2/3 Sept. 1916       

Bombed:

London, Kent, Essex,

Norfolk, Suffolk,  Herts., Beds., Cambs., Lincs., Notts & E. Yorks.   

This raid, the largest of the war (11 navy and three army airships), resulted in over 500 bombs being dropped and marks one of the most dramatic nights of the Zeppelin war.

Oberleutnant-zur-See Ernst Lehmann, commanding LZ 98, crossed Littlestone on the Kent coast at midnight. Flying on a north-west course, she circled south of Maidstone at about 12.45am before being fired on by AA guns at Southfleet and Dartford at 1.10am when she was caught in searchlights south-west of Gravesend. At 1.15am she dropped six incendiary bombs near the railway at Longfield followed by a high-explosive (HE) and 11 incendiaries close to the Gravesend branch line. Three HE bombs aimed at the Southfleet searchlight caused a wheat stack to burn and broke a number of windows in Church Street and at Cook’s Cottages, Redstreet. Moments later two HE bombs fell at Northfleet Green Farm; one failed to ignite but the other destroyed a coal shed, a stables and a pollard house. The guns lost her when she went behind a cloud and passed south of Gravesend, dropping an incendiary and an HE on the golf course, followed by another incendiary in the River Thames as she crossed to the Essex shore. There the AA guns at Tilbury and Fobbing opened fire while Lehmann dropped two incendiaries at Corringham, three HE at Fobbing and, at 1.30am, eight incendiaries at Vange, although none caused any damage. Another HE bomb dropped at Great Waltham at about 1.40am before LZ 98 crossed into Suffolk, where Lehmann dropped his last two bombs near Ipswich at 2.13am. One fell in a field near Rushmere and the other near Playford, destroying crops of oats and turnips. Lehmann went out to sea near Aldeburgh at about 2.35am. Unknown to Lehmann, Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson of 39 Squadron had been closing in to attack but lost LZ 98 in the clouds near Gravesend.

Army Zeppelin LZ 90 (commanded by Hauptmann La Quiante) crossed the Essex coast near Frinton just after 11.00pm and headed north-west. At 11.20pm she stopped her engines over Mistley, a village on the outskirts of Manningtree, where it appears she had a problem with her observation car, which fell to the ground. At 11.45pm LZ 90 moved off again and at Foxearth, west of Sudbury, she dropped two incendiaries before approaching Wixoe at about 12.30am where she unloaded her remaining bombs - 21 HE and 16 incendiary - on the unsuspecting village. No one was hurt but the bombs broke windows at the school, the school house and another house. Shortly afterwards the crew dropped the jettisoned observation car’s winch, which landed at Poslingford. LZ 90 then steered out across East Anglia and exited just north of Great Yarmouth at 1.45am.

The third army airship was a Schütte-Lanz, SL 11, commanded by Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm. She came inland at Foulness on the Essex coast at 10.40pm and followed a course across Essex and Hertfordshire to approach London from the north-west. Arriving near St. Albans at 1.10am, SL 11 dropped three HE and three incendiary bombs in fields near Bell Lane, London Colney, and St. Alban’s Road, South Mimms, with two more of each landing near a wood at North Mymms. Three bombs followed at Little Heath (two incendiaries at Boltons Park and an HE in Heath Road) then a single HE bomb in the grounds of Northaw House. Approaching Enfield, SL 11 dropped two incendiary bombs either side of the railway, just south of Crews Hill station, and then released a number of bombs which fell close to the Glasgow Stud Farm at Clayhill, killing three racehorses. An incendiary then fell in a field by The Ridgeway, followed by another in a field close to the Enfield Isolation Hospital and three in fields on Oak Lodge Farm, Southgate, before SL 11 headed westwards towards Hadley Wood where she dropped two incendiaries at about 1.45am in a field at Greenwood Farm on Beech Hill. Schramm then turned and set a course for north London. Meanwhile, Robinson of 39 Squadron, who had earlier tried to engage LZ 98 near Gravesend, had seen the fires caused by SL 11’s bombs and flew towards them to investigate.

