There can be little doubt that the death of Heinrich Mathy deeply affected Peter Strasser, while the loss of three of the long awaited ‘r-class’ airships – the ‘Super Zeppelins’ – in the space of just a week was a shocking blow. Since his appointment as commander of the Naval Airship Division in September 1913, it was Strasser’s most significant test of character, but outwardly he remained positive and confident. His subordinates’ reports of successful, damaging raids helped him to rationalise these losses. He was unaware that many of those reports contained unrealistic appraisals of their effectiveness and they helped convince him to keep the pressure on Britain as more airships became available to replace the losses.
The latest ‘r-class’, L 34, had joined Strasser’s fleet on 27 September, followed by L 35 in October and three more in November – L 36, L 37 and L 38. Experienced crews and their commanders, however, could not be replaced so easily. The only long term naval Zeppelin commander still operational was Horst von Buttlar, who made his first raid on England back in April 1915. He, however, owed his survival to avoiding risks and rarely penetrating far inland, if crossing the coast at all – yet he invariably made extravagant but fictitious claims of success. The British authorities, who tracked the Zeppelins’ movements, had long noted the behaviour of von Buttlar’s airships: ‘L 30 exhibited her now familiar tendency of just crossing the coast and then returning home.’1 The strategy, however, served von Buttlar well – he survived the war.
When the next moon cycle arrived the naval Zeppelins were supporting fleet operations in the North Sea and so there were no airship raids towards the latter part of October. Aeroplanes, however, made what was becoming a monthly visit to the Kent coast. On Sunday 22 October an aeroplane of Marine Landflieger Abteilung I, now relocated from Mariakerke to Gistel, south of Ostend, set out for England, the two-seater commanded by Leutnant Walter Ilges who had raided on at least two previous occasions.
Ilges’ aeroplane, believed to be a LVG, appeared over Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey at 1.37pm. Flying at a great height, few people saw it and with haze adding to the difficulty in locating the raider, the local anti-aircraft guns remained silent. Ilges dropped four bombs over the north-western part of Sheerness with three falling in the harbour and one at the Dockyard Station. The bombs in the harbour caused no damage although one exploded between the pier head and a battleship. The bomb at the station sidings made a small crater 18 inches in diameter, smashed windows in four railway carriages and a horsebox, broke two more in a signal box and cut telegraph wires. No one was hurt. Just two or three minutes after it appeared, the aeroplane departed before any defending aircraft could intervene.
The following day, 23 October, another short, sharp attack took place, this time on Margate. The unidentified aeroplane made its approach just after 10am. No one noticed it until bombs began to drop in the Cliftonville district. According to a newspaper: ‘Nothing could be heard of aircraft engines, but high in the sky a small speck was eventually discerned.’ The first bomb dropped in the sea, followed by one on the shore near Walpole Rocks. Another exploded on the grass at the north end of Fifth Avenue, smashing the glass in a shelter and leaving a lady sitting there shocked but unhurt. Fragments of the bomb, however, injured a man as he walked along the promenade. The final bomb demolished a chimneystack as it smashed down through the St George’s Hotel on Eastern Esplanade, damaging the staircase and walls as it passed through the building. A chambermaid working on the top floor needed hospital treatment for injuries to her feet.
As the raider made off across land towards Ramsgate, a gun at Sackett’s Hill opened fire. Although the crew found it hard to spot the aircraft in the bright sunlight, they fired off 16 rounds in its general direction before it went back out to sea near Ramsgate. An aircraft from RNAS Manston took off in pursuit but was unable to close the gap.
