The day after the raid of 28/29 July was generally quiet over Britain but in Germany the Zeppelin ground crews were busy preparing their charges for the next raid, while the flight crews grabbed some welcome rest.
There were, however, a couple of alarms on the night of 30/31 July, which saw 14 RNAS aircraft out over the North Sea searching for Zeppelins. One of the pilots, Flight sub-Lieutenant J.C. Northrop flying a BE2c from Covehithe, submitted a detailed report of an encounter with a Zeppelin in the early hours of the morning. He describes firing two mixed drums of the new explosive and incendiary bullets from about a 1,000 feet below the target before a third drum flew off and struck him in the face. When he regained his composure the Zeppelin had disappeared in a cloud. His style of attack was one that would later pay dividends for Britain’s pilots, but on this occasion Northrop had nothing to show for his actions. There is, however, no German record of a Zeppelin being out that morning. The encounter remains a mystery, but it confirms the new bullets were reaching front line pilots.
On 31 July the naval Zeppelins returned. The weather conditions in Germany seemed promising enough for Strasser to despatch ten Zeppelins but the raid proved disappointing. Two of the raiders, L 21 and L 30, turned back before reaching England while three trawlers out in the North Sea radioed in news of the others’ approach. Unknown to the raiders, low-lying mist lingered over eastern England.
The Zeppelin that came inland furthest north was Erich Sommerfeldt’s L 16. Crossing the Lincolnshire coast near Skegness at 11.35pm, Sommerfeldt followed a slightly erratic course in the general direction of Newark, about 50 miles inland. Having passed the village of Caythorpe at 1.15am, something must have caught his eye because Sommerfeldt returned to it twenty minutes later and dropped two incendiary bombs. Five minutes later another landed at Skinnand before L 16 resumed its course towards Newark. Sommerfeldt circled the blacked-out town without locating it, dropping a fourth incendiary over Langford Common at 1.55am before heading back towards the coast with an almost full bomb load. He exited near Mablethorpe at 2.45am having dropped single incendiary bombs at Metheringham and West Ashby. The mist had prevented Sommerfeldt finding any worthwhile targets; it was a problem shared by every Zeppelin commander that night.
Between 10.30pm and 2.15am five Zeppelins were over East Anglia, before a sixth came inland for an hour between 2 and 3am. Their impact was negligible.
After crossing the coast near Lowestoft at 10.30pm, Martin Dietrich’s L 22 pushed inland for about 50 miles before dropping a first incendiary bomb over Poslingford at 11.45pm. Then, in the 15 minutes between 12.20 and 12.35am, L 22 dropped 16 bombs (10 HE and six incendiaries) in the area around Haverhill. Four of these exploded at West Wickham airfield where a hurricane lamp was burning brightly in an otherwise darkened landscape. A police report succinctly described the result: ‘No damage except for the holes made in the ground.’ The incendiaries landed in a field near Haverhill gasworks and five bombs exploded at Withersfield resulting in broken windows at four houses before a final HE bomb dropped at Great Wratting but proved a dud.
An hour later L 22 dropped three HE bombs over Snarehill airfield near Thetford after which a parachute flare released over Croxton set fire to heathland. Three miles on, eight bombs fell harmlessly near the tiny village of Stanford.1 At 2am L 22 released ten bombs near the village of Hevingham where an injured horse was the only casualty. The final bomb, an incendiary, burnt out at Burgh-next-Aylsham as L 22 passed out between Mundesley and Happisburgh at 2.10am.
Hauptmann Kuno Manger, an army officer transferred to naval airships, approached over The Wash in L 14 and at 12.10am came inland near Sutton Bridge. Heading south, glaring lights drew him towards extensive railway marshalling yards on the northern outskirts of March. At 12.33am four bombs crashed down at Whitemoor Junction. The two incendiary bombs ‘lit up the neighbourhood considerably’ but the two HE bombs, besides digging large craters merely cut some telegraph wires and smashed a few windows. Turning east into Norfolk, L 14 dropped an incendiary at Hockwold, but about nine miles ahead Manger observed a fire. Presuming another Zeppelin had found a target, Manger dropped eight bombs as he passed. These fell on Croxton Heath around 1.30am, just minutes after L 22’s flare had started a heath fire, repeating the Danby High Moor incident back in May. Heading towards the coast now, L 14 dropped two incendiaries at Bunwell and another east of the station at Buckenham. Following the railway line, Manger’s last four bombs exploded at Reedham at 2.05am before he crossed the coast south of Great Yarmouth ten minutes later. Other than the minor damage at March, L 14’s bombs had little impact.
