24/25 April 1916             

Bombed:

Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambs. & Lincs.   

This was a large raid involving six Navy Zeppelins planned to strike against London in advance of the German naval bombardment of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. However, strong winds from the south and south-west forced them to seek alternative targets in East Anglia.

L 16 (Oberleutnant zur See Werner Peterson) came inland over Trimingham on the coast of north-east Norfolk at 10.15pm. Following a course to the south-west via Attleborough, L.16 reached Thetford at about 11.30pm. After circling for 20 minutes Peterson resumed a south-west course and arrived over Newmarket Heath at 12.30am from where two machine guns opened fire. Stung into action, Peterson dropped 18 high-explosive (HE) bombs on a line from Newmarket Heath right across the town of Newmarket, to Warren Hill Station. Several houses on St. Mary’s Square were damaged as was a racing stable on Bury Road where a prize racehorse, Coup-de-Main, was killed. A bomb on a house near Warren Hill Station seriously injured its owner. On the eastern outskirts of Newmarket L 16 dropped an incendiary close to the junction of the Bury and Norwich roads, followed by an HE and an incendiary on the ‘Limekilns’, a training ground near Snailwell. Peterson then headed back towards the coast, dropping five incendiary bombs at Honingham, between Norwich and East Dereham at about 1.15am, which fell in wheat fields setting fire to a large haystack which spread to farm sheds. L 16 went back out to sea near Mundesley at about 1.35am.

L 13 (Kapitänleutnant Eduard Prölss) came inland about five minutes after L 16, near Cromer. Her course after passing Hanworth is unclear. It would appear that shell splinters from an AA gun struck the command gondola and although they did not cause any significant damage it was enough to persuade Prölss to turn for home. L 13 went back out to sea a little after 11.00pm near Sheringham without dropping any of her bombs.

L 21 (Kapitänleutnant der Reserve Max Dietrich, with Peter Strasser commander of the Naval Airship Division on board) came inland just south of Lowestoft at 11.10pm and took a course leading to Stowmarket where there was an important munitions works. As he approached the town, AA guns at Badley Park and Stowupland engaged, then two 6-pdrs at Stowmarket opened fire. Dietrich released water ballast at 12.16am to climb quickly out of danger and also dropped nine HE bombs, which landed on Ward Green Farm at Old Newton owned by F. Stearn, two miles north of Stowmarket. They caused no significant damage, merely breaking windows and gouging craters in a ploughed field. Dietrich then followed a north-east course across Norfolk, passing to the west of Norwich and dropping a final HE bomb at Witton, which fell harmlessly, before going out to sea near Bacton at 1.35am. At about 2.00am she joined the German fleet approaching the coast.

Kapitänleutnant Otto von Schubert brought L 23 inland at Caister at 11.50pm where he dropped three HE bombs but only one detonated, smashing windows and damaging a wall. He then followed a course to the north-west until he reached the village of Ridlington. Here von Schubert dropped nine HE bombs partially wrecking a cottage, breaking windows and extensively damaging the chancel end of the church of St. Peter. At Church Farm, besides breaking windows, the bombs also killed a bullock. Before passing out to sea, L 23 dropped six HE bombs near the coast that damaged two houses, ‘Beech Bough’ and ‘The Croft’, close to the RNAS airfield at Bacton.

The last Zeppelin to come inland over Norfolk was L 11 commanded by Korvettenkapitän Viktor Schütze, which crossed near Bacton at about 12.30am. She made very slow progress south then, between the villages of Honing and Dilham, Schütze released 19 HE and 26 incendiary bombs at around 1.00am. At Dairy House Farm, Dilham, the blast ripped roof tiles from a number of farm buildings, doing the same to four cottages nearby, also smashing windows in another four cottages. Not far away, at Hall Farm, the shock of the raid caused a 79-year-old widow, Fanny Gaze, to die from a heart attack. L 11 crossed the coast near Sea Palling at 1.18am but instead of going out to sea at once, she followed the coast towards Bacton. At 1.25am 3-pdr AA guns of the RNAS Eastern Mobile Section opened fire on L 11 and it appears they had some success, one gas cell was later reported as punctured by a piece of shell, after which L 11 finally went out to sea.

The final Zeppelin to come inland did so further north, L 17 (Kapitänleutnant Herbert Ehrlich) crossing the Lincolnshire coast at Chapel St. Leonards, just before 1.20am. She only came inland as far as Alford (about 6 miles) where she dropped three HE bombs from a height of about 10,000 ft, the damage amounting to one broken window. A single incendiary also fell in a field at Anderby. Ehrlich crossed back over the coastline near Sutton-on-Sea at 2.05am.

Four aircraft from RNAS Yarmouth, one from RNAS Bacton and one from No. 35 Squadron RFC based at Thetford, went up to oppose these raiders but only Flt sub-Lieutenant Edward Pulling caught sight of one, L 23, before losing it again. 

