Zeppelin Blitz

by Neil Storey

John Charles Broadley (3), 4 Roland Avenue, Arthur Street

  Emma Louise Evers (46), 25 Brunswick Avenue, Walliker Street

  Elizabeth Hall (9), 61 Selby Street

  Mary Hall (7), 61 Selby Street (Died 9 August 1916)

  Rose Alma Hall (31), 61 Selby Street

  Charles Lingard (64), 61 Walliker Street (Died from shock 14 August 1916)

  Esther Stobbart (31), 13 Henry’s Terrace, Wassand Street

  Rev. Arthur Wilcockson (86), 32 Granville Street (Died from shock)

  The Zeppelin was fired at by the mobile 3in AA gun at Harpings, north of the city, without result. Only the Harpings gun was able to fire at the raider and got off eight rounds of shrapnel although hampered by ground mist. This also prevented the Sutton gun from seeing either the target or the signals of its own flank observation post, which had sighted it. The searchlights were also hampered, and only that at Harpings picked up the target, losing it as soon as it rose after the burst of the first shell.

  At about 1.30 a.m. L-24 went off eastwards, being heard from Sutton at 1.30 a.m., at Hedon, Skirlaugh and Leven between 1.30 and 1.40 a.m. She came in again almost immediately further north, was heard from Bridlington and Burton Agnes, and moved out at 2.10 a.m. over Filey Bay.

  L-16, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Erich Sommerfeldt, was spotted at 11.45 p.m. by the master of the Inner Dowsing lightship coming from the south-east, flying so high that it could only be seen with binoculars, although the night was clear and starlit.

  The Zeppelin came in over the Wash, making landfall at Brancaster at about 12.30 a.m. Flying south-south-west to Fring, L-16 arrived over Dersingham at 12.40 a.m. and dropped ten HE and ten incendiary bombs which caused blast damage to the windows and ceilings of a number of private houses to the value of approximately £40. Five minutes later, eight HE and seven incendiary bombs were dropped at Wolferton, doing no damage. Having thus disposed of her bombs, the Zeppelin travelled along the coast and out to sea at Hunstanton at 1.09 a.m. No casualties were incurred.

  Aftermath

  The destruction caused at Hull, and the comparative impunity with which the Zeppelins flew, once again led to many protests.

  At an Air Board meeting a week after the raid it was hinted that the seaplane carriers were not doing all they might to intercept Zeppelins, and that the plea of too much risk from submarines would not satisfy public opinion. The report of the meeting called forth some incisive comments from the Admiralty; these emphasised that the army was responsible for the defence against aircraft attack, and that the seaplane carriers were intended to act only as eyes of the fleet. Fleet requirements, they said, could not give way to helping the military do their work. An Admiralty report showed that, on 8 August 1916, no fewer than 114 vessels, armed with high-angle guns were situated along the east coast, from the Forth to Dover, ready and able to fire at Zeppelins.

  2/3 September 1916

  This raid included both army and naval Zeppelins, and was intended by Strasser to be his last ‘big push’ to bomb Britain into surrender. Sixteen Zeppelins set out to attack London, but their attack was badly hampered by adverse winds with belts of heavy rain and ensuing ice, which forced two of them to turn back before they made landfall over Britain.

  It was also during this raid that the airship SL-11 (to be precise, it was actually a wooden-framed Schütte-Lanz, rather than a duralumin-framed Zeppelin) became the first to be shot down on British soil; landing at Cuffley, Hertfordshire, where she burned for nearly two hours after hitting the ground. The ‘kill’ was achieved by Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson RFC, using the new explosive and incendiary ammunition, for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross and became a national hero. The largest Zeppelin air raid of all time had been foiled and, having shown that a biplane armed with the right sort of ammunition could shoot down an airship, it was to prove the beginning of the end for the ‘Zeppelin menace.’

  Going, going, gone! One of numerous souvenir postcards produced to celebrate the shooting down of SL-11 by Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson RFC on 3 September 1916.

  LZ-98, under Oberleutnant zur See der Reserve Ernst Lehmann, passed through the Straits of Dover, off Deal, at 11.35 p.m. and crossed the coast at Littlestone one minute after midnight. She went north-west and passed Ashford at 12.15 a.m. There, she hovered for a few minutes and then went off along the main line of the South Eastern Railway as far as Staplehurst, where at 12.30 a.m. she turned off north-west.