About 15 minutes before Manger had passed Sutton Bridge, Eduard Prölss had preceded him in L 13. Prölss, however, restricted his probing to north Norfolk where, unable to find any targets of note in the mist, he remained for little more than an hour. Between 12 and 12.25am single incendiary bombs landed at Walpole St Peter, West Newton and West Rudham, followed by an explosion in open country at Guist and at 12.40am by three bombs near Cawston. Prölss passed out to sea near Cromer at 1am, his seven bombs having caused no damage.
Zeppelin L 23 spent even less time overland than L 13. Otto von Schubert crossed the Suffolk coast near Kessingland at 11.15pm but after heading inland for about five miles and seeing nothing through the mist he gave up. Returning to the coast, von Schubert dropped his only bomb, an incendiary, on Southwold Common. It was almost a very lucky shot, the burning bomb falling just 20 yards from an army ammunition store.
Herbert Ehrlich, commanding L 17, arrived near Great Yarmouth at about 11.45pm and appeared to be heading towards Norwich but, effectively darkened, he failed to find the city. He passed around the south of Norwich drawn towards landing flares burning at No.51 Squadron’s Mattishall airfield, laid out between the villages of Mattishall and East Tuddenham and about nine miles west of the city. As L 17 approached, a searchlight at neighbouring Honingham flickered into life. It was enough activity in an otherwise darkened landscape to draw a response. Ten HE bombs dropped around East Tuddenham, with seven more and five incendiary bombs streaking down between there and Honingham. Not one of them hit or damaged anything. Ehrlich passed to the north of Norwich and departed the coast between Mundesley and Bacton at 1.40am.
The last of the East Anglian raiders, Viktor Schütze’s L 11, crossed the north Norfolk coast near Cley-next-the-Sea at 2.04am. After dropping an incendiary bomb on the sands at Warham Hole, Schütze headed inland to the south-east but clearly had problems, releasing three parachute flares in his search for targets even though he was over Norfolk for less than an hour. Single incendiary bombs released over Binham and Gunthorpe achieved nothing but at 2.25am two bombs dropped at Thurning caused the only damage of Schütze’s raid. At a farm owned by James Gay of Thurning Hall an explosion dislodged roof tiles, broke glass in a cottage door and injured two bullocks, one of which had to be slaughtered. Schütze now abandoned the raid, dropping single incendiaries at Wood Dalling, Cawston, Wroxham, Hovetown St John and Neatishead as he returned to the coast near Winterton at 3am.
There was one more Zeppelin over England on the night of 31 July/ 1 August. Some 95 miles south of the action in East Anglia another raider was tasked with striking London – Heinrich Mathy’s new L 31. The official German communique issued after the raid announced an attack on the capital: ‘...several naval airship squadrons successfully attacked London and the Eastern Counties of England. They dropped numerous bombs on the coast works, anti-aircraft batteries, and industrial establishments.’ On board L 31, Pitt Klein gave a graphic account of their attack on London.
The first of [the bombs] rained down. The terrific crash and powerful blasts combined with great columns of fire told us they had hit home. The space between heaven and earth was filled with the horrific explosion of bombs, the rapid fire coming from the gun batteries, the sharp crack of exploding shrapnel, the blood red glare of flames and the swirling beams of searchlights... The blazing light of fires lit up the City.... London that night was a gruesome sight.2
Klein’s account, however, is fantasy. No bombs fell anywhere near the capital.
The sound of L 31’s engines was heard at 11.10pm as she approached the north-east corner of Kent where the sky was clear. Observers recorded 12 bombs exploding in the sea off Kingsgate as L 31 followed the coast around to Margate and Westgate where she came inland at 11.25pm. As searchlights swept the sky, L 31 headed across this corner of the county towards Ramsgate while two anti-aircraft guns at RNAS Manston fired 16 rounds. Three bombs streaked down, smashing windows in ten cottages at Northwood on the outskirts of Ramsgate. Two guns at Ramsgate now joined in but both were out of action after firing a single round. Meanwhile, the sound of guns and bombs had alerted the residents of Ramsgate and many ‘streets and promenades were soon thronged with people, many half dressed’. Off Ramsgate and Sandwich the sea again bore the brunt of the attack as more bombs dropped into the water, after which Mathy turned for home, his ‘London’ raid over.
