12/13 April 1918                 

Bombed:

Lincs, Norfolk, Northants.,

Lancs. & Warwicks. 

This raid on the night of 12/13 April 1918 proved to be the last time Zeppelins appeared over Britain. Five new Zeppelins of the ‘v-class — L 60 to L 64 — took part. Thick cloud and rain over the North Sea hampered the mission targeting the industrial Midlands, and a layer of cloud over England meant the raiders struggled with navigation from the great heights they flew at. For the first time the home defence aircraft took to the air as the RAF.

Three airships penetrated only a short distance inland with L.60 claiming an attack on Leeds. In fact, L 60, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Hans Kurt Flemming, came inland over Lincolnshire just to the south of the River Humber and passed Grimsby without seeing it. A number of AA guns engaged, firing at the sound of her engines. Her first bombs dropped at East Halton, near Killingholme, at about 9.26pm: four 100kg HE, eight 50kg HE and one incendiary. Three of the 100kg bombs and the incendiary failed to detonate. There were no injuries although the bombs killed two sheep and damaged a railway signal box. From there L 60 headed west, dropping two HE bombs at Thornton Abbey, followed by 19 more bombs, a mixture of HE and incendiary bombs, that fell in fields around the villages of Thornton Curtis, Burnham, Saxby All Saints and Horkstow, breaking a few windows and bringing down some telegraph wires. Heading north now, at 10.08pm L 60 crossed the Humber west of Hull, passing around that city and heading back towards the sea, attracting more AA gunfire as she went. She left the coast near Tunstall at 10.35pm.

Kapitänleutnant Michael von Freudenreich, commanding L 63, came inland south of Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast at about 10.05pm. From Wrangle, L 63 headed west, passing south of Coningsby at 10.25pm. Four minutes later the AA gun at Brauncewell, just east of the airfield at Cranwell where flares were burning, opened fire. L 63 released a 100kg HE bomb which exploded harmlessly in a field at Blankney Park. Now heading north, von Freudenreich dropped 18 bombs (2 x 300kg, 15 x 50kg and one incendiary) at 10.35pm, a mile east of Metheringham. These bombs, amounting to over a ton in weight, merely smashed a few windows. L 63 then turned to the south and disappeared to trackers for 30 minutes until she appeared again near Spalding heading east. At 11.10pm she dropped an incendiary at Fleet and five more at Little Sutton, none of which caused any damage, before heading north out over The Wash. She travelled up and down the coast for a while before she finally went out to sea at 1.10am from near Cromer. Von Freudenreich believed he had made an attack on Grimsby.

Hauptmann Kuno Manger, commanding L 62, actually reached the target area of the industrial Midlands. But even so, his raid proved largely ineffective. Coming inland over the Norfolk coast at Overstrand at about 9.30pm, Manger followed a south-west course, reaching Downham Market at 10.15pm. Perhaps attracted by a searchlight, Manger now steered north-west and dropped two 100kg bombs. The bombs fell about half a mile west of Middle Drove Station on Tilney All Saints Fen, and about a mile from the searchlight. The only damage was a few broken windows in nearby cottages. Continuing on a north-west course, L 62 approached No.51 Squadron’s airfield at Tydd St. Mary at about 18,000 feet and dropped three 100kg bombs. They fell in a field about a 1,000 yards east of the target. After dropping the bombs at Tydd St Mary, Manger turned on to a south-west course and, once west of Peterborough, he dropped a 50kg bomb aimed at a searchlight. It exploded in a field about a mile east of Nassington, smashing a shop window.

Continuing on his course, Manger approached Coventry from the north-east at 11.42pm, at which time guns defending the city at Radford and Wyken opened fire. Passing around the south-east side of Coventry, at 11.45pm Manger offloaded four HE and nine incendiary bombs. At Whitley Abbey Park a 300kg bomb fell in a field and smashed a few windows, the rest exploded at Baginton: two HE and the nine incendiaries landed around the sewage works and in neighbouring fields, killing a bullock, a heifer and a lamb, and one HE detonated in Baginton Lane without causing damage. Passing north of Kenilworth, L 62 now approached Solihull on the south-east side of Birmingham. At around 11.53pm two bombs fell in fields at Packwood, one on Windmill Farm and the other at Fetherston House. The second bomb smashed windows in a school half a mile away. Two more HE bombs fell in fields north of Hockley Heath on Box Tree Farm, smashing windows in a cottage nearby. These were followed by two HE bombs at Monkspath, one at Mount Cottage Farm, the other about half a mile to the west, at Mount Lane. The bombs smashed a few windows. L 62 was now heading directly towards Birmingham, but at 11.57pm three AA guns opened fire, two of them with incendiary shells. This seems to have caused Manger concern because he immediately released two 300kg bombs and then turned away from the city. One fell in Shirley where it smashed the plate glass windows of six shops and windows in 24 homes. The second fell on Gospel Farm at Hall Green. The blast damaged roofs on building at the farm, smashed the glass in the French windows at Broom Hall, broke windows in homes near the church and caused slight damage to buildings at the golf club. Manger now turned back towards the coast. L 62 came under fire from the AA guns at Coventry again and aeroplanes attempted to close with her but failed. Other guns fired at the sound of her engines as she continued her journey. She finally went out to sea at Gorleston on the Norfolk coast at 3.34am.