At 1.58am, as Schramm approached North London, the searchlights at Finsbury Park and Victoria Park caught him and the London AA guns opened a fearsome storm of fire causing SL 11 to shy away to the north-east. Over Edmonton SL 11 dropped six HE bombs (of which two failed to detonate) but none caused damage. Two HE bombs exploded in the High Street at Ponders End, one damaged the road and seven houses, and the other damaged the road, shattered windows in 56 houses, smashed a water main and broke tram and telephone wires. The next six HE bombs fell on Enfield Highway slightly damaging 15 houses and a number of commercial greenhouses. Two HE bombs landed in Mr Burton’s a field at Turkey Street: one failed to detonate, the other damaged the backs of three houses. Then eight HE bombs landed on a market garden owned by Mr Hollington at Bulls Cross, damaging his crops, followed by one dropping by the bank of New River. The final bombs dropped harmlessly at Burnt Farm, Goff’s Oak, but by then SL 11 was doomed.

Lieutenant Robinson had caught up with SL 11 as she dropped her bombs over Enfield Highway and Turkey Street. His first two attacks failed but his third attack, using new explosive and incendiary bullets, ignited her hydrogen sending SL 11 crashing to earth as a raging inferno. The wreckage came to ground in a field at the village of Cuffley in Hertfordshire, the first German airship brought down over British soil. Schramm and his entire crew perished. →

William Leefe Robinson receiving the congratualtions of his comrades after bringing down the first airship over Britain

Navy Zeppelin L 16 (Kapitänleutnant Erich Sommerfeldt) crossed the Norfolk coast at Salthouse at 10.40pm and, heading southwards, dropped her first bomb, an incendiary at Kimberley, west of Norwich, at 11.28pm. Three HE bombs followed at Little Livermere, north of Bury St. Edmunds, at 11.45pm after which  L 16 followed a course to the north-west of London. At 1.30am, when over the Midland Railway line at Harpenden, Sommerfeldt dropped an HE bomb (breaking three windows in two cottages) and five near Redbourn without damage. At 1.50am L 16 was at South Mimms, heading towards Hatfield, but when the AA guns opened on SL.11, nearby at 2.00am, L 16 turned south to Potters Bar where she arrived at 2.15 as SL 11, just six or seven miles away, struggled to free herself from the searchlights and AA guns. At this point Sommerfeldt steered away, attracted by a searchlight at the village of Essendon. At 2.20am he circled over the village dropping 16 HE and nine incendiary bombs. The bombs killed two sisters, Frances (26) and Eleanor (12) Bamford and injured a man and child, and seriously damaged the church and rectory, wrecked three cottages and damaged others. Moments after the bombs dropped, the crew saw SL 11 burst into flames and made off towards the north-east. Sommerfeldt dropped an incendiary over Aston, near Stevenage, and a final bomb at about 3.30am, an incendiary at West Stow near Bury St. Edmunds before he went out to sea near Great Yarmouth at about 4.20am. 

Oberleutnant-zur-See Werner Peterson, commanding L 32, came inland at Sheringham on the Norfolk coast at around 10.00pm and took a south-west course. At 11.10pm Peterson dropped three HE bombs at both Ovington and Saham Toney, the only damage being broken windows at Joseph Bullen’s farm at Ovington. At 11.45pm L 32 dropped an incendiary at Two Mile Bottom, north of Thetford, then continued on a south-west course to Tring in Hertfordshire where she arrived as the flames from the burning SL 11 flared in the distance, presuading Peterson to turn back east. At 2.45am he passed near Redbourn and nine minutes later began dropping his bombs near Hertford. Five HE and 11 incendiaries fell on Hertford Heath killing two horses, followed by 16 HE and eight incendiaries at Great Amwell, which killed a pony and broke windows in three houses. L 32’s final two HE bombs landed near Ware causing no damage as Peterson steered a north-east course and went out to sea near Corton, north of Lowestoft, at about 4.15am.