The misty weather conditions elsewhere affected the British response and although the RNAS flew 11 sorties from Killingholme in the north to Manston in the south, and one RFC fighter took off from Mattishall, none of the pilots saw anything and two crash-landed leaving one pilot injured.
Despite eight Zeppelins reaching England and reporting great successes, the raid was a complete failure. Damage estimates compiled by the police were even less than the raid two nights previously – just £139. In the German press, however, the raids were a continuing success story: ‘Contrary to the assertions of the British Government the general conviction reigns in London that the attack on August 1st was the most serious which London has ever been through up to the present.’3
Keeping up the intensity of the attacks, Strasser ordered six Zeppelins out again on 2 August, five of which had only returned on the previous morning. As early as 7.30pm British tracking stations had established the number of incoming Zeppelins, their identifications and locations over the North Sea. It meant a number of RNAS aircraft from Felixstowe, Killingholme, Great Yarmouth and Bacton were searching for the raiders before they neared the coast. Also out was the seaplane carrier HMS Vindex, which additionally had a short flying-off deck for a Bristol Scout landplane, and the smaller seaplane tender, HMS Brocklesby. However, even before any Zeppelins approached the coast a RNAS Sopwith Schneider floatplane, which had taken off from Yarmouth at 7.15pm was in trouble. Her pilot, Flight Lieutenant Christopher J. Galpin, had spotted a Zeppelin some distance away and gave chase but eventually lost it in cloud. With his petrol running low and the light fading, Galpin saw a ship and decided to land near it to seek help. He immediately regretted his decision: ‘As I alighted alongside the vessel, a guttural voice hailed me from the bridge in some unknown but apparently teutonic language.’ There had been rumours that German merchant ships guided Zeppelins by showing lights and now Galpin was convinced he had landed alongside one of them. While part of the ship’s crew manned rowing boats and battled the strong currents to come alongside, Galpin disconsolately made ready.
I hastily undid my various flying garments and destroyed every paper. and prepared myself for capture and imprisonment. I was standing rather dismally in a dishevelled flying-suit when they came up with me and at that moment one of the boat’s crew, moved by my miserable appearance, cried heartily, ‘Good Lord! It’s Charlie Chaplin’.My relief knew no bounds.4
By a stroke of good fortune the ship was Belgian and took Galpin and his aircraft back to England.
Four of the six Zeppelins to attack England that night focussed their attention on Norfolk again. When about 50 miles off the coast, at 7.50pm, the seaplane carrier HMS Vindex observed distant raiders and launched its sole landplane from the 64-foot flying-off deck. The armament of Flight Lieutenant Charles Freeman’s Bristol Scout comprised two boxes of Ranken darts. Despite a number of technical problems, Freeman managed to coax his aircraft above Zeppelin L 17 and release all his darts while under machine gun fire, but skilful manoeuvring of the airship meant the giant target escaped. Freeman did note a puff of smoke and felt that one had hit, but as there was no explosion, the smoke may have been the black powder component burning off without completing the ignition sequence. Shortly after turning back, Freeman’s engine gave out. He made a good landing at sea – for a landplane – before passing an uncomfortable 90 minutes in the dark clinging to its tail. He was picked up by another Belgian ship, which landed him in Holland from where he was repatriated as a shipwrecked mariner.5
While Freeman had been engaging L 17, about 40 miles away HMS Brocklesby launched her two floatplanes. The pilots both made brief attacks at long range on what appears to be L 13 but failed to inflict any damage.
At 11.55pm Zeppelin L 21, commanded by another army airship officer transferred to the navy, Hauptmann August Stelling, crossed the north Norfolk coast near Wells-next-the-Sea and followed a course to the south. He penetrated about 40 miles inland before dropping his first bombs at 12.45am, attracted by flares burning at Snarehill airfield near Thetford, as had happened during the 31 July raid. The five bombs failed to inflict any damage. From there Stelling turned L 21 east, dropping no more bombs for 40 miles until he neared the coast. There four bombs fell close to Covehithe airfield but caused no damage of note; a further eight dropped in the sea.
At 11.52pm Eduard Prölss brought L 13 inland at Happisburgh after a brief encounter with two mobile 3-pdr guns at Bacton. L 13 headed south on a meandering course as far as Earsham, near Bungay, dropping 16 bombs en route: an incendiary at Panxworth, three HE at Mundham (breaking windows at Grange Farm), five HE and three incendiaries at Ditchingham (breaking 70 panes of glass at Ditchingham Hall) and four incendiary bombs at Earsham. Other than the broken windows they caused no further damage.