In Germany at this time a slight reorganisation took place within the Naval Aviation Divisions. From the beginning of the war there had been two divisions – airships and aeroplanes – commanded by Konteradmiral Otto Philipp. In May 1916, however, Admiral Eduard von Capelle, the new State Secretary for the Navy, redefined regulations governing the Airship Division and, although still technically subordinate to Philipp, Strasser gained some independence inasmuch that von Capelle now provided the link between his division and the High Seas Fleet. On 23 November 1916 this separation became official. Peter Strasser was given a new title, Führer der Luftschiffe (Leader of Airships), and was now responsible directly to Admiral Reinhard Scheer, commander of the High Seas Fleet, regarding the deployment and development of airships, and to von Capelle in matters relating to experimental work and training. Under Strasser, Victor Schütze was promoted to command all airship troops two weeks later, his new command, L 36, transferring to Franz Eichler, but overall Strasser’s day-to-day involvement changed very little, he remained very much a ‘hands-on’ leader.2
Bad weather over the North Sea through November prevented a resumption of Zeppelin raids. With the new moon rising on 25 November, the ideal time for raiding, the weather continued to disappoint in Germany. On the evening of 26 November, however, weather charts showed a possible window of opportunity for the following day. A hectic flurry of activity broke out in the Zeppelin sheds at Nordholz, Hage, Ahlhorn and Tondern on the morning of 27 November but still no confirmation came that the raid was on. Heinrich Hollender, commander of L 22 at Nordholz, relates a story that he and the commanders of L 21 and L 34, Kurt Frankenburg and Max Dietrich, were in the officers’ mess at noon, having all but given up hope of the raid taking place, and were about to celebrate Dietrich’s 46th birthday. At that moment an adjutant burst in: ‘Gentlemen, orders to attack the industrial district of the English Midlands; splendid prospects; the first ship must be in the air by one o’clock at the latest!’ As the three officers dashed from the mess, Kurt Frankenburg said: ‘Leave the birthday things as they are; we’ll have our celebrations tomorrow.’3
In L 22‘s shed Richard Frey, the executive officer, waited impatiently with the crew for the return of Hollender with news. When he burst in to announce the raid was on, Frey noted, ‘Now the eyes of the crew were seen to sparkle for the longed-for raid on England was to take place at last.4 It was their first raid on Britain; whether the more experienced crews shared their enthusiasm is debatable.
Strasser’s plan split his 10 Zeppelins into two groups, one targeting the north and the other the midlands. The raiders made their way out over the North Sea but the failure of two engines caused von Buttlar’s L 30 to turn back when midway across. Meanwhile, Leutnant-zur-See Frey was thrilled to be taking part in his first raid.
After a short time, we caught sight of L 13, L 14 and L 16, which had started from Hage, in East Friesland, and later of L 24 from Tondern. Forming a bold front of seven airships, we proceeded on our westward course. It was an impressive sight, which always remained with me during my later flights. No one at home had any idea of the forthcoming raid, and in England too, no one had yet thought of it.5
In England, however, the Zeppelins’ progress was being closely monitored as always from their radio reports and at 8.45pm, all along the east and north-eastern coast the Field Marshal’s Warning Only order put the defences on the alert and at 10.13pm the TARA order instigated the blackout. After a previous aborted flight, at 10.22pm a pilot from No.36 (Home Defence) Squadron at Seaton Carew, Second Lieutenant Ian Vernon Pyott, received orders to patrol. At least one other of the squadron’s pilots ascended too: Second Lieutenant Francis Turner. Both pilots were flying the BE2c.
The northern group, having lost L 30 on the way, comprised L 34, L 35, L 36 and L 24. The first two were heading for the Newcastle area; L 36 had orders for Edinburgh while L 24 had Stockton as its target. No.36 Squadron patrolled much of this area and although they had so far had no success against Zeppelin raiders, there was a new confidence amongst the pilots of the RFC, and the RNAS too. They now had the weapons that gave them the edge over their adversaries – as long as they could be found in the night skies.
The first of the northern group to come inland was Max Dietrich’s L 34; it was just her second time over England. Dietrich crossed the coast at Blackhall Rocks, about four miles north of Hartlepool, at 11.30pm and headed inland. The commander of the local special constables, W. Nimmo, was at Castle Eden, about three miles from the coast, where he heard the sound of engines.
I was trying to see it against the stars when the Hutton Henry searchlight flashed right across the sky and passed over the Zeppelin. It immediately swung back and settled on it and never left it again for a moment.6
As Dietrich turned south, towards the searchlight, others at Elwick and Greatham found L 34, as did 21-year-old Second Lieutenant Pyott.
