several people injured.

  The railways suffered considerably. At Moor Street Crossing and Leicester Junction sidings the permanent way was damaged, and the signal and an empty train destroyed. A large amount of minor damage was also caused. Eight incendiary bombs failed to ignite.

  In all, three men, six women and six children were killed at Burton, and twenty men, thirty-five women and fifteen children injured.

  The dead, their home addresses and the locations of where they were killed were:

  Margaret Anderson (60), 195 Scalpcliffe Road, at Christ Church Mission Room.

  Ada Brittain (15), Waterside Road, at Christ C
hurch Mission Room.

  John Lees Finney (53), 5 Slater’s Yard, near the Midland Railway Good Shed.

  Bertie Geary (13), 89 Blackwood Street, near Peel Croft.

  Charles Gibson (52), 34 Wellington Street.

  Edith Measham (10), 32 Wellington Street.

  Mary Rose Morris (32), 32 Easton Place, Brighton, at Christ Church Mission Room.

  Lucy Simnett (15), 150, Branstone Road, at Litchfield.

  Elizabeth Smith (45), 73 Park Street, at Christ Church Mission Room.

  George Stephens (16), 332 Blackpool Street.

  Florence Warden (16), 206 Uxbridge Street, at Christ Church Mission Room.

  George Warrington (6), 108 Snobnall Street, at 109 Snobnall Street.

  Mary Warrington (11), 108 Snobnall Street, at 109 Snobnall Street.

  Rachel Wayte (78), 72 New Street, at Christ Church Mission Room.

  Florence Jane Wilson (23), 8 Casey Lane, at 109 Snobnall Street.

  Leaving Burton-on Trent, the Zeppelin turned away north-east, going north of Derby and Nottingham and then bearing south-east to the neighbourhood of Stamford. She then passed Thorney going east at 10.30 p.m., was spotted near Swaffham at 11.15 p.m., crossed out to sea at Blakeney at about 11.45 p.m. and passed Cromer while out at sea at 11.52 p.m.

  5–6 March 1916

  Three Zeppelins, L-11, L-13 and L-14, left the western airship shed, situated near the Bight of Heligoland, before noon on 5 March. The Zeppelins moved together westwards, steering for Flamborough Head.

  L-14, under Kapitänleutnant Alois Böcker, crossed Flamborough Head from south to north, dropping some flares on the shore in order to locate the land. Finally, she re-crossed the headland going southwards.

  Bridlington was passed at about 10.50 p.m., and the Zeppelin kept southwards along the coast at some distance inland as far as Aldborough. Here, she suddenly turned sharp north-east at 11.05 p.m. and out to sea. About 11.25 p.m. she came over the coast again, near Barmston, and went west dropping an incendiary bomb in a field near Gembling, halfway between the coast and Driffield.

  She now turned southwards after verifying her bearings and, at 11.40 p.m., was seen at Cranswick going south. Later, she passed Lockington, where she was going slowly southwards along the railway to Hull. She seems to have gone off south-east towards Hedon at this point and at midnight was over Beverley, where she dropped three HE and three incendiary bombs in open fields in the parish of Woodmansey, 1 mile south-east of the town. None of them caused any damage.

  The Zeppelin must have then perceived Hull, and bore directly southwards to the city. The attack began at 12.05 a.m., when L-14 passed slowly over the western part of the city, dropping seven HE bombs as she went, the first of which fell in the grounds of Hymer College. The second fell on the railway embankment south of the college and east of Anlaby Road junction, doing no damage beyond breaking windows in adjacent streets. The four following bombs destroyed houses in Regent Street, Linnaeus Street and Day Street and damaged a grocer’s shop in Bean Street. The last bomb to drop on the quay of Albert Dock wrecked a crane. Nine incendiary bombs were dropped on the town and four in the river.

  The bombing of the defenceless city was slowly and deliberately carried out by Kapitänleutnant Böcker. The ship remained above the city for ten minutes at a height estimated at no more than 5,000–7,000ft. The instant release of the bombs was visible when light in the interior of the ship appeared as the trap door opened to drop the bombs. The sky was clear at that moment, but snow had fallen intermittently before the raid, so that the area of the docks and the Rivers Humber and Hull would have shown up like ink stains on white paper, thus giving the Zeppelin a well-defined target in between the drifts of the snow cloud above which she was slowly passing.

  This was further borne out by the testaments of the prisoners of L-33, captured at Wigborough on 24 September 1916, who served on L-14 on the occasion of the raid. Böcker was also taken prisoner and he, along with the steersman, Jensen, must have known perfectly well where they were and what they were doing when they bombed Hull. The men stated, under examination, that the visibility of the city was perfect. The steersman, at least, showed himself fully conscious of the doubtful morality of his commander’s action.

  Having been successful over Hull, Böcker took his Zeppelin off, passing over Paull at 12.25 a.m. and moving down the river to Killingholme where, at 12.30 a.m., he was fired on by the AA guns, without result. He immediately turned off eastward and, over Birstwick, dropped a single HE bomb, which had no effect, followed by four HE and two incendiary bombs, which were equally innocuous, at Owstwick about 12.40 a.m. The airship then went out to sea, apparently at Tunstall, five minutes later.