  At 12.35 a.m. she was at Linton, and then circled south of Maidstone. She was at Otham at 12.45 a.m. and at Yalding at 12.50 a.m., after which, turning north-west she passed Hadlow at 1 a.m. and Offham at 1.05 a.m. By 1.09 a.m. she was south-west of the Hartley searchlight, which lit on the raider; the Southfleet light followed this example at 1.11 a.m. One minute later, the Southfleet gun opened fire, followed by the Dartford guns. The airship reached the railway north of Hartley at 1.13 a.m., crossed it west of Fawkham Station when under fire and, at 1.15 a.m., dropped six incendiary bombs at Longfield, immediately north of the junction of the Gravesend Branch. Twelve more incendiary bombs were dropped east of the branch line, further on. The airship then went directly over, and attacked, the Southfleet light, dropping three HE bombs just beyond it, firing a wheat stack and breaking some glass. At 1.18 a.m. the Southfleet gun ceased fire, followed at 1.19 a.m. by the Dartford guns, the target disappearing north-east behind a cloud.

  She went on towards Gravesend, dropping two HE bombs at 1.20 a.m. at Northfleet Green Farm, destroying a coal shed, ‘pollard house’ and stable, but causing no casualties. These were followed by one HE and one incendiary bomb on the Gravesend golf course. The raider then crossed the Thames east of Gravesend, dropping one incendiary bomb in the river.

  Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson VC, RFC, the first man to bring down a Zeppelin on British soil.

  The Essex searchlights were now exposed and, at 1.20 a.m., the Tilbury gun opened fire. The shooting appeared good, and the airship climbed steeply as she was crossing the river. The Fobbing gun opened fire just as she disappeared behind a cloud in a north-easterly direction, dropping two incendiary bombs at Corringham and three HE bombs on Fobbing as she passed; all to no effect.

  LZ-98 next dropped eight incendiary bombs at Vange at 1.30 a.m. and went northward at high speed, passing Billericay and Chelmsford and on to Great Waltham where, at 1.45 a.m., she dropped one HE bomb, which did no damage. She then turned north-east, passing Colchester at 2 a.m. and Ipswich at 2.10 a.m. Three minutes later, she dropped a couple of HE bombs on the boundary of Rushmere and Playford parishes, destroying some crops, then passed south of Woodbridge at 2.18 a.m., south of Saxmundham at 2.21 a.m. and out to sea north of Aldeburgh at 2.35 a.m.

  LZ-90 crossed the Essex coast shortly after 11 p.m., north of Clacton. At 11.20 p.m. she reached Mistley, south-east of Manningtree, and there, stopping her engines, lowered an observation car. For some reason, the wire cable from which the car hung broke. It was suggested that the pawls of the winch, by which the car was lowered, had become disengaged and had allowed the cable to run out suddenly, causing the car to fall a considerable distance below. Some marks found on the teeth of the gear wheels (which were dropped later on and found near Poslingford) might be explained as having been caused by a bar being thrust between the teeth in order to prevent the car dropping any further, as considerable damage might be caused to the ship if the cable became entangled in something on the ground. It was supposed that the rope parted suddenly under the sudden strain imposed on it when over Mistley.

  The observation car itself was made of light sheet aluminium, streamlined in form, about 14ft in length, with horizontal and vertical fins at the tail in order to keep it head-on to the direction of the ship. It contained a mattress, on which the observer lay at full length and carried out his observation through celluloid windows in front of the car. Communication with the ship from the car was by means of a telephone, the wire of which was contained in the centre of the suspension cable.r />
  The airship had stopped her engines to deal with the accident after the car fell to the ground, where it was found the following morning with about 5,000ft of wire attached. At 11.45 p.m., the airship restarted her engines and went off in a north-west direction, passing Dedham at 11.50 p.m. and Hadleigh at 12.05 a.m., and on to Foxearth, west of Sudbury, where two incendiary bombs were dropped to no effect.

  Travelling westward to Wixoe at 12.30 a.m., the airship dropped twenty-one HE and sixteen incendiary bombs, surprisingly causing no casualties and breaking glass in just two houses and a school.

  On turning north-east to Poslingford, the damaged winch, by which the observation car was raised or lowered, was thrown out to reduce weight at 12.40 a.m. The raider then passed north-eastwards between Thurston and Elmswell at 1 a.m., over New Buckenham at 1.15 a.m., Tasburgh at 1.20 a.m., Shotesham at 1.25 a.m., Loddon at 1.30 a.m., Cantley at 1.35 a.m. and finally out to the sea at 1.45 a.m., between Caister and Yarmouth.