Although of Scottish background, Ian Pyott was in South Africa where his family ran a business when war broke out. In January 1916 he left for England to join the army, destined for a future in tanks with a commission in the Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps. Soon realising it was not for him he successfully applied for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps. After completing his training, Pyott joined No.36 (Home Defence) Squadron in late August 1916. As L 34 headed towards him, Pyott made his move.
At this moment I was at 9,800 and the Zepp seemed a few hundred feet below me. I flew towards the Zepp and flew at right angles to and underneath him amidships, firing as I went under.
As L 34 approached Elwick, Dietrich released a string of 12 bombs aimed at the searchlight. The third of these brought down telegraph wires at a crossroads just south west of Elwick, while the sixth, seventh and eighth bombs all detonated in the searchlight field but it was unaffected. The ninth bomb caused some damage at Dovecote Farm but the other seven all exploded harmlessly in surrounding fields.
After Pyott’s first pass, L 34 turned to the east, flying a zig-zag course towards Hartlepool and the sea. Flying parallel, Pyott fired short bursts from his Lewis gun. The anti-aircraft guns at Hartlepool and Seaton Carew joined in the action too. As he reached West Hartlepool, Dietrich commenced dropping 16 bombs. The first four fell in fields at West Park, on the edge of the town, followed immediately by two that exploded in Ward Jackson Park before five more fell amongst the tightly packed rows of terraced houses between Grosvenor Street and Hart Road.
At No.2 Bentick Street, George Linton, a 40-year-old provision’s dealer, was at home with his family. The children were in bed but when Mrs Linton heard an unusual noise, she asked her husband to bring the children downstairs. George decided to look outside first: ‘He saw a flash, heard an explosion, and knew no more.’ Fragments from a bomb in a neighbouring street had struck him. His wife found him in the doorway lying in a pool of blood that flowed from his legs. George Linton died in hospital two days later.7 A bomb that exploded outside 15 Hartley Street fatally injured Mary Ann Pritchard who lived at No.13 and Elizabeth Rumble’s death at 4 Back Eden Street was attributed to shock caused by the exploding bombs. A newspaper report listed most of the damage as occurring in Hartley Street, Lowthian Road, Poplar Grove and Rugby Terrace. The next three bombs exploded on allotments between Hart Road and the Victoria Football Ground, home to Hartlepools United football club,8 then two destroyed the football ground’s main stand on Clarence Road.9 L 34 was now over the docks. Behind her were 15 wrecked houses with 20 or 30 suffering significant damage, while the police reported that nearly 600 other homes and shops lost windows and roof tiles. And amongst the destruction four people were dead or dying and 11 more lay injured.
Pyott had continued to fly parallel with L 34 as the anti-aircraft guns ceased firing. Reports indicate at least one of their shells may have damaged L 34 but there was little time to note any effect as Pyott attacked again.
I was aiming at his port quarter, and I noticed first a small patch become incandescent where I had seen tracers entering his envelope. I first took it for a machine gun firing at me from the Zeppelin, but this patch rapidly spread and the next thing was that the whole Zeppelin was in flames.10
Lieutenant C.B. Williamson, the officer commanding the searchlights that had so effectively held on to L 34, was able to confirm Pyott’s observation.
... a number of small bright lights [incendiary bullets] could be seen darting from close range, slightly below on the left-hand side in quick succession and apparently entering the envelope. After a short space of time a small red glow arising from a point (port quarter) where the light struck.11
Like a huge flaming torch, the doomed airship began to fall.
It fell endways on, and when still at a tremendous height seemed gradually to separate into two sections. The larger part fell with increased velocity and amid a sheet of intenser flame. The other, and apparently lighter, section of the structure fell more slowly, and glowed a dull red colour... Finally the whole structure plunged into the sea.12
Already awoken by the guns and bombs, the residents of Hartlepool waited nervously for the raid to end. In later years Emma Cussons (née Harrison) recalled her experience of the raid; she was eight-years-old at the time.
