25/26 Sept. 1916               

Bombed:

Hants., Yorks., Lancs. & Lincs. 

Less than two days after the loss of two of their Zeppelins, the navy launched another raid on Britain. Two of the ‘super-Zeppelins’, L.30 and L 31, had orders for London, but after the recent losses they were advised to exercise caution and as there was no cloud cover both selected other targets. L 30 claimed to have bombed Ramsgate and Margate but in fact never came inland, while Heinrich Mathy, commanding L 31, headed down the English Channel intending to strike the naval docks at Portsmouth. Directly over Portsmouth harbour at 11.50pm, searchlights located L 31 and AA guns opened a heavy fire. Mathy claims to have released bombs over Portsmouth but as none were traced on land, it seems likely they all fell in the sea. Flying back over Sussex he reached the coast at Bexhill at 1.45am, passing Dover at 2.25am before setting course back to Germany.

Four other Zeppelins targeted the Midlands and industrial North.

Hauptmann Kuno Manger brought L 14 inland at Atwick on the Yorkshire coast at about 10.05pm and steered towards York. Forty minutes later he dropped a single HE bomb at Heworth Without, north-east of the city centre, smashing windows in houses and at Elmfield College on Malton Road. L 14 skirted the eastern edge of York, heading south, dropping seven more HE bombs and two incendiaries. The incendiaries set fire to timber stacked at a brickyard while most of the HE bombs landed in fields. One, however, exploded close to Holy Trinity Church, Heworth, smashing all the windows on the west end of the church and wrecked a doctor’s house opposite on East Parade, but those inside escaped injury. Nearby though, a woman died of shock. A searchlight located L 14 at about 11.00pm as she released two HE and five incendiaries over Fulford, south of the city, where they brought down some telephone wires in a field. Coming under fire from the AA gun at Acomb, Manger turned away, flying northwards. At Pilmoor, he dropped an incendiary before changing course towards Ripon. At about 11.40pm he dropped an HE near the village of Newby with Mulwith, followed by four more on Ripon Rifles Ranges at Wormald Green. One landed within 30 yards of the Ripon-Harrogate road in a field on Monkton Mains farm; another smashed the glass in a workshop on the range. Continuing southwards, L 14 dropped four HE bombs harmlessly at Dunkeswick where the RFC maintained a night landing ground. Within five minutes 13 incendiary bombs dropped in fields at Harewood, one causing slight damage to a cottage. A few miles to the east a mobile searchlight at Collingham, near Wetherby, caught L 14 and a 13-pdr AA gun fired nine rounds. Manger aimed three HE bombs at the light and severed the telephone line between the gun and the searchlight. He then returned to the coast, going out to sea at Scarborough at about 1.30am.

L 16, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Erich Sommerfeldt, crossed the Yorkshire coast near Barmston on Bridlington Bay, at about 10.05pm. Sommerfeldt spent almost two hours over Yorkshire but only dropped three bombs. Initially heading west, L 16 appeared to be making for York, but at Huggate at 10.27pm, Sommerfeldt changed direction to the north-west. At 10.50pm, after dropping an incendiary harmlessly on Velmire Farm at Whitwell-on-the-Hill, L 16 turned back to the east. Ten minutes later an incendiary dropped in an open field at the village of Langtoft. The third incendiary landed in a field at Burton Fleming (formerly North Burton) at 11.30pm. Although now less than five miles from the coast, it was another 25 minutes before Sommerfeldt went out to sea near Speeton on Filey Bay.

Oberleutnant-zur-See Kurt Frankenburg brought L 21 inland at Sutton-on-Sea on the Lincolnshire coast at 9.45pm, and headed west, skirting to the north of Sheffield at about 11.15pm, before flying over the Peak District and Pennines. About 40 minutes later observers picked L 21 up again at Todmorden in Lancashire. She passed Bacup five minutes later before dropping two incendiaries near Newchurch and two HE bombs in fields at Rawtenstall without damage. Continuing towards Helmshore, L 21 dropped an HE and incendiary bomb either side of Green’s Lane at the golf course, then released a salvo of six or seven bombs at Ewood Bridge, around the sewage works and Irwell Vale railway sidings, causing minor damage but no injuries. On a southerly course, Frankenburg reached Holcombe, where two HE bombs fell on a sloping field behind the village school, knocking down a field wall and causing some damage to the school. It also claimed a victim – a thrush. The unfortunate bird was stuffed and put in a glass case as some sort of macabre memento. Another bomb in a field between the school and Moor Road destroyed a chicken run, while one that exploded in the roadway between the inn and the post office caused damage to both buildings as well as to a cow shed and a barn. Blasts from these bombs smashed windows at the church and stopped the church clock. L 21 moved towards Ramsbottom, dropping three HE bombs, one ‘in the drive of Mr Woodcock’s house’ and two in fields between Holcombe and Ramsbottom. The next HE bomb exploded in a field by Dundee Lane on the western edge of Ramsbottom, as L 21 continued its circling movement, dropping another in Regent Street where it caused serious damage to a mineral water works. Approaching Holcombe Brook, Frankenburg dropped an incendiary, which caused no damage, but another, released over Greenmount, set fire to a cottage near the church in Holcombe Road, narrowly missing two children in bed. Neighbours quickly extinguished the flames and no one was injured.

