Zeppelin Blitz

by Neil Storey

  An interesting perspective on how the news was viewed at the time was recorded in the diary kept by a senior member of the staff, published in the Lynn News:

  January 21: Needless to say, the London papers are crowded to-day with photographs of Lynn wreckage – many of the prints are excellent – and with full narratives, which are not so excellent. The editorial comments are scathing in the extreme, as was but to be expected [many of the reports criticised the King’s Lynn engineer for opting to turn out the street lights individually rather than throwing the switches to turn off all the lights in the town be they on the streets or in people’s homes].

  Though the tragedy of the whole horrible occurrence weighs upon one’s imagination stories of a host of humorous incidents have reached me. Many of these tales would make excellent reading if they could be published but discretion is the better part of a diarist’s valour.

  Talking of valour, one of two episodes brought to my knowledge confirm the theory that moral courage is a very different thing from physical pluck. As to the fact that the loudest talkers and the bullies are seldom brave when real danger of death threatens, that goes without saying, of course. On Tuesday night several individuals who in normal times are of a domineering disposition were in a pitiable state of fear. I have even heard of men who left their wives and children in order selfishly to seek a fancied security for themselves!

  It is more pleasing to dwell on the stories of the quiet bravery of men who, in ordinary conditions, make no pretence of being embued with strength and, above all, the tales of the women’s silent endurance thrill one. I have heard of several women who, showing hardly a sign of emotion while the bombs were raining from the skies, have suffered a physical collapse – a fact that proves the enormous mental suffering they rigidly endured on Tuesday night.

  In the bombed towns, anger at their dearth of defences and the need for protection in the event of another raid, saw a Lynn editorial suggest: ‘Lynn Corporation, despairing of protection by the War Office and Admiralty, should itself purchase high angle guns and an aeroplane.’ On a more prosaic level, Mr R.O. Ridley, the mayor of King’s Lynn, wrote to Prime Minister Herbert Asquith on 22 January 1915:

  Sir,

  In reference to the raid of this town by the enemy’s aircraft on Tuesday evening last, the 19th inst. I am directed to inform you that considerable damage was done to property of the very poorest classes. As a result various people are homeless and others are suffering greatly in consequence of the loss and damage to their furniture.

  I shall be glad of an early intimation of the Government to compensate the people injuriously affected. In the meantime, may I ask that some steps may be taken to relieve cases of immediate necessity?

  I am to further call your attention to the fact that no protection of any kind is afforded to the town against raids of the above description and I beg to strongly urge that in view of the great probability of further occurrences of a like nature, some steps be devised to deal with them.

  I believe I am fully alive to the difficulties of the situation and I know that great efforts are being made by His Majesty’s Government in connection with the conduct of the war. I do suggest, however, that the matter referred to is of great importance and calls for some action to be taken.

  The reply from 10 Downing Street was swift, dated 25 January 1915:

  Dear Sir,

  I am desired by the Prime Minister to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of January 22nd and to inform you in reply that it is the intention of the Government to take measures to deal with the damage suffered by reason of the recent air raid on King’s Lynn similar to those adopted in the case of the recent bombardment of Hartlepool, Scarborough and other places.

  The other matters referred to in your letter are receiving careful consideration.

  In the immediate aftermath of the raids, the German papers were plastered with accounts of successful attacks on fortified places between the Tyne and Humber or, the ‘fortified place at Yarmouth’, as well as warnings to the King. Only after the German authorities gained sight of the copies of British and international newspapers did the Zeppelin crews discover the places they had actually attacked.

  With their reportage of the raid, the local newspapers were quick to publish a set of ‘Safety Rules’ in the event of further air raids, such as this example from the Cromer Post, published on 22 January 1915:

  It is essential in the common interest that the public should become conversant with these regulations, which are designed to prevent confusion, to assist the military and civil authorities, as well as to protect the civil population. The following summary of the official advices gives a clear idea of the best course to follow:

  TO THOSE WHO HAPPEN TO BE IN THE STREET –

  Take cover immediately.

  There is danger from bombs from aircraft and also from fragments of shell and from bullets from the guns and against the raiders.

  The assembly of large crowds might prove fatal.

  The nearest basement would be the safest place.

  Any fragment of shells should be handed to the police, in order that the War Office may ascertain the size and nature of the missile.

  TO SCHOOL TEACHERS –

  Continue the lessons as far as possible in the normal way.

  Remove children from the neighbourhood of windows.

  Children should not be brought from upper floors to crowd ground floor class-rooms or basement. In the event of damage to the building the children should be marched as in a fire drill.

  TO THOSE IN PRIVATE HOUSES –

  Stay there! Preferably in the basement.

  German propaganda postcard produced after the Zeppelin raid of 19 January 1915, showing Great Yarmouth Town Hall under attack and on fire; this was not exactly what happened …

  Lighting restriction proclamation for the Norfolk and Suffolk coast issued in the wake of the first Zeppelin raid.

  English coastal areas also reacted to the raid of 19 January with their own precaution notices, such as this one produced for Maidstone on 28 January 1915.

  The national press reflected the outrage of the British people with articles headlined, ‘The Coming of the Aerial Baby Killers’ and reports such as The Daily Mirror’s:

  Germany overjoyed by news of ‘gallant’ air huns murder raid that included ‘Berlin’s War Whoop: Copenhagen, Jan. 20 – I have just received a private telegram from Berlin which describes the people’s joy at the success of the Zeppelin attack as being widely enthusiastic. I have an intuitive feeling that the joy could not have been greater even if Dr Barnardo’s Homes had been destroyed.

  The international press is typified by the New York Tribune, ‘A Disgrace to Civilization’, that spoke of a ‘wanton disregard of Hague rules and humane principles. The raid belongs in the worst acts of German militarism in the present war … It is savagery which civilised opinion of the world has already condemned, which must stand condemned for all time.’