Dad got us all out of bed and said. ‘If we have got to be killed, we’ll all go together’... we heard terrible screams and we assumed the Zeppelin had dropped a bomb nearby, but then Dad said to my mother, ‘My God, I think they’ve hit something.’ Mum said, ‘Don’t go out’ but he opened the back kitchen door and it was absolutely red, like a ball of fire, and he said, ‘They’ve got it, they’ve hit it. Come on, kids, come out and have a look at this, you’ll never see anything like this again’13
Badly injured in December 1914 during the naval bombardment on the town, Emma’s mother was horrified when her husband later brought home a piece of the Zeppelin wreckage as a souvenir. ‘I don’t want that in my house,’ she told him, ‘it smells of death.’
For others, however, it was a moment for celebration, as Cora Tucker remembered when her father appeared.
‘Come on quick, the Zeppelin’s coming down, when you’re a big girl you can say you saw it.’ By this time everyone had rushed out to see it. One poor man was in his nightshirt and when the Zeppelin was coming down he threw up his arms and said, ‘Let them burn in hell.’ Well, of course, as his arms went up his nightshirt went up, much to the delight of the women and they kept saying to him, ‘Say it again, Mr so and so,’ and so he’d throw his arms up and say, ‘Let them burn in hell,’ and they howled with laughter. I had no thought of the men in the Zeppelin, serve them right, they shouldn’t be over bombing us, should they?’14
The wreckage of L 34 came down about a mile out to sea, east of the Heugh Battery, shortly before midnight and remained burning for about 30 minutes. Major S. Horsley of the Durham Royal Garrison Artillery gathered some armed men, boarded a boat and headed out.
We arrived at the scene of the wreck shortly after 1.0 [1am], but the remains had entirely disappeared, and there was nothing to be seen except a considerable amount of oil on the water. We cruised about in the vicinity for a couple of hours but nothing further was seen.15
Max Dietrich and the nineteen men of his crew were dead. It was still Dietrich’s birthday. Not until 9 January 1917 were the first bodies found, when two washed ashore at Seaton Carew, about two miles from where they had crashed. Six days later another appeared at Redcar, about six miles away. Then between 18 and 24 January three more washed ashore. Dietrich was not among them.
Max Dietrich’s family did not hear what happened to him until some years later. His niece, the actress Marlene Dietrich, spoke to a British reporter in 1935.
My uncle never came back. My aunt was broken-hearted, but she would not believe her husband had really gone. She insisted he would come back but the years passed, and there was no news. At last she lost hope and bowed to the hand of fate. It is very sad but of course in Germany my Uncle Max was mourned as a hero. He gave his life for his country.16
Approaching the coast of County Durham, six minutes behind L 34, Herbert Ehrlich brought L 35 inland about three miles further north near the village of Hawthorn. Heading north, no sooner had he come inland than a searchlight at New Seaham fixed L 35 in its beam and a mobile 13-pdr, 6cwt gun at Seaham opened fire, blasting 34 shells skywards in nine minutes. Already losing hydrogen due to ice forming on gas escape valves and aware of the barrage aimed at L 34 behind him, Ehrlich went back out to sea where the crew were to witness the inferno that engulfed L 34 just eight miles away.
With an engine out of action, L 24 trailed behind both L 34 and L 35. She was still about 15 miles from the coast when Pyott destroyed L 34. Her commander, Kurt Friemel, L 31‘s former executive officer now commanding his own airship for the first time, gave up his plan to attack Stockton and returned to Germany.
The last of the northern group, Korvettenkapitän Viktor Schütze, commanding L 36 before taking on his new role under Strasser, was heading up the coast to attack Edinburgh when he too saw the end of L 34. Running into difficult atmospheric conditions he abandoned Scotland and hoped to attack Newcastle or Sunderland but then an engine broke down and L 36 became stern heavy. Schütze released bombs and fuel to trim the ship then limped back to Germany. But unlike Max Dietrich, Schütze, Ehrlich and Friemel all made it home safely.
There were more troubles ahead for those Zeppelins in the second raiding group heading for the Midlands. All five crossed the Yorkshire coast on a 30-mile stretch between Filey and Tunstall. The first of these, Kuno Manger’s L 14 came inland at 9.10pm east of Hull. Ten minutes later two mobile 13-pdr guns at Cowden fired 26 rounds at L 14, with the crews believing they may have hit her. In response Manger released 44 bombs (18 HE and 26 incendiary), which fell in fields between Mappleton and Rowlston Hall where they caused no damage. Manger then headed north up the coast but on coming under fire from two mobile 13-pdr guns at Barmston he turned back. Heading south, at 10.15pm L 14 was attacked by a 12-pdr, 12cwt gun at Sutton, north-east of Hull. Unable to free himself from the guns, Manger went back out to sea north of Spurn at 10.25pm.