From Earsham, Prölss changed course north-west towards Wymondham, dropping 16 bombs over the next 15 miles to little effect. Three bombs at Shelton at 12.45am smashed windows at Shelton Hall and other property nearby, but seven bombs at Tacolneston detonated harmlessly, while two incendiaries at Fundenhall fared no better. At Silfield explosions from three bombs smashed roof tiles and broke 20 windows at two farmhouses and a pair of cottages, but an incendiary at Wymondham burnt out without effect. From Wymondham Prölss changed course again, this time to the east. When about six miles south of Norwich he circled as though searching for the elusive darkened city but at 1.25am he gave up and returned to the coast, L 13 passing out to sea at 2.10am between Mundesley and Bacton.
The other two Zeppelins that raided Norfolk that night, L 16 and L 17, reached the coast together at about 12.30am near Ormesby St Mary and headed south-west across the county. The commander of L 16, Erich Sommerfeldt, penetrated about 25 miles inland before he dropped his first three bombs at 1.10am near Long Stratton. Ten minutes later he turned back, making for the coast at Great Yarmouth. When about seven miles south-east of Norwich he released seven bombs over Ashby St Mary. As they exploded or burned they shattered nearly all the windows at Ashby Lodge and at two cottages close by, but no one was hurt. L 16 passed out over the coast at 2.10am.
Having earlier brushed off the attack over the North Sea by Flight Lieutenant Freeman, L 17 came under attack again shortly after crossing the coast. Frustrated by jammed machine guns and reloading difficulties, Edward Pulling, flying a RNAS Yarmouth BE2c, had to settle for firing ineffective bursts at long range as L 17 drew away. Keeping south of L 16, Herbert Ehrlich held L 17 on a south-west course for almost 35 miles, dropping three bombs at Pulham Market before crossing over into Suffolk. The police did not discover those bombs for 16 days due to them ‘falling in secluded places and into growing crops’. Reaching the town of Eye at 1am, Ehrlich doubted the value of continuing on his current course and, after releasing a single incendiary bomb at Mellis three minutes later, he commenced an erratic journey back to the coast.
Between 1.15 and 1.20am L 17 released nine bombs. Three explosive bombs at Billingford killed six horses and injured two others but the other six (three HE and three incendiary) that fell at Brockdish only damaged a farmhouse. At Hardwick five exploded at 1.30am damaging farming implements then seven minutes later L 17 dropped two more at Long Stratton, the village attacked by L 16 half an hour earlier and where fires may still have been burning. An incendiary bomb at Forncett St Mary narrowly missed a railway signal before Ehrlich headed back towards Pulham Market and released two bombs at Starston at 1.45am, which killed three more horses and injured another. A single HE bomb at Redenhall and six incendiaries at Denton inflicted no damage before Ehrlich released his final three incendiaries over the village of Broome at 1.55am where, as with so many others dropped over Norfolk that night, they proved ineffective. L 17 crossed the coast near Southwold at 2.15am to commence the long journey home.
The paths of Zeppelins L 13, L 16 and L 17 crossed and re-crossed throughout the raid while L 21 largely followed its own course. Despite dropping about 100 bombs the impact of the raid across the rural communities of Norfolk was negligible; a few windows and roofs damaged, a few farm animals killed. A British press release described the damage as ‘astonishingly small’, but in Germany the press claimed another successful raid with hits ‘on railway works and on industrial establishments in the county of Norfolk, important from the military point of view’.6
Further south Viktor Schütze, commanding L 11, appeared off the Suffolk coast near Hollesley just before 1am, intending to attack Harwich harbour at the junction of the rivers Stour and Orwell. Initially, however, Schütze followed the River Debden upstream by mistake. When he turned back at 1.20am, a searchlight at Kirton caught L 11 and Schütze responded by dropping a parachute flare and three bombs that blasted houses in Kirton. They caused serious damage to six cottages, smashed windows in 12 others and inflicted minor injuries on a boy – the only human casualty of the night. Five minutes later, back at the mouth of the Debden, L 11 dropped three more bombs of which two fell in the river near the Bawdsey Ferry.7
At 1.30am Sub-lieutenant Slee, RNVR, commanding a mobile gun at Shingle Street on the coast, saw L 11 at a height he estimated at 6,000 feet and opened fire. L 11 moved out over the sea to begin a game of cat and mouse with the defenders of Felixstowe and Harwich that lasted an hour. At 1.54am L 11 dropped a parachute flare over Landguard on the Felixstowe side of Harwich harbour, but when a gun opened fire she retired. At 2am L 11 appeared over the harbour entrance but veered away over Landguard Fort when the guns commenced a heavy fire, dropping five bombs of which four fell in the sea. The other bomb exploded on the fort’s parade ground sending metal splinters slashing through a few tents and smashing hut windows, but no one was hurt. L 11 approached again, this time towards Dovercourt on the south side of Harwich, but as soon as the guns fired, Schütze retired. At 2.25am L 11 passed over Harwich and Landguard for the final time but dropped no bombs. With L 11 held in the beam of a searchlight, Slee’s mobile gun at Shingle Street fired a few rounds to send her on her way back to Germany.
