ZEPPELINS, GOTHAS & 'GIANTS'
THE STORY OF BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN BLITZ 1914-1918
31 Mar. / 1 Apr. 1916
Bombed:
Suffolk, Essex & Lincs.
This started as a seven Zeppelin raid but two dropped out en route leaving five to target the London area.
Zeppelin L 14 came inland over the Norfolk coast near Sea Palling at about 8.15pm and flew a wide circle to the west of Norwich before heading towards London. At 10.30pm L 14 passed over Sudbury where she dropped eight high-explosive (HE) and 19 incendiary bombs from east to west across the town. One HE bomb stuck neighbouring houses, 34 and 35 East Street causing extensive damage. It also killed Ellen Wheeler, a 64-year-old widow living at 34 and a married couple at number 35, Thomas and Ellen Ambrose. Outside, John Edward Smith, who lived at number 58, was killed as he crossed the road. Soldiers of the 2/6th City of London Rifles had billets in the town, one of these, the Horse and Groom was damaged and two days later Rifleman Robert Wilson, died of injuries caused by flying glass received at his billet in Constitution Hill. A little further on, an incendiary crashed down into 22 Melford Road, another billet, and Sgt Charles May was awarded the Military Medal for rescuing Rifleman Bond from the burning building.
L 14 then continued towards London and at 11.05pm dropped three HE bombs on Braintree. One landed on 19 Coronation Avenue, killing Ann Herbert, aged 70. Next door at 21, however, the chimney collapsed on the house, killing Alfred Dennington, his wife Annie and their three-year-old niece (or adopted child) Ella Hammond.
At Kelvedon Hatch an AA gun and searchlight engaged L 14. In response she dropped two HE bombs north of Doddinghurst at about 11.40 followed by nine at Blackmore five minutes later, which all fell in open fields gouging great craters in the earth.
L 14, however, abandoned London, and dropped a HE bomb at Springfield near Chelmsford at about 12.55am without effect before heading south towards the Thames estuary and dropping an incendiary at Stanford-le-Hope at 1.25am, followed five minutes later by five HE and 12 incendiary bombs over Thames Haven. Incendiary bombs landed on two of the vast oil tanks there but luckily they were empty at the time. Other than a small fire on a pier there was no other damage. Evading the AA guns that opened up, L 14 turned north-east and eventually went out to sea at Dunwich, south of Southwold, at about 3.00am.
Oberleutnant-zur-See Werner Peterson brought L 16 inland at about 10.10pm over Winterton, and passing to the east of Norwich approached Bury St Edmunds from the east at 11.45pm. Two mobile 1-pdr guns opened fire which Peterson responded to by releasing 21 high-explosive and five incendiary across the town wrecking two cottages and nine others seriously damaged; the incendiary bombs landed in open fields.
One HE bomb exploded on 75 Mill Road with devastating effect. Annie Dureall, 29, the wife of a drummer in the Suffolk Regiment, was upstairs with her five young children when the bomb struck. The floor collapsed below them. Annie died along with 5-year-old James and Catherine, aged 3. The other children were badly injured but survived. Next door, at number 75, 44-year-old Harry Frost was outside in the garden but as he turned to go back in the bomb exploded. He died two days later and other members of his family were injured by flying glass.
Two bombs landed close by, at the rear of Beaconsfield Terrace, Chalk Lane. Hubert Hardiment, a 21-year-old soldier on leave from 4/1st Bn. Cambridgeshire Regiment, heard explosions and went to the back door to investigate just as a bomb exploded. The back of the house collapsed killing Hardiment and neighbours on either side suffered injury.
There were two final casualties of the raid. A bomb blew off the roof of the King of Prussia pub, the clock inside stopping at 11.54pm, and two bombs exploded in the garden of St. Mary’s Vicarage by Prussia Lane. Awoken by the bombs, Henry Adams, 60, and three of his sons, including 15-year-old George, went out to check on a horse and passed the Vicarage just as the bombs exploded. Both Henry and George died in the blast.
From Bury St Edmunds L 16 headed east and dropped a single HE bomb over Lowestoft, causing considerable damage to a tram shed in the town, before heading back out to sea.
