Zeppelin Blitz

by Neil Storey

  The Zeppelin then went off south-east, passed Burgh at 10.45 p.m. and out to sea between Yarmouth and Lowestoft at 10.50 p.m. She neared the Dutch Island of Zeeland shortly before midnight, and then headed back to her base.

  L-47, with Kapitänleutnant Michael von Freudenreich in command, came over the English coast at about 7.45 p.m. near Sutton-on-Sea, and went along the coast to Skegness. At 7.55 p.m. she dropped a 50kg bomb at Ingoldmells, which failed to explode. She then moved south-west, and was south of Holbeach at 8.10 p.m. Turning east, she was north of Spalding at 8.15 p.m. and near Castle Bytham at 8.30 p.m. The Zeppelin circled and hovered in this neighbourhood for some time, and then, at 8.55 p.m., went off south-west dropping two 50kg bombs near Wittering aerodrome, which did no damage.

  She then took a steady south-east course, and dropped two incendiary bombs at about 9.20 p.m. at Ramsey, doing no damage. She passed north of Newmarket between 10 p.m. and 10.05 p.m. At 10.28 p.m. she dropped a 50kg HE bomb at Raydon, close to Hadleigh Aerodrome, to no effect, followed at 10.30 p.m. by ten 50kg bombs at Great Wenham, which caused only slight damage to farm buildings and cottages. At 10.32 p.m. the raider harmlessly dropped a 100kg bomb at Chattisham.

  The Zeppelin then crossed the Orwell near Wrabness at 10.35 p.m. and went out to sea at Walton-on-the-Naze at 10.40 p.m. An hour later, she was at sea off Ostend, and followed the Dutch coast back to her base.

  L-49, under Kapitänleutnant Hans Geyer, left Wittmundhafen at 7 p.m. for a raid over the Midlands. The objectives in her orders were the ‘centre’ of England – Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool. She was to carry a full crew, but at the last moment one engineer from the starboard wing car was left behind. She carried a load of 2 tons of bombs and petrol for a twenty-two hour flight.

  The journey over the North Sea was accomplished without incident and at a good speed. The height at which the ship travelled was not clear from the statements of the crew, but she probably started at about 3,000ft and increased her height gradually as she crossed the sea and approached the English coast. At about 7.30 p.m. her speed was greatly reduced when the Zeppelin was near England, and she had risen to a height of about 14,000ft. The commander desired to wait for complete darkness before crossing the coast, perhaps passing over the North Sea rather more quickly than he had expected. As a result of this check, the forward motor was accidentally put out of action. The engineer, in restarting the propeller, appears to have stuck the throttle valve and stopped his engine and, before he could start it again, the radiator had frozen by 8 p.m.

  The incident dampened the ardour of the commander and, although he subsequently changed his mind, he actually contemplated abandoning the raid at this juncture. Moreover, whilst moving at a slow speed for some three quarters of an hour he had, without knowing it, drifted very far south from the appointed rendezvous of the squadron at Flamborough Head.

  The commander claimed to have thrown bombs between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on military establishments in the neighbourhood of Hull, Bridlington, Scarborough and Flamborough, and to have made hits, one of them on a train and a station. He had, in reality, come overland at Holkham, Norfolk, at 8 p.m. and subsequently headed south-south-east, dropping one 300kg, one 100kg and one 50kg bomb on a farm near East Dereham, breaking £10 worth of glass.

  Next, he dropped nine 50kg bombs at Yaxham, doing £24 worth of damage to glass, followed by two 50kg bombs at Thuxton, damaging farm buildings, then another 50kg bomb at Coaton and eight incendiary bombs at Hardingham, doing no damage.

  At 8.30 p.m., three 50kg bombs and three incendiaries fell at Kimberley, killing three horses and injuring one seriously. Cattle sheds were demolished and a farmhouse was damaged. An incendiary bomb fell at Runhall, which did not ignite, followed by eight incendiaries at Wicklewood and three at Suton, near Wymondham, none of which did any damage.

  The raider had followed the railway all the way from East Dereham. The commander stated afterwards that he felt confident he had bombed two aerodromes; that he had recognised the landing flares and had distinguished the red and green lights which were fired from the aeroplanes. The navigating warrant officer, however, was more sceptical and said that these lights were part of a large railway yard. The first officer of the Zeppelin was even less pronounced in his views, but he admitted that, owing to the height and prevailing wind, none of the crew could be sure of where they stood, in fact, he would not go any further than to say the bombs were thrown ‘at some lights’. He claimed, however, to have recognised railway lines and trains.