Philip Hewetson, a soldier of 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, based at Felixstowe watched the raid. He blamed the ‘beastly Zepps’ for regularly getting him out of bed, but was thrilled by L 11’s appearance, although he thought there was more than one Zeppelin due to the separate approaches.
We got a splendid view twice as the searchlights found them & they showed as plain as anything. They had a nasty time as all the guns strafed them from all around, it was quite a battle!! shells and bombs bursting, though not so very near to us, but tremendously exciting.8
One more Zeppelin reached England that night, Heinrich Mathy’s new L 31. As with his raid two nights earlier, Mathy claimed a successful attack on London, but again he ventured no further than the Kent coast. Lying off Deal, the captain of the armed boarding vessel, Duchess of Devonshire, observed L 31 at 1am after which the ship’s searchlight immediately illuminated her. Commander M.B. Sayer, Royal Naval Reserve, opened fire with two rounds of night tracer from his 6-pdr Hotchkiss gun. As the first tracer arced up into the sky, Mathy responded by ‘[dropping] 20 bombs in quick succession which caused a tremendous sound, throwing up huge columns of water’. Mathy moved away to the south and at 1.10am was off the coast near Dover where more searchlights opened and the guns of the Dover Garrison roared into action, sending 125 rounds of night tracer cutting bright streaks across the sky. The crew of L 31 felt they were in a ‘fearsome battle’. A local reporter agreed.
The bursting shrapnel was plainly seen by many of the inhabitants who had hurriedly left their houses and run on to the sea front. shells bursting all around the airship, which continually manoeuvred to escape from the beams of the searchlights. Numbers of ‘tracer’ shells, which have the appearance of rockets in their flight, were being fired, and with the bursting of shrapnel and other shells around the airship the scene was a striking one.9
Although the crew of L 31 claimed they released their bombs over London, other than those aimed unsuccessfully at the Duchess of Devonshire, any others dropped by L 31 must have fallen unobserved into the sea. With L 31 safely back at Nordholz, Pitt Klein reported that Peter Strasser personally addressed the crew after their two consecutive ‘London’ raids to ‘express his heartfelt thanks and recognition of our achievement’.10 This erroneous acknowledgment no doubt added to the esteem by which all within the Naval Airship Division had come to regard Heinrich Mathy. In reality, for the third time in six days they had little to show for their considerable efforts.
The new moon had risen on 30 July so it was unusual that Strasser should announce a raid for the night of 8/9 August, just five days before the full moon. He did, however, keep clear of London and chose the less well-defended north-east coast as the target. Few of the eight raiding Zeppelins penetrated far inland, while two strayed off course, one appearing over Norfolk, the other Scotland.
Erich Sommerfeldt’s time over Norfolk was brief. L 16 crossed the county’s north-west coast at Brancaster at about 12.30am. Heading south-west, a RFC machine gun at Sedgeford landing ground opened fire, forcing L 16 to climb out of trouble. At 12.43am Sommerfeldt dropped 20 bombs (10 HE and 10 incendiaries) near the village of Dersingham. At Wellswill House and at 36 other dwellings the bombs smashed windows and brought ceilings crashing down. L 16 dropped 15 more on the heathland of Sandringham Warren, between Dersingham and Wolferton, where fires broke out but local people were quick to respond. Sommerfeldt then followed the coastline of The Wash to the north, going back out to sea at Hunstanton at 1.09am.