Zeppelin L 21, commanded by Oberleutnant-zur-See Kurt Frankenburg, came inland near Mundesley on the Norfolk coast at 10.20pm. After following an at times hesitant south-west course, L 21 reached Hitchin in Hertfordshire at 2.25am, as Lieutenant Robinson destroyed SL 11. Frankenburg turned away from London, heading back northwards and began dropping his bombs at Dunton, east of Biggleswade at about 2.40am. Two incendiaries landed but failed to cause damage, followed by another at Hatley Park near Gamlingay. Twenty minutes later 

 L 21 dropped an HE bomb at Sutton, west of Ely, on North Fen, followed by an HE and an incendiary at Horselode Fen at Chatteris, which damaged some wheat sheaves and mangelwurzels.

She dropped an HE and incendiary at Tilney St. Lawrence at 3.35am without effect, and now approaching King’s Lynn she dropped two HE bombs at West Lynn and two incendiaries at North Lynn, all of which landed harmlessly. At 3.42am an incendiary landed at Wolferton, followed three minutes later by seven HE and two incendiaries near Dersingham, then four HE and three incendiaries struck Snettisham, followed at 3.50am by six HE and four incendiary bombs at Sedgeford with a final incendiary at Thornham at 4.00am before L 21 passed out over the coast. Only the bombs near Dersingham had any effect, injuring three people at Doddshill, one of whom one later died, and seriously damaging six houses and eight others to a lesser extent.

L 14, commanded by Hauptmann Kuno Manger, came inland near Wells-next-the-Sea at about 9.50pm before flying a tortuous course over Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. She dropped a number of bombs as she went, although none caused any damage: an incendiary at Wells, an HE at Ringstead, an incendiary on Terrington Marsh, two HE bombs at Gayton, east of King’s Lynn, an HE at Wormegay Fen, and three HE on The Warren at Shouldham. At 12.20am Manger dropped an incendiary at Upwood in Cambridgeshire before reaching a position between Thaxted and Great Dunmow in Essex at about 2.25am as SL  11 burst into flames about 25 miles away. Manger took L 14 away from London on a north-east course, dropping 18 bombs over the next 30 miles. Single HE bombs fell at Little Bardfield and at Finchingfield at 2.30am, two HE bombs at Lavenham at 2.45am, followed quickly by a single HE bomb at Thorpe Morieux and another at Brettenham, then two incendiaries near Drinkstone at 2.50am. None of these caused damage. Manger released his last bombs either side of Stowmarket. Four HE and one incendiary fell in fields at Buxhall damaging a crop of barley, followed by five HE bombs near Haughley that damaged fields of clover and wheat. He went out to sea near Bacton at 4.05am.

Kapitänleutnant Guido Wolff, commanding an airship over Britain for the first time, brought SL 8 inland over the Norfolk coast near Holkham at 11.05pm. Ten minutes later two incendiaries landed harmlessly at Burnham Thorpe before Wolff headed south, reaching Swaffham at around 12.20am. Wolff, uncertain of his position, dropped an incendiary at Littleport, south of Downham Market, followed by another six incendiaries on Oxlode Fen, between Little Downham and Pymoor, without damage. SL 8 then meandered around the Fens between Ely and Huntingdon for the next 90 minutes. At Haddenham, although about 45 miles from the destruction of SL 11, it is possible that Wolff saw the flare of the burning airship and turned away as

SL 8 was not observed again until 2.55am at East Winch, east of King’s Lynn. Wolff began dropping bombs again at Congham at around 3.00am, where three HE and three incendiaries broke windows and damaged roof tiles at two cottages, followed by an incendiary at Harpley Dams. At 3.05am three HE bombs fell at East Rudham, then an incendiary landed at Hellhoughton, three HE at Syderstone and two more at South Creake, which broke windows in four cottages. At 3.15am Wolff dropped an HE bomb at Great Walsingham without damage, followed by two at Wighton with similar result. SL 8 went out over Cley-next-the-Sea at 3.20am, dropping an HE bomb as it did so, which broke windows in Mrs Webb’s house, followed by eight dumped in the sea.