  SL-11, under Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm, reached the British coast from Belgium without being detected, approached Foulness Island at 10.40 p.m., and was over Southminster at 10.50 p.m. She crossed the Blackwater at 10.55 p.m., navigating around Suffolk, Essex and Hertfordshire, until 1.20 a.m. when she dropped three HE and three incendiary bombs at London Colney, south of the Barnet–St Albans road, with no results. Five minutes later, two HE and two incendiary bombs were dropped in a wood at North Mimms, as the airship travelled due east. At around 1.28 a.m. one HE and two incendiary bombs were dropped at Littleheath, and a minute later one HE bomb fell at Northaw. At Littleheath, a water main was cut and the roofs of two houses damaged.

  The airship then passed south and then north-east, approaching the gun at Temple House from the south-west. An incendiary bomb was dropped close to the Ridgeway Road, followed by two others, one on either side of the railway just north of Gordon Hill Station. At about 1.35 a.m., two HE and seven incendiary bombs were dropped on the Stud Farm at Clayhill. The HE bombs did no damage, bursting in fields, but some of the incendiaries set a row of stables on fire and killed three valuable yearlings.

  The airship now turned and went off to the west, dropping three incendiary bombs at Cockfosters, near the Enfield Isolation Hospital as she went. At about 1.45 a.m. she crossed the Great Northern Railway main line south of Hadley Wood tunnel, dropped two incendiary bombs, then turned and re-crossed the line going east.

  Around 1.50 a.m. three incendiary bombs were dropped in a field at Southgate, and the airship turned south, passing over Wood Green, and then east, south of Alexandra Palace. At 1.58 a.m. she was picked up by the Finsbury Park and Victoria Park searchlights, and passed over the Finsbury Park gun, which opened fire at 2 a.m..

  Turning north-east over Tottenham, SL-11 came under heavy fire from other guns of the London defences, being well-lit by searchlights. At Edmonton, six HE bombs, two of which did not explode, were dropped at 2.12 a.m.; one of these dropped in the grounds of Messrs Eley’s Explosive Works. Further north, at 2.14 a.m., two HE bombs fell at Ponder’s End, which did slight damage to a large number of houses, broke some tramway and telephone wires and badly damaged a roadway and water main. Then, six HE bombs fell along the Enfield highway, one of which broke but did not explode. Fifteen houses and some greenhouses were slightly damaged. At 2.17 a.m. twelve HE bombs, two of which failed to explode, were dropped at Forty Hill and Turkey Street, where the backs of three houses were damaged. In spite of the populous nature of the district no casualties were caused.

  From Tottenham, while the bombs were being dropped, the airship was under heavy fire from the greater part of the AA defences of north and central London, including those of Regent’s Park, Paddington and the Green Park, from which she was too far distant for their fire to reach her. This no doubt contributed to the great volume of fire from London which compelled her to change course at Finsbury Park.

  On her return northward she had to run the gauntlet of the north-eastern guns, and was heavily bombarded all the way from Finsbury Park to Temple House. West Ham, Clapton and Temple House guns very nearly reached their target, the latter gun firing especially well. It is, however, to the Royal Flying Corps that the credit to her destruction belongs.

  Six aeroplanes had ascended in the London district, and three of these, piloted by Lieutenants Robinson, Mackay and Hunt, chased the airship. Lieutenant Robinson caught up with her when she was between Enfield highway and Turkey Street. He attacked her ‘most gallantly’, in spite of the fact that she was under such heavy fire and shells were bursting all around her. In consequence of his attack, as he came up from the south-east, the airship sheared off to the north-west. He fired three drums of machine gun ammunition into her and, at 2.25 a.m., a few seconds after the third drum had been fired, she was ablaze and fell headlong to the earth at the village of Cuffley. The guns were firing up to the last moment, and one or two shells are even said to have been put through the blazing mass as it fell. Being a wooden ship, she burned for nearly two hours after she reached the ground. All the bodies of the crew were completely charred and all objects on board more or less destroyed by fire.

