ZEPPELINS, GOTHAS & 'GIANTS'
THE STORY OF BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN BLITZ 1914-1918
8/9 Sept. 1915
Bombed:
London, N.Yorks. & Norfolk
On the night of 8th/9th September, three Navy Zeppelins raided Britain; two were to attack London while the oldest of the three, L 9, set course for Yorkshire. In fact only one, L 13, reached London, but she delivered the costliest raid of the war.
Zeppelin L 9, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Odo Loewe, targeted the Skinningrove Ironworks. Coming inland at about 9.15pm, Loewe dropped a petrol tank fifteen minutes later, which landed in a field opposite Ings House, between Easington and Boulby. The first bomb, a high explosive (HE), dropped on a road at West Loftus without causing damage. Four incendiary bombs quickly followed as L 9 approached Carlin How, on the road to Skinningrove. All fell harmlessly, two in Scaifes Field and two in ‘Watson’s Garden’. Now, directly over the Ironworks, Loewe released his main load of nine HE and 12 incendiary bombs.
One HE bomb landed on a railway track where it passed between two buildings. One, used for the manufacture of benzol fuel, held 45,000 gallons stored in tanks, the other building stored TNT. The bomb damaged the railings around the TNT store, tore up the tracks and damaged water pipes and electric cables in the ground, but the benzol building suffered only a few smashed bricks. An incendiary also landed on the benzol building but made no impact on the concrete roof. It was a lucky escape. Another HE bomb caused limited damage to a blast furnace, while seven other bombs fell harmlessly on slag heaps. Two railway trucks suffered minor damage when an incendiary dropped in the sidings. The last bombs - three incendiary and three HE - fell on the beach, damaging the concrete slipway of the jetty. All the workers at the Ironworks managed to seek shelter and the raid caused no casualties.
Three aircraft took off from RNAS Redcar, eight miles away, but they were still climbing to operational height when Zeppelin L 9, already over the North Sea, had turned for home.
Kapitänleutnant Alois Böcker, commanding Zeppelin L 14, intended to attack London but encountered engine problems shortly after coming inland at about 8.10pm, over Blakeney, Norfolk. He followed a line that he believed would take him to Norwich, but he was a little off course and approached East Dereham instead.
At about 8.45pm Böcker, attracted by lights on the ground, began dropping bombs which fell close to a camp of the 2/1st City of London Yeomanry in the grounds of Bylaugh Hall, about four and a half miles north-east of East Dereham. L 14 dropped a high explosive (HE) bomb, which landed about 150 yards from the tents, and between 14 and 17 incendiary bombs, which fell in neighbouring fields. The only casualty was a cow.
L 14 then arrived over East Dereham at about 8.55pm, dropping 15 HE and 16 incendiary bombs on the town. One incendiary fell on an oil store behind an ironmonger’s shop in Market Place, causing a significant fire. Another bomb smashed through a house adjoining the Corn Hall, an historic building which had its glass roof shattered. Other bombs caused serious damage to buildings in Church Street, including the White Lion pub where two customers, Harry and Sylvia Johnson, were severely injured. Other bombs killed 61-year-old James Taylor, Harry Paterson, a 44-year-old jeweller and Lance Corporal Alfred Pomeroy, 2/1st City of London Yeomanry. Private Leslie MacDonald of the same regiment later died of injuries caused during the raid. Bombs also landed - without damage - close to tents at the V.A.D. hospital in the grounds of the Old Vicarage on St. Withburga Lane.
L 14 dropped nine more HE bombs on Scarning, to the west of East Dereham, which caused no damage. She then headed back to the coast, crossing out to sea shortly before 10.00pm.
Three pilots from RNAS Yarmouth went up to search for the raider. One returned early with engine problems. Another made a forced landing due to fuel issues. The third, Flight Sub-Lieutenant G. Hilliard flying a BE2c, died when his bombs exploded on making a heavy landing at Bacton.
By far the most successful raid of the war, from a German perspective, was that made on London by Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Mathy and Zeppelin L 13. Mathy came inland near King’s Lynn at about 8.50pm, headed south and, beyond Cambridge, followed the line of what is now the A10 road as far as Ware in Hertfordshire, before approaching London from the north-west. As he closed on the London suburb of Golders Green, he released two high explosive (HE) and 10 incendiary bombs but only three landed on or near houses.
Nearing central London, Mathy began to drop the first of 13 HE and 45 incendiary bombs as L 13 passed Euston Station. Bombs landed in Bloomsbury at 10.45pm; one HE bomb fell in Queen’s Square, an area surrounded by hospitals, but although hundreds of windows were smashed, no one was hurt. At 10.49pm, a HE bomb landed outside ‘The Dolphin’ public house at the corner of Lambs Conduit Passage and Red Lion Street. The blast wrecked the National Penny Bank and the pub, killing Henry Coombs who was standing outside. A fireman, J.S Green, later died from injuries caused while fighting the fire in Lambs Conduit Passage. Another 16 people were injured. L 13 continued eastwards, dropping bombs as she crossed Gray’s Inn Road and on towards Farringdon. A HE bomb struck Laney’s Buildings, Portpool Lane and, as well as causing severe damage, killed four children and injured six adults and another child. Just south of Smithfield Market, Mathy then dropped the largest bomb of the war so far - weighing 300kgs - on Bartholomew Close. It had a devastating effect on the surrounding buildings and killed two men, William Fenge and Frederick Saunders, as they emerged from the Admiral Carter pub.
L 13 then passed over the narrow streets of the City of London, from Aldersgate Street to Moorgate Street. Some serious fires broke out; in Wood Street a fire caused damage calculated at £207,000 to the premises and stock of Messrs. Ward, Sturt and Sharp, wholesale hosiers. Mathy dropped his last bombs around Liverpool Street Station. One struck a bus at the corner of Blomfield Street and Liverpool Street, killing three and injuring a number of others and, by huge misfortune, a bomb hit another bus on Norton Folgate, killing nine and injuring ten as well as causing significant damage in the area.
In defence, 26 guns opened fire, from as far away as Woolwich, with the last shots recorded at 11.00pm, but virtually all shells burst short of the target except one fired by the gun on Parliament Hill in north London, which forced L 13 to climb steeply. She eventually made her exit near Caister shortly before 2.00am.
Kapitänleutnant Odo Loewe - Zeppelin L 9
Sightseers throng Church Street, East Dereham, after the raid by Zeppelin L 14
(David Marks Collection)
The burnt out premises of Ward, Sturt and Sharp in
Wood Street in London
Casualties: 26 killed, 94 injured
(Killed: East Dereham 4, London 22)
(Injured: East Dereham 7, London 87)
Damage: £ 534,287