The industrial heartland of Yorkshire was L 16‘s destination, commanded for the first time by Kapitänleutnant Hans-Karl Gayer. Having crossed the coast near Filey at 9.20pm, Gayer followed a south-west course but, between Selby and Howden at 10.15pm, three 3-inch, 20 cwt guns at Hemingborough Grange, Cliffe and Wood House Farm, forced Gayer to take evasive action. At 10.30pm, having passed south of Pontefract and Featherstone, it appeared that Gayer was about to attack Wakefield but lights at the New Sharlston Colliery caught his attention and he dropped nine bombs (three HE and six incendiary) there instead. They only caused minor damage at Sharlston and the settlement at Streethouse. From there L 16 steered towards Barnsley, but the town, like others in the area, was effectively blacked out. An incendiary dropped at Cudworth landed in a field alongside the Snydale Road, and two HE bombs also fell in fields by the Barnsley Road in Monk Bretton at 10.42pm, a couple of miles from the centre of Barnsley. L 16 now turned and headed back towards Pontefract, dropping four bombs at South Hiendley that broke a few windows.
In Pontefract many people had left their homes, making for the perceived safety of Pontefract Park, which also served as an emergency landing ground for the RFC. Many occupied the elevated northern end of the park overlooking the landing ground, now illuminated by flares, in the hope of seeing a Zeppelin. Concerned by their proximity to the landing ground, special constables ushered them away from their vantage point.17 It was a fortunate move because, attracted by the flares, L 16 dropped four bombs on the recently vacated area of the park just before 11pm. Four incendiaries also fell between the park and the Prince of Wales Colliery, but all failed to ignite. Circling back to Featherstone, L 16 dropped six HE bombs but again to no effect.
At Knottingley, L 16 headed north towards Tadcaster dropping two incendiary bombs at the villages of Lumby and Monk Fryston at 11.15pm. It then appeared that L 16 was about to attack York but at 11.35pm the 3-inch, 20cwt gun at Acomb came into action firing 12 rounds and forcing Gayer west of the city before he eventually turned east towards the coast. He dropped seven more bombs. The first two fell on West Farm at Helperthorpe and on Jepson’s Farm at Boythorpe; neither bomb had a fuze fitted. The final salvo of five bombs dropped at about 12.25am on a farm at Foxholes where they caused some damage to the farmhouse. About ten minutes later, L 16 crossed the coast south of Scarborough from where two 13-pdr, 6cwt guns fired 20 rounds at the departing airship.
Two of the raiders, L 13 and L 22 crossed the coast at Flamborough Head at 10.05pm. Five minutes later they separated at Burton Agnes with L13, commanded by Franz Eichler, heading for York. About 11pm Eichler spotted some lights. After dropping a single incendiary at Yapham, about 12 miles east of the city centre, he headed straight for the lights and bombarded them with 21 HE and three incendiary bombs. His bombs landed near the village of Barmby Moor where flares were burning on a RFC landing ground. Continuing on to Stamford Bridge, L 13 then appeared over the northern part of York and dropped a number of incendiary bombs, observed by the officers on board L 22, which was also approaching the city. After parting company with L 13 at Burton Agnes, Heinrich Hollender in L 22 headed south-west as far as the village of Holme-on-Spalding-Moor. Moments later, the searchlight and gun at Willitoft found her and opened fire, forcing Hollender away to the north-west. York lay 12 miles ahead. As L 22 steered for the fires started by L 13‘s bombs, she came under fire from the anti-aircraft gun at Acomb, which blasted five rounds in 30 seconds.18
The city escaped relatively lightly. It would appear that the Rowntree’s Cocoa Works on Haxby Road was the main target, which no doubt looked like any other industrial plant from high above. All the bombs fell just to the south of Works. Richard Frey, on board L 22, recalled dropping two large 300kg bombs that exploded with such force that at least one member of the crew thought a shell had hit them.19 Those two bombs landed within 70 yards of each other, just 300 yards from Rowntree’s. One ‘completely smashed’ a house at the end of Faversham Crescent, with only the dining room left standing, and the other exploded at the junction of Fountayne Street and Wigginton Road: ‘The noise of the explosion was terrific and every house in Feversham Terrace [Crescent], a row of residential houses, sustained greater or less damage.’20
Before the bomb exploded at the end of Feversham Crescent, Mr and Mrs Hall were bringing their children downstairs, Mr Hall carrying their little girl, Sheila. The window over the stairs shattered inwards.