  L-49 continued to follow the line past Forncett St Peter, where an incendiary bomb was dropped, to no effect, and Diss, which was passed at 8.45 p.m., then on to Haughley and Finborough where, at 8.55 p.m. she turned east. His bombs being expended, and the commander still uneasy at having lost the use of one of his motors, he decided to return to his base via Belgium. At 9.02 p.m. the raider was north of Ipswich and then went south, passing out to sea near Walton-on-the-Naze at 9.20 p.m. At 9.48 p.m. she flew across the eastern end of Thanet, going south-east and then hovered over the downs and off Deal for nearly an hour.

  By this time, owing to the height at which he was flying he had, unknown to himself, run into a very strong northerly current of wind which was driving the ship very much out of her course. Meanwhile, there was a haze over the south-east of England and the dead reckoning made by the navigator was becoming very inaccurate. He had crossed the estuary of the Thames, either without knowing it, or imagining that he was crossing the North Sea towards Holland. On resuming her course, at 10.42 p.m. she came in again over St Margaret’s, going south-west, and finally went out to sea over Folkestone at 11.09 p.m. The crew saw clearly beneath them the three towns of Folkestone, Hythe and Sandgate as they passed over, but mistook the town lights of the Kent coast, that tend to runs north-east to south-west, for those of the Dutch coast, which follow a similar pattern. Nobody on board knew anything of the crossing of the Channel that followed.

  L-49 reached the French coast near Cape Grisnez at about 11.40 p.m. and was driven by the north-west wind, against which she could make no headway, with only three motors running, in a steady south-easterly direction across north-eastern France. Soon after daybreak, two other Zeppelins were sighted, one 15 miles to starboard and another to port. The former was L-44, the latter L-50. Thinking that both of these Zeppelins knew their course, the commander of L-49 ordered them to be followed. At about 6.45 a.m. the leading Zeppelin (L-44, south of Lunéville) was seen to burst into flames. This was interpreted by the crew either as an accident or the result of Dutch AA fire.

  The commander and his first officer stated categorically that, at that moment, they believed they were over either Westphalia or southern Holland. The second Zeppelin was, incidentally, observed to be steering an erratic course and this strengthened the commander’s belief that Dutch AA guns were at work.

  L-49 at once rose and, in order to avoid passing near the spot where L-44 had been set alight, headed north-west towards Nancy. The other Zeppelin, L-50, probably followed. It was at this juncture that the two engineers in the starboard car fainted from the effects of height and fatigue. They had been trying to fill the radiator with fresh water, as the greater part of its contents had boiled away. The motor seized soon afterwards and went out of action. The Zeppelin was then running on two motors only and could no longer struggle against the wind.

  At about 8 a.m., when L-49 was near Neufchâteau, at a height of about 10,000ft, the commander decided to come down in order to fix his bearings and thaw his forward motor. Attacked by a number of aeroplanes, and feeling he had no speed and little capacity left for rising owing to loss of gas, the commander decided to land and save his crew. He saw a small town and a railway station (Lamarche) and tried to head for them in order to fix his locality. The emergency landing flag was flown from the forward car and the Zeppelin came down, but as might be expected under such circumstances the landing was slightly rushed, with the result that L-49 came to earth, at 8.45 a.m. in the
valley of the River Apance, 3 miles to the north of Bourbonne-les-Bains, on somewhat unfavourable ground.

  As soon as the crew set foot on the ground the inhabitants, who had been watching the Zeppelin’s manoeuvres, came running up in a state of wild excitement, many of them armed with old shot guns and farm implements. Three of the aviators who had been pursuing the Zeppelin crashed their aeroplanes in the adjoining field. The commander, now certain he had fallen in enemy territory, gave orders for the Zeppelin to be destroyed. An incendiary cartridge was placed in the pistol but misfired. Thereupon the crowd, which had assembled around the crew, so intimidated the exhausted Germans that they gave up all further attempts at firing the ship and surrendered to Lieutenant Lef èvre, one of the pilots who had attacked and followed the Zeppelin and crash-landed nearby.

  L-50, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Röderich Schwonder, left Ahlhorn on the afternoon of 19 November, carrying a load of bombs, stated to have been 2,000kg in total. A machine gun fitted on the port side of her forward car was her entire armament. There were twenty crew on board and there would have been twenty-one, had the sail maker not been taken ill before the start.