L 64, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Arnold Schütze, came inland over the Lincolnshire coast, observed from Louth at 10.00pm heading west. Two minutes later an incendiary bomb dropped at Biscathorpe. She approached Lincoln, which was in darkness, and circled to the north of the town. At 10.28pm an AA gun opened fire, after which L 64 moved away to the south-west, skirting Lincoln, and dropping two 100kg HE bombs on Skellingthorpe, which caused some damage to railway tracks and telegraph wires. A shed and a railway engine also experienced slight damage, and three men suffered minor injury from an AA shell. Moments later 12 bombs, all 50kg HE, dropped near the village of Doddington where the only damage was a shaken chimney and a few broken windows. Schütze believed he had attacked Hull. AA guns continued to fire towards the sound of L 64’s engines until she passed out of audible range at 10.45pm. At about that time she reached Waddington, south of Lincoln, where flares were alight on the airfield. L 64 dropped a 50kg bomb, which exploded in a field close by, and three more fell a little further east, at Mere. None of these bombs caused any damage. At 10.54pm, the AA gun at Brauncewell, that had earlier engaged L.63, now opened on L 64 as she headed away towards the coast at Wainfleet, where she arrived at about midnight. Schütze spent another hour over the Lincolnshire coastline before finally heading out to see from Mablethorpe.

Kapitänleutnant Herbert Ehrlich, commanding L 61, had a remarkable raid, managing to penetrate within 12 miles of Liverpool, although he was unaware of his achievement. Ehrlich crossed the Yorkshire coast near Withernsea at 9.30pm, shortly after which guns of the Humber garrison opened fire at the sound of L 61’s engines. She crossed the Humber and headed west, passing a few miles south of Doncaster and Sheffield, but had by then become lost to ground observation. Heading north, she crossed the River Mersey near Widnes and reappeared over Bold in Lancashire at about 11.10pm, where she dropped two 50kg HE bombs. One fell on the main road at Bold Heath, damaging a milestone and a water main, while the second exploded in a field on Abbots Hall Farm, breaking windows in an office at Clock Face Colliery about 150 yards away. Continuing to the north, Ehrlich now must have seen the glare from the furnaces at the Wigan Coal & Iron Company about 10 miles ahead, which Ehrlich concluded was Sheffield. The area had not received an air raid warning.

At about 11.30pm L 61 reached Ince on the southern edge of Wigan and Ehrlich commenced his bombing run. An incendiary smashed through the roof of 12 Preston Street setting the house on fire and destroying all the furniture. At the same time another incendiary crashed through the roof of 7 Frederick Street, just 25 yards away, but it failed to ignite. More bombs followed by the railway. An incendiary smashed into a signal box 400 yards west of Ince station and an HE bomb landed 200 yards west of the station, damaging a section of track and destroying two trucks of a stationary goods train loaded with coal. Crossing the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, Ehrlich released four bombs that fell around Hartley Avenue. One of the bombs destroyed three houses in Harper Street, claiming the lives of a married couple, Samuel and Jane Tomlinson; others escaped with injuries. Ehrlich then released four more bombs. Two exploded at the junction of three roads: Hardybutts, Birkett Bank and Scholefield Lane. The explosion caused damage to the roads and nearby buildings, blowing in doors up to 50 yards away and smashing windows 100 yards away. Two HE bombs then fell in Cecil Street. One of these exploded in the street causing damage to nearby properties and the other landed behind the houses where the explosion demolished 12 outbuildings. Now over Platt Lane, Ehrlich released three more HE bombs. Two landed harmlessly on waste ground but the blast from the other that exploded in the street killed Margaret Ashurst. The 14 other people in the house all escaped significant injury.

Following the main road towards Aspull, Ehrlich dropped an HE that exploded at the rear of 181 Whelley, opposite the gates to the Lindsay Colliery. Fragments from the bomb smashed into the house and struck Walter Harris who was carrying his five-month-old son, Alfred, downstairs to safety. Both were killed. Another exploded in the Lindsay Pit Yard where it destroyed a coal truck in the sidings and one hit a stone wall on Whelley just before it becomes the Wigan Road, causing some local damage and injuring a man. Then four HE bombs landed in a line along a brook at New Springs close to allotments, just to the west of the Wigan Road. The blast smashed greenhouses, broke doors and windows of nearby houses, caused a fire to start at a brewery and injured four people. Steering away from Wigan now, L 61 headed north-east and at about 11.40pm dropped an incendiary at Little Hulton, south of Bolton. It fell in a field where it caused no damage. The last bomb dropped by L 61, another incendiary, landed in a field at Outwood, near Radcliffe, south of Bury. L 61 reached Hull at about 1.25am with engine problems and it was not until about 90 minutes later that she finally headed out to sea.

The home defence aircraft of the northern squadrons flew 27 sorties but the low cloud and mist combined with the limited ceilings of the aircraft that got airborne meant the raiders were rarely troubled.