The other wayward strike saw bombs falling over the sparsely populated Borders region of south-east Scotland. Kuno Manger brought L 14 inland over Berwick-upon-Tweed at 12.25am and pushed 20 miles across the border into Scotland. Unsure where he was, Manger released a parachute flare over Greenlaw11 before dropping an incendiary bomb on a farm at Fallsidehill. Moving south of Kelso, L 14 dropped three HE bombs in fields at Grahamslaw, an incendiary near Kersknowe and two more on a hillside near Clifton, a mile north of Morebattle, which set thistles burning. Crossing back over the Cheviot Hills into England, Manger dropped one more futile incendiary bomb about half a mile south of Southern Knowe before he headed back towards the coast, which he reached at 2am near Alnwick.
The main group of six Zeppelins came inland on an 85-mile-wide stretch of the north-east coast between Whitley Bay and Flamborough Head. The regular targets of Hull and Skinningrove came under attack again and tragedy struck ordinary working families once more.
Robert Koch’s first command had been Schütte-Lanz 3 (SL 3) but in May 1916 he took command of L 24, the last of the navy’s ‘q-type’ Zeppelins to join the fleet. He had reached the River Humber during the raid of 28/29 July and now he returned. He came in just south of Flamborough Head at 12.15am and positioned himself to approach Hull from the west, following the north bank of the Humber towards the city. At 1.18am, as he passed between Hessle and Swanland, Koch released ten bombs that broke several windows but nothing more serious. Hull had received warning of a possible raid and those in the city could now hear the sound of exploding bombs just a few miles away. Some went out to seek more secure shelter.
At 1.20am, L 24 approached the western districts of Hull, dropping three bombs on a golf course followed by four over the railway at Spring Bank Junction but they caused no damage. L 24 then crossed to the south of the Anlaby Road where she dropped seven HE bombs on the residential streets below.
John Broadley, his wife and their three-year-old son, John Charles, left their home to seek safety elsewhere. With their child in a pushcart they turned up a passageway between Sandringham and Granville streets but huddled in a doorway when the monstrous Zeppelin loomed overhead. Razor-sharp metal fragments struck all three as a bomb exploded in a garden: little John was dead, his mother and father both injured.12 As houses crumbled nearby, at 32 Granville Street 86-year-old retired clergyman, Arthur Wilcockson, shocked by an explosion so close, called out to his daughter, ‘What gun is that?’, before he fell to the floor and died.
Emma Louisa Evers, aged 46, and her sister Gertrude were standing outside their house in Brunswick Avenue, alongside the railway, when they heard bombs. Panicking, they ran to the end of their road and into Walliker Street. Seeing the two women and the Zeppelin a man shouted a warning, ‘They are on top of us!’, and pushed them into the doorway of 61 Walliker Street, just where a bomb exploded. Gertrude was against the door and shielded by her sister Emma who died instantly. The explosion also killed 64-year-old Charles Lingard who lived at No.61, the building wrecked by the blast. On the other side of the street the explosion demolished William Solly’s fried fish shop. When news of a possible raid came through Solly had closed the shop and taken his family to a friend’s house.13 It may have saved their lives.
L 24 then crossed over the railway at the southern end of Walliker Street, the next bombs landing in Selby Street. Albert Edward Bearpark, a stevedore, was standing outside with his wife, Mary Louisa, his son and two teenage daughters, when a bomb exploded not far away. Florence, aged 15, remembered her father desperately calling out, ‘Are you all there?’ as she saw him holding her mother in his arms. Mary was already dead, the others all injured. The youngest daughter, 14-year-old Emmie had laceration wounds to her thigh, leg and another in her back. She died in hospital. Also out in the street were the Hall family. They suffered terribly too. Their father was away serving in France but the explosion caught Rose Alma Hall, aged 31, their son, William, 11, and two daughters, Elizabeth, nine, and Mary, aged seven: ‘A constable ran to the spot and found the child [Elizabeth] upon the footpath with part of her head blown away. He placed the body in a perambulator and took it away.’14 A bomb fragment had struck Mary in the back as she stood beside William and their mother lay in a fast-spreading pool of blood where the blast had ripped away a leg. Both Rose and Mary died in the infirmary a few hours later. William had lost his family in an instant but the resilient 11-year-old still gave evidence at the inquest the following day.