L 13, commanded by Heinrich Mathy, came inland over Sizewell in Suffolk at about 8.00pm. Recognising conditions were against a raid on London he selected Stowmarket as his secondary target, where he knew the New Explosive Company had their works. Approaching the town from the south-west at a height of about 6,000 to 7,500ft, he dropped two flares at about 8.45pm over the village of Badley, about a mile and a half from the works but could not locate them. A searchlight and two AA guns opened up on L 13 against which Mathy dropped 12 HE bombs that all fell close to the guns, but he failed to realise they were defending the works. Mathy circled around and approached the town again at about 9.15, still searching for munitions factory, as the AA guns opened up again. This time bombs damaged some railway track and a fragment of an AA shell injured a soldier, but another shell burst close to L 13 sending a jagged piece of metal slashing through one of her gasbags causing a loss of hydrogen. Mathy immediately set course for the coast. At Wangford he released 11 HE and five incendiary bombs, aimed at the headlights of an RNAS armoured car machine gun section. Then, over the airfield at RNAS Covehithe, L 13 dropped her remaining seven HE and 20 incendiary bombs at about 10.20pm. Both attacks failed to produce results but, now lightened, L 13 was able to gain height and struggled back to her base.
Kapitänleutnant Martin Dietrich, commanding L 22, experienced serious engine problems during his crossing of the North Sea, delaying him for four hours. He abandoned London as a target and steered instead for the Humber. Crossing the coast near Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, at 1.00am he headed north, dropping a sighting incendiary bomb at Donna Nook on the coast twenty minutes later. At about 1.35am a searchlight locked on to L 22 and a 1-pdr AA gun at Waltham Wireless Station opened fire. L 22 responded with 14 HE and 12 incendiary bombs all of which fell on farmland at Humberston. Five of the HE bombs failed to detonate with damage limited to broken wondows at a farm. Then, at 1.48am L 22 appeared over Cleethorpes. Having flown over the town she dropped a flare in the river near the end of the pier then turned back, coming in over the railway station and dropped six HE bombs on the town. One detonated in Alexandra Road, another on the council offices at the corner of Cambridge Street and another landed in Sea View Street, then L 22 headed out to sea. But behind her she left a devastating mark on the town. The bomb that fell on Alexandra Road exploded as it hit the roof of a Baptist Chapel, a billet for a company of the 3rd (Special Reserve) battalion of the Manchester Regiment who had arrived only the previous day. When the rubble was cleared and the bodies recovered 31 men were dead and 51 injured.
The other Zeppelin to come inland that day was L 15, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Joachim Breithaupt. It crossed the coast at Dunwich, Suffolk at about 7.45pm dropping a couple of bombs in the sea before an incendiary fell at Yoxford at 7.50pm without effect. Approaching Ipswich at about 8.20pm she dropped two HE bombs and an incendiary near the docks. One of the HE bombs fell in Key Street, behind the Custom House, killing a man standing outside The Gun public house, while a soldier billeted in a house in the street lost a leg. The incendiary fell in the dock while the other HE fell on the Stoke Bathing Place, on the west bank of the River Orwell opposite Cliff Quay. Two others died and a woman injured. L 15 continued towards London, dropping a single HE bomb on Colchester at 8.45pm, damaging the glass roof of a printing works in Hawkins Road and smashing windows nearby. Flying south L 15 reached Pitsea in Essex where Breithaupt picked up the course of the Thames. But L 15 now attracted a number of searchlights and AA gunfire. He turned back northwards at 9.43pm, releasing 20 HE and 24 incendiary bombs, presumably to gain height. The bombs fell harmlessly on open fields at Rainham but L 15 did not escape. At 9.45pm a round fired by the AA gun at Purfleet, ripped through three of her gas cells. L 15 headed away from the guns then, between Brentwood and Ingatestone, she survived a dramatic encounter with 2nd Lieutenant Alfred de Bathe Brandon of No.19 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron. Losing height now through loss of hydrogen, in a desperate attempt to keep L 15 airborne Breithaupt ordered all unessential equipment overboard but at 11.00pm, with her structure severely weakened and flying at just 2,000ft, her back broke and she fell into the sea about 15 miles north of Margate. One of the crew drowned but the rest were rescued and taken back to England as prisoners of war.
L 15 with her back broken lying about
15 miles off Margate
Casualties: 48 killed. 64 injured
Damage: £19,431