  Her orders were to cross the English coast at Flamborough Head, but a strong north wind rendered this impossible. Whilst over the North Sea, the forward engine of the after-car failed. The crew were certain that the English coast was crossed somewhere in Norfolk, probably due east of the Wash. Heavy, low lying clouds prevented the country from being seen at all clearly, but there were occasional gaps in the clouds and the helmsman had a fair notion as to whether they were over sea or land and they did occasionally catch glimpses of towns while over East Anglia. On passing over the coastline, from 8 p.m. onwards, a number of searchlights opened out on L-50 and the crew claimed they faced a good deal of gunfire. The Zeppelin managed to evade the searchlights and suffered no harm, although the impression of the crew was that she was by no means out of range of the guns.

  Her bombs were dropped, the crew stated, in two instalments, roughly in the neighbourhood of two AA batteries, and the consensus of opinion was that these were located somewhat to the west of Norwich. She was flying at her maximum height of 19,000ft, and continued to keep roughly at this height for long after she left England.

  As a matter of fact, no guns were in action against L-50 on the coast or inland in Norfolk, and her bombs were actually dropped between Narborough and Thetford. She had come in at Cley-next-the-Sea at 7.45 p.m. and proceeded south-west. At 8 p.m. she passed Fakenham and went on in the same south-west direction as far as Narborough where, at about 8.15 p.m. she turned south and, between 8.18 p.m. and 8.20 p.m., dropped five 50kg bombs at Barton Bendish, one 50kg at Beechamwell, and three 100kg and eight 50kg bombs (one of which did not explode) at Oxborough. No damage was caused.

  The raider went off at high speed south-east and, at 8.25 p.m., dropped an incendiary bomb at Mundford, another at West Tofts and another, which failed to ignite, at West Wrentham. Then turning southward over Croxton Heath towards Thetford, one 300kg, five 50kg and two incendiary bombs fell at Croxton and two 50kg near Thetford, also causing no damage.

  After having disposed of her bombs, L-50 abandoned the westerly course which she had in vain been trying to steer, and prepared to make for the east. Going off south-east, the raider passed north of Bury St Edmunds at 8.35 p.m., Haughley at 8.40 p.m., then north of Ipswich and out to sea at Hollesley Bay around 8.50 p.m.

  The north wind, which was increasing in violence, drove her south, and the breakdown of a second engine in the forward car added to the difficulty of keeping the ship under proper control. Both the mechanics who were serving this engine had been suffering from acute height sickness, and it seems likely that the failure of the engine was due to their falling asleep. The navigators of L-50 believed she was well out to sea at about this time and some 60 miles east of the mouth of the River Thames.

  L-50 drifted back over France and crossed to land at Dunkirk. The general impression of the crew was that they were over Holland or Westphalia and, when L-44 was seen falling in flames, some of the men concluded that she must have been shot down by the Dutch. Kapitänleutnant Schwonder now made off south-west away from the scene of the disaster.

  At 10.45 a.m. the Zeppelin passed over Gray (between Langres and Besançon) going east, then north-east of Vesoul and south of Lamarche at 11.40 a.m. Suddenly, while still at a height of only about 1,500ft at about midday, the crew saw another Zeppelin (L-49) resting on the ground immediately beneath them, and Kapitänleutnant Schwonder decided to follow his consort’s example and effect a landing in the same vicinity. He therefore ordered the emergency landing signals to be flown, and announced through the engine telegraphs that the ship was about to land. As L-50 came lower some rifles were fired at her, and a few aeroplanes bearing the tricolour cockade were noticed near the Zeppelin on the ground.

  Schwonder realised he was over hostile territory and seems to have lost his composure, and gave immediate orders for the ship to turn west and climb again to her maximum height. She was stated to have reached close on 10,000ft when the order was countermanded, and the helmsmen were again told to land with all possible speed. According to French observers, L-50 then descended at an extreme angle of 20°–40°. As a result of this desperate manoeuvre, the Zeppelin grazed a small wood, and the forward car was torn off by trees on landing at Dommartin, near Montigny-le-Roi, a few miles west of Bourbonne-les-Bains. Sixteen men in all left the Zeppelin at this juncture, some jumping from the side gondola.

  Released of the weight, the Zeppelin shot up in the air. It is thought that the two men who remained in the rear gondola were killed at the time, as this car seems to have been knocked out of shape by the concussion. Two further men were left on board, having been stationed in the gangway at the time. The derelict hull of L-50 then became the sport of the winds, and was chased by fighter aircraft. The Zeppelin drifted over Sisteron at about 4 p.m., to the consternation of the interned German officers who, for the second time in one day, saw one of their own Zeppelins at the mercy of the enemy. The Zeppelin was swaying from the stern, at one time horizontal then vertical, and was clearly helpless.