Ground mist prevented all but one of Hull’s guns coming into action. The 3-inch, 20cwt gun at Harpings took five minutes to locate the target then fired eight rounds as L 24 began to rise and turn on to a northerly course. Koch now switched to incendiary bombs, the first of these setting alight a haystack in Arnold Street as L 24 passed between West Park and Anlaby Road Junction on the railway. Others landed in Wyndham Street, Derringham Street, Louis Street, Princes Street, Clumber Street and Belvoir Street. ‘The bombs fell in couples,’ a newspaper explained, ‘sometimes not more than a dozen feet apart, but the damage done was insignificant.’15 The final bombs were in Park Avenue where four fires broke out, and in Victoria Avenue. There a bomb smashed through the roof of Mr and Mrs Jones’ home. They were in the garden watching the Zeppelin.
The incendiary fell with a prodigious clatter of slates right through the roof and ceiling, and damaged the floor. The bedroom was wrecked and fired, and the flames mounted fiercely, but were put out by willing ‘specials’, two plucky youngsters from school, and neighbours generally.16
Having dropped his last bomb, Koch took L 24 back to the coast and departed over Hornsea at 1.47am. Back in Hull the death toll mounted.
Elisabeth Jane Bond, aged 76, awoke to the sound of exploding bombs. After the raid she went outside and fell, hitting her head. She died in the infirmary the next morning. Esther Stobbart, the 21-year-old wife of a sergeant in the East Yorkshire Regiment also died. Esther had recently given birth and shared a home with another soldier’s wife. Esther had been feeling unwell and became very unsettled by the raid. The next morning she seemed cheerful but at 5.30pm she had a fit on the stairs and died. The Coroner attributed the deaths of Esther Stobbart, Elisabeth Bond and the Reverend Wilcockson to shock brought on by the raid.
The police reported that 12 HE and 32 incendiary bombs fell on Hull, with casualties given at the time as 10 killed and 11 injured.17 And while Hull had experienced its fourth raid, 60 miles to the north Skinningrove was under attack for the fifth time.
As August Stelling headed L 21 towards Skinningrove it survived an encounter with the armed trawler Itonian about 12 miles north-east of Scarborough and another with the armed yacht Miranda at 12.45am about two miles north-east of Skinningrove. At 1.17am L 21 crossed overland at Hummersea Scar, immediately bombarding an old quarry with three bombs. Three minutes later L 21 released seven bombs over the Skinningrove Ironworks. As on previous occasions, however, they had little effect, the explosions destroying a small office and damaging several tanks, pipes and pumps.18 Stelling turned back out to sea where he dropped three more bombs. But L 21 had not been alone, as the fire of an anti-aircraft gun confirmed.
About 12.50am Martin Dietrich and L 22 came inland near Hartlepool, about 15 miles along the coast from Skinningrove, and set course towards the ironworks. About half way to the target Dietrich released ten bombs at some lights below. They were flares burning at the RNAS station at Redcar where an elderly BE2c has taken off at 12.15am to search for the raiders. Six of the bombs cratered the airfield but caused no other damage and four overshot, falling in fields at Wheatlands Farm where there was an army camp, but there the result was the same. A gun near Saltburn fired a single round at L 22 at 1.12am as Dietrich pushed on to Skinningrove, but five minutes later he saw L 21 commencing her attack so turned back. The Saltburn gun fired again before Dietrich took L 22 inland over the North Yorkshire Moors. After about ten miles Dietrich dropped a single incendiary at Howlsyke, between Danby and Lealhom, then returned to the coast, passing out to sea between Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay at 1.45am.
The pilot who had taken off from Redcar, Flight Lieutenant Bruno de Roeper, carried only bombs and grenades. He appears to have seen both L 21 and L22 at different times but was unable to coax his 1914-vintage aircraft above them to make his attack.19
A third Zeppelin also appeared off Skinningrove. The engines of Kapitänleutnant Horst von Buttlar’s L 30, the first of the ‘Super Zeppelins’, were heard off the coast but when a searchlight briefly caught her in its beam, von Buttlar turned away to the north, dropping as many as 15 bombs at sea as he climbed rapidly. At 12.50am von Buttlar came inland, unaware he had passed over darkened Hartlepool, before a glimpse of light to the south caught his attention. With little time to react he dropped nine bombs at 12.58am. The light came from chimneys and furnaces at Seaton Carew Ironworks where three bombs exploded close to slagheaps and smashed windows in ironworkers’ homes in Bellevue and Longhill, but the others landed beyond the target in cornfields east of Seaton Carew Station. A similar glow from the ironworks at Seaton Snook drew a single incendiary bomb a minute or so later. At 1.05am a searchlight at Port Clarence on the River Tees found L 30 and von Buttlar needed no further persuasion to turn east over the river mouth and set course back to Germany, having been overland for little more than fifteen minutes.