  L-11, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Viktor Schütze, crossed the Yorkshire coastline between Tunstall and Withernsea at about 9.45 p.m. After circling for some time, she seems to have made south, passing over Grimsby at 10.10 p.m. Continuing her southern course, she was heard at Ludborough at about 10.20 p.m., turned south-west and was heard again near Market Rasen at about 10.30 p.m., and both seen and heard at Waddington, 2 miles south of Lincoln, at 10.40 p.m.

  Schütze now seems to have abandoned the idea of penetrating any further in a south-westerly direction, but did not propose to run for Belgium so instead he beat back in the direction of the Humber. At around 10.50 p.m. L-11 was seen between Wragby and Hainton, going west. Schütze seems to have discovered near Lincoln that he was going too far south and east, and so turned and made off north-west towards south Yorkshire.

  L-11 was next seen at Carcroft, going towards Selby. He then appears to have given up the idea of dropping bombs where he was and turned eastwards to the coast. This was due to the weather, which was becoming more unfavourable. Snow clouds prevented him from seeing where he was and also prevented him from being seen, which accounts for the paucity of reports regarding his movements. The Zeppelin accordingly returned to the Humber below Hull before 1 a.m. and, having definitely fixed her whereabouts, moved up the river to Hull which she bombed exactly one hour after the attack by L-14.

  The city must have been as perfectly visible to von Buttlar and the crew of L-11 as it had been to Böcker and his crew. The bombing was equally deliberate. The Zeppelin came down to a height of 3,000–4,000ft and, for a time, was stationary over the city. As before, the light shown by the opening of the bomb-dropping trap was clearly visible. A HE bomb was dropped in the river opposite Earle’s Shipyard, and this caused the partial collapse the next day of a half-finished 3,000-ton steamer. An incendiary bomb also fell into the river.

  The Zeppelin went north-west over the city, passing from the mouth of the Hull, where another incendiary bomb landed, across Prince’s Dock and over the Paragon Station, dropping eight more HE bombs and ten incendiaries as she went. One of these incendiary bombs fell in the dock. The CRA’s office in Queen Street was seriously damaged by HE bombs. After hovering above the station for two or three minutes, L-11 suddenly turned about and went off down the river.

  The damage done in Hull by this Zeppelin consisted of several houses destroyed and a water mains broken in Queen Street and Collier Street; a fire at the Mariners’ Almshouses in Carr Lane; the breakage of some painted glass windows in the south aisle of Holy Trinity Church and the roof of the Paragon Station; and the previously mentioned damage to the CRA’s office. A small fire, caused by an incendiary bomb which fell on the quay of Prince’s Dock, was soon extinguished.

  The total casualties from both raids at Hull were: eight men, four women and five children killed, and twenty-two men, twenty-two women and eight children injured. One of the men was an old seaman, who was burnt to death in the fire caused by an incendiary bomb at the Mariners’ Almshouses.

  Those killed were:

  Frank Cattle (8), Little Humber Street.

  Robert Cattle, Little Humber Street.

  James William Collinson (63), 14 Johns Place, Regent Street.

  Edward Cook (38), 33 Lukes Street.

  Ethel
Mary Ingamells (33), 8 The Avenue, Linnaeus Street.

  Martha Rebecca Ingamells (35), 8 The Avenue, Linnaeus Street.

  Mira Lottie Ingamells (28), 8 The Avenue, Linnaeus Street.

  Edward Ledner (89), Mariner’s Almshouses, Carr Lane.

  John Longstaff (71), 6, William’s Place, Upper Union Street.

  Annie Naylor (6), 32 Collier Street.

  Charlotte Naylor (30), 32 Collier Street.

  Edward Naylor (4), 32 Collier Street.

  Jeffery Naylor (2), 32 Collier Street.

  Ruby Naylor (8), 32 Collier Street.

  James Pattison (68), 33 Regent Street.

  Edward Slip (45), 23 Queen Street.

  John Smith (30), 2 Queens Alley, Blackfriargate.

  George Henry Youell (40), 4 Post Office Entry, High Street.

  Passing down the river, at 1.15 a.m. L-11 was over Killingholme and was fired at by the AA guns there, without result. She retaliated with four HE bombs. One of these dropped on wasteland, another struck a railway siding, damaging the rails, and the others fell harmlessly. One man was killed.

  The airship kept on her course down the river, and at 1.25 a.m. was near Grimsby, until at 1.40 a.m. she passed the Spurn on her way out to sea.

  L-13, under Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Mathy, struck the Lincolnshire coast at North Coates Fitties at 9.14 p.m. and, passing south-west, went over Tetney, was heard over Binbrook soon after 9.30 p.m. and at East Barkwith around 9.50 p.m. At 10.10 p.m. she dropped a flare at Branston, south-east of Lincoln. Proceeding east of Newark, more flares were dropped at 10.25 p.m., at a point north-east of Claypole Station.