Pieces of tar macadam and shrapnel were hurled into the house, and one piece of the latter, nearly three inches square, struck the little girl, penetrating the scalp, but fortunately not touching the skull. It was deeply embedded in the flesh, and it was removed under an anaesthetic, the child making a good recovery.21
Elsewhere in York there were injuries to a man and a woman. Of the incendiary bombs, two also fell in Fountayne Street, with others on the corner of Haxby Road and Stanley Street.
It appears that L 13 headed away to the east, passing Pocklington at 11.35pm and Driffield. At 12.25am she dropped five incendiaries in fields at Wold Newton before reaching the coast just north of Scarborough at 12.50am from where the two guns that had engaged L 16 about 15 minutes earlier were in action again, firing 24 rounds to send L 13 on her way.
Meanwhile L 22 returned towards the Humber, passing to the north of Hull and back out to sea at Hornsea at 12.20am, under fire from the guns at Cowden that had previously engaged L 14. They fired 26 rounds at L 22 and had some success. Shrapnel ripped 150 holes in two gas cells, which quickly began to lose hydrogen. Hollender jettisoned excess weight and L 22 limped home, although she was unable to reach Nordholz and took shelter at Hage where the landing caused further damage that took six days to repair. It was a sobering first raid for the crew.
About five minutes after L 13 passed out over the coast at Scarborough, a BE2c took off from RNAS Scarborough, piloted by Flight sub-Lieutenant J.F. Roche. He crash-landed 50 minutes later. But other pilots also patrolled the skies searching for the Zeppelins. While No.36 Squadron searched for those in the north-east, three other Home Defence squadrons were on the alert further south. No.33 Squadron was patrolling over Lincolnshire, No.38 Squadron over Leicestershire and southern Lincolnshire and No.51 Squadron in Norfolk was standing by. This was to prove problematical for the final raider, Kurt Frankenburg’s L 21 (see Map 7).
Frankenburg came under fire from the guns at Barmston as soon as he crossed the coast. Going back out to sea, he came inland again a little further north. Having got his bearings, Frankenburg then snaked south-west across country until at 11.25pm he reached the village of Sherburn in Elmet, about 8 miles north-east of Pontefract. He seemed intent on attacking Leeds but gunfire from Brierlands at 11.34pm and Rothwell Heigh drove him away from the town. Now heading south, L 21 reached Sharlston at 11.48pm, where L 16 had dropped bombs over an hour earlier and from where light still shone from the colliery because, according to a police report, ‘The nightwatchman appears to have been so much unnerved that he failed to take the necessary action.’22
Frankenburg released three bombs over the colliery but there was no damage of consequence. From Sharlston L 21 headed towards a darkened Barnsley, concealed by the blackout, appearing over the town at about 12.05am.
The Zeppelin appeared to be lost, and it descended a considerable distance, but perfect darkness prevailed... and to this fact its escape is attributed, for without dropping any bomb the airship suddenly rose and sped away on a westerly course. Almost immediately a loud report was heard, and [three] bombs were dropped... close to the spoil-bank of the old Silkstone Colliery, Dodworth.23
From there L 21 passed over the Peak District between Manchester and Sheffield; at 12.50am Frankenburg dropped a single incendiary bomb over Hammond’s Brickworks at the village of Pott Shrigley, probably offloaded to check ground speed and drift. Twenty minutes later a single HE bomb landed at Birchenwood near Kidsgrove. To the south lay Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding districts where many ironstone mine hearths, burning colliery waste heaps and furnaces were glowing in the otherwise darkened landscape. Frankenburg prepared to attack.