Another raider came inland at Denemouth, just north of Hartlepool. Commanded by Eduard Prölss, L 13 crossed the coast at 1.30am and headed west towards a major coal mining area. About ten minutes later Prölss dropped a single explosive bomb in a field near Wingate Grange colliery, smashing windows in 10 houses. From Wingate, L 13 headed towards East Hetton colliery, dropping nine bombs over burning slag heaps, followed by 17 more over limekilns at Quarrington Hill and another colliery at Bowburn. The bombs at East Hetton wrecked a length of railway track and those at Quarrington Hill smashed windows in 40 houses and a shop; Bowburn escaped undamaged. Prölss then headed back to the coast, crossing it near Easington at 2.05am.
The other ‘Super Zeppelin’, Heinrich Mathy’s L 31, which so far had made a couple of half-hearted raids on the Kent coast, had little more to show for this raid on the north-east; this time Peter Strasser accompanied Mathy.20 After dropping a number of bombs at sea, Mathy came inland at 1.42am between South Shields and Sunderland. Heading west, L 31 only penetrated about four miles to Bolden before swinging around to the north-east and returning to the coast. Passing over Marsden, Mathy released six bombs as L 31 approached a large isolated house on the coast. The bombs missed Salmon’s Hall, a former mansion house now providing homes for mineworkers, but exploding nearby they damaged the end of the Hall, smashed windows in a number of homes and ripped tiles from roofs. The bombs also killed a horse but no one was hurt, although Mrs Miller, one of the residents, had a narrow escape: ‘When the air raid was on I was so frightened I ran outside. It was amazing that I was not killed.’21 Passing over darkened South Shields, L 31 reached the fog-shrouded mouth of the River Tyne at 2am and headed out to sea.
The last of the raiders to reach England was Viktor Schütze’s L 11. It was about 2.30am when he crossed the coast about three miles north of the mouth of the River Tyne at Whitley Bay. Schütze released a parachute flare as he headed towards the railway station and commenced dropping a line of seven bombs, meticulously recorded by the police as extending for 223 yards. The first exploded at the rear of 111 Whitley Road wrecking the premises and causing serious damage to adjoining properties; in one of them falling rubble buried three men in a bakehouse but they emerged uninjured. Two bombs in Albany Gardens caused extensive damage. In one house the explosion ripped the staircase away and to reach two of his children in an upper room the father hauled himself up by seizing hold of carpets hanging down before passing the two boys through a hole in the roof.22
By now the crew of a 3-inch, 20cwt gun had spotted L 11 and fired four rounds. This may have persuaded Schütze to terminate his raid because after the next four bombs all fell close together he changed course. The first of this quartet landed at the junction of Clarence Crescent and Algernon Road, smashing a water main and numerous windows, then another damaged a wall after detonating on waste ground. The final two bombs of this line of seven both landed just east of the station buildings, one close to the tracks and the other just beyond in an allotment garden damaging a fence and a hen house. Other damage around the railway included two signal posts, telegraph and telephone wires, fencing, brickwork, an illuminated sign for the ‘Gents’ toilet and the station’s glass roof, as well as many other windows.
Schütze turned over the allotments, crossed back over the railway and across the close-packed streets, dropping six incendiary bombs as he headed towards the sea. Two of these landed in Burnfoot Terrace setting fire to a house but firemen quickly brought it under control. Two in Lish Avenue, striking Nos.24 and 41, were dealt with quickly as the final two landed in Carlton Terrace on Whitley Road. One fell behind No.7 with minimal effect but the other smashed through the roof of No.3, on the corner with Marden Crescent, where a major fire broke out. By the time the fire brigade had it under control it had practically destroyed the house and its contents. Fortunately the occupants were not at home. Despite the bombs causing significant material damage in this part of Whitley Bay, no one was killed and only five people received treatment for minor injuries with others reporting cuts and bruises.
The total material damage inflicted by the eight Zeppelins that raided on 8/9 August drew estimates of £13,196 and while this was more than that recorded in the previous raids that summer, it was still an incredibly poor return for the massive financial investment Germany was making in its airship programme. But in Germany press releases continued to feed the people stories of highly successful raids inflicting widespread damage across Britain, the stories fuelled by the crews’ own embellished reports.
The north-east of England would not be troubled by Zeppelin attack again for sixteen weeks, and when they did return the air war over Britain had turned dramatically against the raiders.