  L-50 was finally seen drifting out to sea near Fréjus at about 5.30 p.m. and was pursued until nightfall by seaplanes from the station at St Raphaël. There is little doubt that she foundered in the Mediterranean during the night. No trace of L-50 or the four men left on board her was found on land, or on the surface of the water. The survivors of L-50 were deeply incensed with their commanding officer, and provided accounts of his bad leadership in which it was stated that the second in command tried to annul the order for the precipitate landing, by giving opposite instructions to the helmsman. It was denied by Schwonder’s crew that a shortage of petrol rendered the landing necessary, and it was claimed that there was sufficient fuel on board to get the ship back to Germany. He is also blamed for not having given more notice of his intention to land, which would have enabled the parachutes to have been made ready and the four men left with the ship would probably not have been lost. Perhaps Schwonder had suffered, like his men, from navigating for many hours at a great height, and his skills and judgement were impaired.

  L-52, under Kapitänleutnant Kurt Friemel, crossed the Lincolnshire coast near Mablethorpe at about 7.30 p.m., was south-west of Wainfleet at 7.45 p.m. and west of Spalding at 8.08 p.m. A direct south-westerly course was being followed. A 100kg bomb dropped at Gosberton was attributed to L-52, but it did no damage. At 9.45 p.m. she dropped her first confirmed bomb, of 300kg, at Kemsworth, near Dunstable, smashing some glass with its concussion.

  Going on eastward, at 10.05 p.m. thirteen 50kg bombs were dropped in fields 3 miles south of Hereford, damaging five cottages seriously and five slightly. A man was slightly injured.

  A 50kg bomb fell at Hoddeston, doing no damage and, at 10.20 p.m., thirteen incendiary bombs were dropped on Waltham Marshes, near Waltham Abbey, also to no effect. L-52 went on past Ashford, was heard at Lydd and the
n went out to sea north of Dungeness at 11.15 p.m.

  L-53, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Eduard Prölss, came in over the Norfolk coast at Blakeney at 6.45 p.m. and went south-west, passing Walsingham at 6.55 p.m. and Fakenham at 7 p.m. She then turned south, and at 7.15 p.m. harmlessly dropped a 100kg bomb at West Bradenham. After passing Watton at 7.20 p.m. she turned south-east over Breckles, where one of her bomb doors slipped out of its guides and fell in a field.

  Crossing into Suffolk, she passed Bury St Edmunds at 7.50 p.m. and dropped four incendiary bombs at Rivenhall, doing no damage. She passed Goldhanger at 8.15 p.m. and passed out to sea over Foulness at 8.25 p.m. Coming back overland at 8.40 p.m. at Reculver, she dropped two bombs in the sea, followed by three 50kg bombs on land, doing slight damage to an inn. Two 50kg bombs fell at Sarre and one at Chislet, slightly damaging crops, and she finally headed out to sea over Deal at 8.52 p.m.

  L-54, under Kapitänleutnant von Buttlar, came in over the Norfolk coast at Haisborough at 7.55 p.m., going south-south-west. At 8.15 p.m. she was west of Great Yarmouth, heading west, and a 15 minutes later was at Southwold, turning north-west. Soon turning south again, the Zeppelin went back out to sea, coming back in at Aldeburgh at 8.45 p.m. She passed Hollesley at 8.55 p.m. and turned inland passing south of Ipswich.

  At 9.05 p.m. she dropped her first bombs near Hadleigh. Nine 50kg bombs fell, one of which failed to explode, and no damage was done. The raider then turned south-east, and dropped one 300kg and two 50kg bombs at Wix, to no effect.

  L-54 dropped its last bomb harmlessly on land at Little Clacton, and proceeded out to sea at 9.20 p.m., hugging the English coast as far north as Yarmouth. About 10 miles north of Yarmouth she was attacked at 11.30 p.m. by a RNAS aeroplane, piloted by Flight Lieutenant C.S. Nunn. The Zeppelin had descended to a height of about 5,000ft above the sea, and the aeroplane was at 8,800ft. Flight Lieutenant Nunn dived to attack the raider, but was unable to get into firing position owing to her superior speed. He pursued her out to sea for twenty minutes but could not overtake her. On his return the engine failed, and he crashed on landing at Burgh Castle Aerodrome, but escaped injury.