The first three bombs fell at Goldenhill, close to the Goldenhill Colliery, but they exploded harmlessly, before three fell at Tunstall. The first of these exploded in the narrow streets, landing in the backyard of 6 Sun Street (now St Aidan’s Street), ripping away the sculleries and outhouses of Nos.2 to 8, wrecking the interiors of two homes and damaging many others there and in neighbouring Bond Street. At No.8 Sun Street, Mr Cantliffe had just returned from a shift at a nearby pit and was having supper with his wife when the bomb exploded. Flying fragments struck him in the chest but he made a good recovery in hospital. The other two detonated alongside burning slag heaps, one between the Goldendale Ironworks and Ravensdale Ironworks, and the other close to the Ravensdale New Forge. Frankenburg now crossed over Bradwell Woods, lured by the glow from ironstone-burning hearths two miles away at Chesterton. At 1.20am, he released 23 bombs (16 HE and seven incendiary) but although they fell close to various collieries and brick and tile works, the net result was just broken windows and a demolished shed. Continuing its sinuous course, Frankenburg’s L 21 passed over Newcastle-under-Lyme and Hanley before dropping an incendiary at Trentham and three more at Fenton, where all but one failed to ignite. From a wireless bearing he received, Frankenburg believed he had attacked Manchester. At 1.30am he commenced his return flight across England; it would be a long night.
From the area around Stoke-on-Trent, Frankenburg headed east but engine breakdowns plagued the return to the coast. He first shut down the engines to allow mechanics to work on them as he approached Nottingham, drifting with the wind. But when a searchlight at Ruddington found L 21, Frankenburg restarted the engines. At 2.35am, as he entered the area patrolled by No.38 Squadron, he requested wireless bearings when near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. At 2.50am a searchlight at the squadron’s Buckminster airfield found L 21 and two pilots, Captain George Birley and Second Lieutenant David Allan gave chase. Birley reported L 21 flying at about 7,000 feet when the airship began to climb and fly first north-west and then south-east in a series of long evasive loops. During these manoeuvres L 21 climbed to 13,000 feet leaving Birley unable to close the gap. He fired two drums of ammunition from 2,000 feet below, but lost sight of her when loading a third. Allan never managed to position himself for an attack. When Frankenburg reached Essendine at 3.25am he had shaken off his pursuers and resumed an eastwards course, but extensive manoeuvring north and south for 40 minutes had restricted progress towards the coast to just 10 miles, and there were more problems ahead.
At 3.50am L 21 was over Norfolk but Frankenburg was troubled. He requested wireless bearings near King’s Lynn and again from Hillington, about seven miles away, as engine problems recurred. Reports state that L 21 drifted with the wind towards East Dereham, reaching the town at 4.55am. Six pilots of No.51 Squadron now searched for the intruder. At East Dereham one of them, Lieutenant Walter Gayner flying a FE2b, found L 21 at 7,500 feet and noticed a light shining from one of the gondolas where it appears repairs were underway. Gayner closed in but just before coming into range his own engine began to malfunction then failed. With great skill he managed to glide down and crash-landed on Tibenham emergency landing ground. Frankenburg restarted L 21‘s engines at East Dereham but about ten minutes later, near Reepham, he drifted with them off again. Around that time, 5.05am, Frankenburg radioed a message to Germany that one of his four engines was out of action. It took the beleaguered Zeppelin about an hour to cover the 30 miles to the coast, reaching Great Yarmouth at 6am. L 21 had now been over British soil for almost nine hours and although she had reached the coast, there was fresh danger ahead. Pilots of the RNAS were out over the sea while anti-aircraft guns lay in wait on land – and the sun would rise within the hour.
L 21 was still drifting with the wind when she passed over Great Yarmouth and at 6.05am two 13-pdr, 9cwt guns at Bradwell, south-west of the town, opened fire. The sky was brightening and the guns did not need searchlights to help them find the target. Observers believed at least two shells exploded very close to L 21. From Great Yarmouth L 21 drifted south about a mile off the coast until she reached Lowestoft. There her remaining three engines spluttered back to life and L 21 headed out to sea.
