22 July 1917                       

Bombed: Suffolk & Essex

Although the weather inland prevented a strike against the capital, Kagohl 3 selected the ‘easy’ coastal towns and docks at Felixstowe and Harwich for an early morning raid.

Observers reported varying numbers of Gothas with the final analysis of the raid settling on 16. The formation crossed the Suffolk coastline at Hollesley Bay at 8.05am and turned towards Felixstowe. The first AA gun opened fire at 8.07am but another six minutes passed before the first defence aircraft were able to take off. By 8.17am the Gothas had turned for home.

The first bomb dropped in the sea about 50 yards east of Bawdsey Manor then the Gothas crossed the River Debden and opened out as the AA guns began to fire. Approaching Felixstowe the next two bombs fell in fields north-east of St. Peter & St. Paul’s Church, followed by one that demolished a smithy near Highrow Farm and injured the smith, before two caused extensive damage to property at Highrow. Two women were injured at Uplees House, 350 yards west of the Town railway station, when a bomb smashed a conservatory and another failed to explode when it struck the ground near the railway about 200 yards north of Goyfield House. A bomb that fell close to St. John’s Church destroyed a cookhouse by the Parish Room and another caused serious damage to Wanstead Cottage in Garrison Lane and the two houses on either side. Seconds later another struck the rear of the Ordnance Hotel on Garrison Lane, killing the barman and a sergeant and private of the 3rd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, also injuring two other soldiers. At the corner of Garfield and Victoria roads a bomb exploded without causing damage while three falling in Langer Road, near Army Service Corps headquarters, smashed windows and brought down telephone wires, but it also injured two soldiers of the ASC, one of them fatally.

At the junction of Landguard and Manor roads a bomb brought down more telephone wires but the next, falling on the beach 100 yards south of Manor Terrace, killed an officer and seven men of 3rd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, and injured an officer and 15 men of the same battalion. The men were sheltering in a trench but instead of keeping down, those killed had stood up to watch the raid. A bomb falling on Landguard House by the camp of the 3rd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, damaged a cellar while three bombs that detonated on Landguard Common injured a soldier of the Royal Defence Corps and demolished two huts. Four bombs fell close by on ‘A’ Rifle Range merely gouging craters in the ground. The next bomb landed at the RNAS station injuring two naval ratings, one of whom later died, and demolished an engineers’ shed. A bomb dropping 50 yards west of Landguard lighthouse destroyed a shed and three at Landguard Point exploded without damage. The next bombs, estimated at 13, fell in the River Stour and Harwich harbour where the minesweeper HMT Touchstone sustained damage and two of her crew suffered injuries.

More bombs fell in the Harwich area. At Parkeston one bomb landed harmlessly in allotments as did two bombs that dropped in fields at Ray Farm between Parkeston and Dovercourt. In Upper Dovercourt a bomb landed in a field on Tollgate Farm, another fell in St. Nicholas’s Cemetery and three on New Hall Farm, all without damage. In Dovercourt three bombs landed close together, two in Lee Road failed to detonate but still caused limited damage to houses and the third damaged a slaughterhouse, probably on Old Vicarage Farm.

The Harwich AA guns fired off 273 rounds but the defence aircraft were unable to climb up to operational height before the raiders had headed out over the North Sea. Two flights from No.37 Squadron, flying in formation for the first time in action, were presumed to be German by the guns of the Mobile AA Brigade and at the 3-inch gun at Canvey who opened fire at them when over 30 miles south-east of Harwich. No Gothas were hit by the home defences. 

12 August 1917                         

Bombed: Kent & Essex

Strong winds prevented an attack on London so the Gotha bombers of Kagohl 3 chose instead to attack Chatham, a naval base on the north Kent coast. The raid appears to have been a last minute decision and only 13 Gothas were available. Of these, engine problems caused two to turn back early.

Prior to the attack on Chatham, one Gotha broke away from the formation and at 5.40pm approached Margate where it dropped four bombs. The first fell harmlessly in the sea off Queen’s Promenade and the second wrecked an unoccupied house on Surrey Road. Of the other two, one fell in the grounds of Laleham House School on Lower Northdown Road, blowing out all the doors and windows at the back and damaging parts of the interior. The other dropped in the grounds of Surrey House School in Laleham Road, smashing windows there and at 30 other houses in the vicinity. One woman was slightly injured. AA guns opened fire on the Gotha, getting off 132 rounds, and a number of RNAS aircraft set off in pursuit, harrying the lone raider back to Belgium where it crash landed near Ostend.

The main formation appeared off the mouth of the Blackwater at 5.30pm, having been pushed north by the wind, and climbed to 15,000 feet as they headed towards the Thames Estuary. Ten minutes earlier the first defence aircraft took off from Rochford and Manston, followed in the next ten minutes by aircraft from a number of other airfields. Kagohl 3 reached Rochford at 5.50pm where they dropped two bombs on the RFC airfield but failed to inflict any damage although the bombs injured two men. Another fell close to the nearby railway but again without damage. The defence aircraft that took off from Rochford 30 minutes earlier were still climbing to the raider’s altitude but with the wind slowing the Gothas and the sight of British aircraft in pursuit, the formation abandoned their plan over Canvey Island and turned back, intending to drop their bombs on the area around Southend instead.

Five bombs fell at Leigh. One, which failed to detonate, went sideways through a house on Lord Roberts Avenue and buried itself six feet below the foundations. One that exploded on the pavement in Cliffsea Grove caused damage to seven houses but no one was injured. Seven bombs fell in Westcliff but only four detonated, causing minimal damage. Of these, two exploded in fields, one on a tennis court near Imperial Avenue and one in a garden in Crowstone Road North.

The 17 bombs that fell in Southend were more deadly even though nine of them failed to explode. A woman in High Street, near the Midland railway Station, was injured and a bomb exploding in Milton Avenue killed a man and a woman and smashed a water main. Other bombs demolished a house at 12 Guildford Road, killing three people and injuring three more, and one in Lovelace Gardens destroyed a house, killing a woman and child. The worst incident took place in Victoria Avenue, which led towards the main Great Eastern Railway station. Many day-trippers from London were on their way back to the station for the journey home when a 50kg HE bomb exploded amongst them leaving bodies strewn in all directions. The exact number is hard to work out from contemporary reports but 24 killed may be correct.

The Gothas remained overland as far as Shoeburyness, dropping two final bombs at Little Wakering and Bournes Green, neither of which exploded, before going out to sea at about 6.00pm. RFC aircraft of 61 Squadron from Rochester pursued them for 40 to 50 miles as did aircraft from 112 Squadron, and those from the Testing Squadron at Martlesham Heath and the RNAS. One of the RNAS pilots, Flt sub-Lt Harold Kerby, had the only success of the day, shooting down one of the returning Gothas over the sea.

Six AA guns of the Thames and Medway garrison fired off 130 rounds, one regular crew at the Shoeburyness experimental range fired 36 and four hastily assembled crews at the Shoeburyness gunnery school got off 120 rounds, all without success.