23 October 1916                                     

Bombed: Kent 

Just after 10.00am 0n Monday 23 October, a German aeroplane approached Margate on the north-east Kent coast. No one noticed it until bombs began to drop in the Cliftonville district. A newspaper reported: ‘Nothing could be heard of aircraft engines, but high in the sky a small speck was eventually discerned.’ The first HE bomb dropped in the sea, followed by one on the shore near Walpole Rocks. The third bomb exploded on the grass in an open area at the north end of Fifth Avenue. The explosion smashed the glass in a shelter on the promenade, but a shocked lady sitting there was unhurt. Fragments of the bomb, however, struck a man as he walked along the promenade, injuring his left hand. The final HE bomb struck the roof of the St. George’s Hotel on Eastern Esplanade. It demolished a chimney stack, shattered the glass in three skylights and penetrated down to the ground floor, damaging the staircase and walls as it passed through the building. On the top floor it smashed glass in the bedroom doors and gouged holes in the walls in several places. A chambermaid working on the top floor received injuries to both feet and had to be taken to hospital.  

The raider made off to the south-east where it was engaged by an AA gun at Sackett’s Hill between Margate and Ramsgate.. Although the gun crew found it hard to spot the aircraft in the bright sunlight, they still fired off 16 rounds in its general direction. The aircraft circled briefly as though trying to locate the gun before resuming a south-east course, going out to sea near Ramsgate.

An aircraft from RNAS Manston was airborne within a couple of minutes of the first appearance of the raider. Another eight aircraft took off from Dover and Manston by 10.20am, and three more, from Eastchurch and Westgate, a little later. The first aircraft from Manston saw the raider but was unable to close the gap. No one else even made a sighting.