Alerted to the approach of L 21 over Norfolk, four RNAS pilots were patrolling the coastline: Egbert Cadbury from Yarmouth, Edward Pulling from Bacton, Flight sub-Lieutenant Gerard Fane from Burgh Castle and Flight sub-Lieutenant A.V. Robinson from Holt. All were flying the BE2c.
Cadbury had landed at Burgh Castle after problems with his spark plugs forced him down. Problem rectified he was airborne again at 6.18am and a few minutes later he saw L 21 and set off in pursuit. The gunfire from Bradwell attracted the attention of Fane and Pulling and they also set a course towards the raider, now silhouetted against the lightening pre-dawn sky. When she left the coast, L 21 was flying at 8,200 feet and had now pushed her speed up to 55mph. Cadbury closed in and from a position about 700 feet below fired the first of four drums of mixed ammunition into her rear as he gradually closed the distance. While he did so, Fane came up very close on her starboard side but it did not go well.
I only got off one round, however, when the gun jambed [sic] and so I soon cleared out of the position I was in owing. to the slipstream of her... engines which made the machine very difficult to control, and also there was another machine some way below me firing like mad and evidently could not see me.24
Fane was witnessing Cadbury’s determined attack as the crew of L 21 manned the machine guns and made a spirited defence. With his gun out of action, 18-year-old Fane tried to climb above the Zeppelin and bomb it. As he did so, Pulling closed in to make his attack, approaching at right angles to L 21‘s port quarter and passing underneath, but it did not go according to plan either: ‘The Lewis gun fired two shots, both hitting and stopped.’ Pulling turned sharply to get away from L 21‘s machine guns while he cleared his own. But he never got the chance to fire again: ‘A few seconds later, on looking over my shoulder, I saw the Zeppelin was on fire by the stern.’25
Fane was higher than L 21 and under fire from the machine gunner on the upper platform on top of the envelope as the fire took hold. ‘At the same moment,’ he explained, ‘the gunner... saw the flames, stopped firing at me, whether or not he had a parachute I don’t know, but he ran straight over the nose of the ship just before she exploded and disappeared.’ Pulling, having passed under L 21, flew parallel to her, and as L 21 began to fall stern first, one machine gunner stuck to his post until engulfed in flames. L 21 hit the water about nine miles south-east of Lowestoft and sank almost immediately – the time was 6.45am.
Alerted by the firing of the guns, great crowds had gathered on the Great Yarmouth sea front, watching in silence as the Zeppelin slowly receded against the dawn sky. Then the mood changed.
A vivid flash burst from the Zeppelin, and hundreds of voices shouted, ‘They’ve got her! She’s hit!’ In a second or two the flash had spread until the whole airship was in flames and then the whole crowd cheered with might and main, while the syrens (sic) of steamers hooted out in triumph.26
Some steamers were sent out to find the wreckage, ‘but nothing was found but black scum and floating oil’. The Zeppelin crew that the British press had ‘buried’ back in September at Cuffley had died a second time – but this time it was final.
Although Cadbury made the main attack, his fire all against the stern from where the flames originated, the naval authorities gave the main credit to Pulling, who only fired two rounds, neither of them at the stern. Pulling received the Distinguished Service Order, Cadbury and Fane the Distinguished Service Cross. There is a suggestion that Pulling received the higher award as recognition of the fact that he had made thirteen anti-Zeppelin sorties, the most by any pilot to that date.27 Another DSO went to Ian Pyott for his destruction of L 34 over Hartlepool.
At Nordholz, Dietrich’s birthday decorations remained in place but neither he nor Frankenburg, who had shouted, ‘We’ll have our celebrations tomorrow’, came back. In Germany there was no way of avoiding the truth. The loss of five naval Zeppelins in less than ten weeks was a major blow to the ambitions of the new Führer der Luftschiffe. And for the first time Peter Strasser recognised that his airships were the victims of aeroplane attacks. These losses appeared to signify that the Zeppelins’ days were numbered, and a foretaste of the future appeared over London later on the same day that the surviving Zeppelins returned home from this latest disastrous raid on England.