  An excerpt from the combat report by Lieutenant Leefe Robinson, for his night patrol 2/3 September 1916:

  At 2.05 a.m. a Zeppelin was picked up by searchlights over north-east London (as far as I could judge). Remembering my last failure I sacrificed height (I was still at 12,900ft) for speed and made nose down in the direction of the Zeppelin. I saw shells bursting and night tracer shells flying about it. When I drew closer I noticed that the anti-aircraft aim was too high or too low; also a good many some 800ft behind – a few tracers went right over. I could hear the bursts when about 3,000ft from the Zeppelin. I flew about 800ft below it from bow to stern and distributed one drum along it (alternate New Brock and Pomeroy). It seemed to have no effect; I therefore moved to one side and gave it another drum distributed along its side – without apparent effect. I then got behind it (by this time I was very close – 500ft or less below) and concentrated one drum on one part (underneath rear). I was then at a height of 11,500ft when attacking the Zeppelin. I hardly finished the drum before I saw the part fired at glow. In a few seconds the whole rear part was blazing. When the third drum was fired there were no searchlights on the Zeppelin and no anti-aircraft was firing. I quickly got out of the way of the falling blazing Zeppelin and being very excited fired off a few Very’s lights and dropped a parachute flare. Having very little oil and petrol left, I returned to Sutton’s Farm, landing at 2.45 a.m.

  A contemporary representation of Leefe Robinson’s victory over SL-11 on a souvenir postcard produced by Walker Harrison & Garthwaite’s, London biscuit manufacturers.

  L-16, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Erich Sommerfeldt, crossed the Norfolk coast at 10.40 p.m. at Salthouse, passed Hindolveston at 11 p.m., Billingford at 11.08 p.m., and Mattishall at 11.15 p.m. She dropped her first bomb (an incendiary) at Kimberley at 11.28 p.m., doing no damage. At 11.35 p.m. she was over Attleborough in company with L-21, and pursued a parallel course with that of the latter for some time.

  L-16 crossed into Suffolk, where she dropped three HE bombs at Little Livermere, with no results. Passing north of Bury St Edmunds at 11.50 p.m. and south of Newmarket at 12.05 a.m., she attacked London from the north-west, passing near Luton at 1 a.m.

  Around 1.30 a.m. she went over Harpenden, dropping one HE bomb, followed by a further five at Redbourn which fell on fields near the Midland Railway line north-east of Redbourn. No casualties were caused, and the only damage was some broken windows in two cottages.

  Her course was now changed south-eastwards, and the Zeppelin passed over Shenley at 1.45 a.m. and South Mimms at 1.50 a.m. Here, she turned northwards towards Hatfield but, on seeing the bombardment of SL-11, the commander of L-16 gave up the intention of pressing further in. Noticing that the Essendon searchlight, which had now opened, was apparently unaccompanied by any gun and offered a target involving no risk to himself, went off to bom
b it. At 2.20 a.m. he circled the light, dropping nine incendiary and sixteen HE bombs on it, with the result that serious damage was done to the village. The church was badly wrecked, the choir being almost demolished. The rectory was very seriously damaged. Three cottages in the village affected and several others badly damaged. One woman (a telephone operator) and a child were killed, and a man and child injured. The light itself was not touched, though the bombs fell within 100 yards of it.

  Having no desire to share the fate of SL-11, which was now falling in flames within 5 miles of him, the commander of L-16 fled as fast as possible from the neighbourhood of London, dropping an incendiary bomb on the village of Aston as he went, to no effect.

  At 3.30 a.m. L-16 dropped an incendiary bomb at West Stow, north-west of Bury St Edmunds, which did no damage, and when passing over Raveningham at 4.10 a.m., for some reason a blue naval cap was dropped. At 4.15 a.m. she passed over Reedham and went out to sea near Yarmouth at about 4.20 a.m.

  L-32, under Oberleutnant zur See Werner Peterson, was first heard north-west of Cromer at 9.30 p.m., going south-west. She did not make landfall, instead cruising about north of Cromer for half an hour, before arriving over Sheringham at 10.03 p.m. She passed Edgefield (10.15 p.m.), and then turned east to Erpingham at 10.35 p.m. Here, she turned south to Aylsham and at 11 p.m. the Zeppelin passed over Honingham, heading west-south-west and dropping a flare at Whinburgh and her first three bombs at Ovington. These were followed by a further three on Saham Toney at about 11.10 p.m.

  Members of the RFC and RNAS sifting through the wreckage of SL-11 in a field at Castle Farm, Cuffley, Hertfordshire.

  After turning south when east of Mundford, at about 11.25 p.m., she then seemed to slow down or stop to verify her position, which she did at 11.27 p.m. and again at 11.35 p.m. At 11.45 p.m. she dropped two incendiary bombs at Two Mile Bottom, near Thetford, and headed south-west. At 11.55 p.m. she was near Mildenhall where, at Hake Bottom, she dropped a petrol tank.