25/26 April 1916                   

Bombed:

Essex, Suffolk & Kent  

This raid by Army airships targeted London but none reached their goal. Five set out, one, the veteran Z XII, turned back early and survived an encounter with a French aircraft on its return journey. Of the others, LZ 87 never came inland, her commander, Oberleutnant Barth, contenting himself with attacking a steamer, the Argus, in Deal harbour by dropping eight high-explosive (HE) bombs. The bombs, dropped at 9.55pm, all missed their target. Attacked by AA guns at Walmer, LZ 87 turned out to sea and then appeared off Ramsgate at 10.24pm after which she turned for home.

The three raiders that came inland were LZ 97, LZ 93 and LZ 88.

LZ 97, commanded by Hauptmann Erich Linnarz, came inland over West Mersea at about 10.00pm and followed a westward course as far as Fyfield where she turned south. At 10.50pm she began dropping the first of 47 incendiary bombs between there and Onger (11 around Fyfield, 15 at Shelley, 17 at High Ongar and 4 at Chipping Ongar). Five of them failed to ignite and the only damage recorded was to a shed at Ongar. From there Linnarz continued towards east London. At Barkingside he dropped a line of 12 HE bombs: six at Fairlop, three at Barkingside and three at Aldborough Hatch (only one of these three detonated, destroying a well). Near Fairlop station six railway cottages had their windows smashed and doors blown in. Three other cottages nearby were also damaged. It is possible Linnarz released these bombs to climb rapidly as he was now coming under increasing AA fire. LZ 97 then dropped another HE bomb harmlessly at Newbury Park, but as he approached Seven Kings, the AA fire became heavier and two aircraft attempted to engage at long range; at least one used the new Brock incendiary/explosive bullets. With the odds increasing against her, LZ 97 turned away from London and headed north-east, dropping two HE bombs at Chadwell Heath. One landed in a field smashing some cottage windows but the other destroyed a house in Farm Terrace. The owner, Mr. Chapman, and his family were outside watching the raid! LZ 97, under fire from guns at Brentwood, Kelvedon Hatch and Billericay, now set course for home, going out to sea at Clacton at 12.34am. Shells fired by the AA guns caused slight damage to 16 houses and Fred Berris of Pelham Road, Ilford, suffered a shoulder injury caused by dislodged debris after an unexploded shell struck his roof.

The second Zeppelin to come inland, LZ 93 commanded by Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm, appeared at the mouth of the River Orwell at about 10.30pm. She dropped what a report describes as two ‘water flares’ in the sea which may have been incendiary bombs, then a HE landed without causing damage on the common to the north of Landguard Fort at Felixstowe. Three more incendiaries quickly followed, all falling in the mud of the estuary with one landing close to the RNAS aircraft hangers. Six AA guns now opened on LZ 93 from Felixstowe and Harwich as she crossed the estuary to Harwich and dropped two HE bombs within 20-30 yards of Government House, St. Helen’s Green. Both failed to detonate. Schramm then steered north over the mouth of the River Stour to Shotley, dropping three HE and four incendiary bombs close to the Royal Navy training base barracks (known as HMS Ganges), but only a little broken glass resulted. Another incendiary dropped in mud west of the barracks then LZ 93 turned back and retraced its route. Over Parkeston Quay a single HE bomb fell on reclaimed land between the station and the village, disappearing beneath the earth and mud. Flying over Harwich another four of the ‘water flares’ fell in the river as LZ 93 approached the Landguard Fort again before she passed back out to sea at about 10.45pm having caused no casualties and been unaffected by the 195 rounds fired by the guns. 

Hauptmann Falck brought the last raider, LZ 88, inland at about 12.30am, crossing the coast near Whitstable, Kent. He switched her engines off at about 12.45 and drifted with the wind to Sturry, north-east of Canterbury, which he reached at 12.53am. Turning the motors back on Falck passed over Canterbury, then turned south-east towards Bridge before changing direction north-east towards Wingham, which he reached at 1.15am. LZ 88 released the first of her bombs five minutes later as she now followed a northerly course towards the village of Preston, dropping nine incendiaries that landed on open ground known as Preston Marshes that merely burnt some turf. Bearing to the north-east now and following the main Canterbury-Margate road, LZ 88 dropped 13 incendiary bombs at about 1.25am, of which two failed to ignite. Most fell harmlessly on Chislet Marshes with one at Sarre, all without causing any damage. Five minutes later, at St. Nicholas at Wade, Falck dropped a single HE bomb which exploded in the garden of the vicarage. It destroyed duck and hen coops and uprooted two trees, one of which fell against the house smashing windows. Falck then continued on a course towards the coast at Birchington. He dropped four HE bombs on marshy ground between the vicarage and Shuart’s Farm, then another five between there and the railway line running to Margate. The last two bombs dropped on land by LZ 88 were incendiaries, one fell close to the railway and the other on the sea wall at Minnis Bay – neither caused damage – then she dropped three final HE bombs in the sea after crossing the coast at about 1.35am before heading home.