L 21's raid continued as Frankenburg steered towards a concentration of lights, which he believed marked Derby, but his navigation was way out as his course took him towards Bolton, about 60 miles north-west of Derby. Approaching the town over Astley Bridge, he dropped a bomb close to Eden’s Orphanage on Thorns Road. Two bombs followed rapidly, an HE in Hobart Street, breaking a number of windows, and an incendiary in Darley Street. Then, at Lodge Vale, an HE bomb demolished the end of a terrace of cottages but rescuers managed to pull the three occupants from the rubble. Two incendiaries landed harmlessly, in Waldeck Street and at the junction of Chorley Old Road and Avenue Street, after which L 21 flew over Queen’s Park and passed the gas works before dropping two incendiaries, setting fire a stable at the council’s Wellington Yard Depot and a house in Wellington Street. Moments later though, disaster struck as five HE bombs exploded around Kirk Street. The blast killed 13 people (five men, five women and three children), seriously injured nine other peoples and destroyed five terraced houses (58 – 66 Kirk Street) in this working class area of the city, as well as causing widespread damage in the locality. At the same time a bomb in Back John Street caused more damage and killed a horse in a stable. Passing over Queen’s Park again, completing an anti-clockwise circle, L 21 dropped an HE bomb that failed to explode.

Continuing on a wider radius circle this time, an HE and incendiary that Frankenburg dropped at Washington Street, set fire to a rope works and caused some damage to the Co-operative Laundry. An incendiary bomb that struck Ormrod & Hardcastle’s Mill in Parrot Street caused a fire that the mill’s sprinkler system extinguished, and an HE bomb exploding in Back Apple Street did considerable damage to a number of houses, but no one was seriously injured. A dud HE bomb followed, smashing through the roof of Trinity Church by the railway station. The last bombs released by L 21 fell near the Town Hall, in Mawdsley Street, Ashburner Street and Mealhouse Lane. The fire brigade quickly dealt with the fires that broke out. Starting back towards the coast, L 21 passed Blackburn, Burnley and Skipton, where she was at 1.30am. At the village of Bolton Abbey, a few miles east of Skipton, she dropped an HE bomb. It landed in a field but failed to explode. Passing Ripon and Thirsk, L 21 then flew over the North Yorkshire moors, eventually reaching the coast at Whitby at 3.05am.

L 22, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Martin Dietrich, came inland at about 10.30pm near Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast and followed a westward course. Once inland she dropped an incendiary at Maltby-le-Marsh and another about a mile south-east of Market Rasen. Neither appears to have caused any damage. At about 12.15am, L 22 dropped seven incendiaries over Tinsley Park Colliery without effect. Dietrich crossed over Sheffield towards Fulwood before circling back to the Burngreave area, north-east of the city. Here he commenced his attack at about 12.25am.

The first two bombs, both incendiaries, landed in Burngreave Cemetery where they burnt a patch of grass, but seconds later an HE bomb fell in Danville Street, killing a man in bed and injuring three other people. Immediately one followed in Grimesthorpe Road, which killed an elderly woman and her daughter. In Petre Street those exploding bombs attracted Thomas Wilson to his bedroom window just as another exploded outside. A fragment of the bomb killed him where he stood. The AA gun at Shiregreen searched for L 22 through the mist that hung over the city; unable to find her the frustrated crew defiantly fired off two rounds in the direction of the sound. The next HE bomb landed on a house in Writtle Street where it mortally wounded 57-year-old Elizabeth Bellemy. Tragedy next struck in Cossey Road where two HE bombs exploded. The first demolished Nos. 26, 28 and 30. At No. 28 the bomb killed a married couple, Albert and Alice Newman. Next door, at No. 26, the bomb killed eight, including the occupiers of No. 24 who had come to shelter in their neighbour’s cellar. The second struck No. 10, killing a young couple, Levi and Beatrice Hames and their one-year-old son, Horace. George Ineson, age 28, caught outside during the raid, was also killed nearby. L 21 then passed over a large concentration of important industrial works but only dropped one incendiary, causing a small fire at the Atlas Steel and Iron Works. L 21 resumed dropping HE bombs over Corby Street. One demolished No. 136, killing all seven of the Tyler family. It also killed an 11-year-old boy who lived next door and Martha Shakespeare of No. 143, who died of her injuries. A bomb in Princess Street destroyed the Primitive Methodist Chapel before L 21 crossed over the River Don, dropping an HE and an incendiary in Washford Road. The HE bomb caused widespread destruction but incredibly no one was seriously injured. The last death occurred near the railway at Woodbourn Junction. William Guest had gone to tell a neighbour in Woodbourn Road that a light was showing from their window when a bomb exploded and killed him. Other bombs caused a fierce conflagration at the railway sidings. A few more bombs were released at Manor Oaks and The Manor, south of the railway, without causing any damage, before L 21 turned away to the north-east. The final bomb, an incendiary, narrowly missed the Railway Carriage & Wagon Works at Darnall. Instead it set fire to a house in Nightingale Street but the occupants had taken shelter elsewhere and were unharmed. Dietrich left Sheffield behind, passing south of Doncaster at 12.45am and north of Scunthorpe at 1.20am. Around the Humber, L 21 came under fire from a number of AA guns, although some struggled to see the target. She passed over the coast near the village of Garton at 2.05am. In the north of England the RFC had only two aircraft airborne due to the fog but neither saw either L 21 or L 22.