  The New York World echoed:

  They accomplish no military purpose and the wanton slaughter of women arouses a world-wide resentment against Germany … Germany will not begin to realise what these raids cost her until she comes to make peace. Her military authorities seem to forget that the war is not going to last forever and that when it is over Germany will have to live in the world with all the other nations. How does she propose to deal with the vast body of hatred that she is building up for herself? How many years will it take for her to live down the record she is making?

  The reports of the air raid in the international press stirred disquiet in the corridors of power in Germany, and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg did not mince his words in a letter to Admiral von Pohl:

  According to information received, for Zeppelins to drop bombs on apparently undefended places makes a very unfavourable impression on foreign neutrals, particularly in America. Also doubt exists in reasonable circles there, as military importance and success is not readily a
pparent. Prompt explanation to this effect seems urgently necessary.

  The Kaiser publicly praised the conduct of the raid, and the crews of L-3 and L-4 were all decorated with Iron Crosses for their part in the action, but he was quick to reiterate to his ministers that only the docks of London, military establishments of the lower Thames and the British coast could be taken as bombing targets, but royal palaces – including Sandringham – were not to be bombed.

  The bombing campaign would continue, but the crews of L-3 and L-4 would have their wars abruptly ended when, less than a month later, both Zeppelins were lost during a scouting mission along the Norwegian coast.

  L-3 had one engine down when she encountered a severe snowstorm and strong head winds. Fearing he would not make the return journey, Fritz put L-3 down on the beach of the North Sea island of Fanø, off the south-western coast of Denmark. Despite a hard landing the crew escaped uninjured. Fritz then burned the ship’s papers and set the whole Zeppelin on fire with a signal gun. The crew were detained in Odense for the rest of the war.

  L-4 was caught in that same storm of 17 February 1915, suffered the loss of electric power, the radios went down and with the engines failing Hallermund forced an emergency landing at the shore near Blaavands Huk, Denmark. The Zeppelin was wrecked beyond repair, four crew members lost their lives and the remaining members of the crew were interred. Hallermund escaped at the end of 1917. He subsequently served in Finland, fighting the Bolsheviks alongside White movement forces.

  Reportage typical of most of those found in British newspapers and magazines after the first Zeppelin raid.

  In the aftermath of the air raids, it is also intriguing to read in the Daily Telegraph the account from the correspondent they had despatched to King’s Lynn: ‘That the hostile aircraft that attacked Lynn was guided by a pilot who was familiar with the countryside over which he flew there can be little doubt. The military and police authorities here are satisfied this is so.’ Moreover, among all the reportage after the raid, one question was raised again and again – were spies at work? In Great Yarmouth, the Mercury was quick to dismiss the stories:

  It seems a great pity that the authors of such rumours as have a disturbing effect upon the community cannot be discovered and brought to book. Many of these fairy tales concern the capture of alleged spies, and the absurd stories range from the arrest of a small crowd of Germans in an empty Howard Street shop to the detention of a young girl, a German of course, in empty business premises in the Market Place in the very act of flashing signals out to sea.

  It also took particular exception to a report in another local paper, which stated: ‘A signal is said to have been given from Yarmouth on Tuesday evening to direct the German airship as to the best place to place bombs.’ The Mercury concluded, with some vitriol over this matter: ‘We, however, feel compelled to enter a protest when the local press give publicity to such tarradiddles.’

  In the west of the county, questions over the presence of spies and stories such as there being a light shone onto the Greyfriars Tower at King’s Lynn, or a similar account at Snettisham where ‘the church spire was being constantly flashed upon’ on the night of the raid, were taken more seriously. Above all, there were accounts of a motor car that was said to have guided the Zeppelin raiders to their targets with ‘brilliant headlights’ or ‘that flashed upwards to the sky.’

  Mr Holcombe Ingleby, MP for King’s Lynn, expressed his concerns in a letter to The Times published on 22 January 1915:

  I have myself tested the evidence of some of the most trustworthy of the inhabitants and the evidence seems to be worth recording. The Zeppelin is said to have been accompanied by two motor cars, one on the road to the right, the other on the road to the left. These cars occasionally sent upwards doubles flashes, and on one occasion these flashes from the car on the right lit up the church, on which the Zeppelin, attempted to drop a bomb. Fortunately the missile fell on the grass meadow … After this attempt at wanton mischief the Zeppelin made for King’s Lynn, and here again there is further evidence that it was accompanied by a car with powerful lights which were at one time directed on the Grammar School. The car was stopped in the town and attention was called to the lights as a breach of the regulations. Having put them out the driver turned the car quickly round and made off at a rapid pace for the open country. Seven bombs were dropped in King’s Lynn, two of them right in the heart of the crowded streets. Possibly they were intended for more important buildings, which, without the aid of the car, it was difficult to distinguish …

  The official response to the concerns voiced by Ingleby was to dismiss the existence of the car, but after Ingleby’s letter and the official response were also published in the local press, a number of west Norfolk residents wrote to him with their testimony about the mysterious signalling car. Having drawn together so many earnest accounts, he brought the entire matter to the notice of the Home Secretary and published the now rare and collectable booklet, The Zeppelin Raid in West Norfolk, in 1915.

  Spies or spy scares aside, Britain had been bombed and its air defences needed to be vigorously readdressed, as Ingleby put it in the latter part of his Times letter: ‘A couple of biplanes at King’s Lynn and a couple at Hunstanton might make such a raid as to which we have been subjected impossible of success. If they could not destroy a Zeppelin they might at least drive it off.’

  ONE

  14 April 1915

  During the months of February and March, and during the first half of April, no raids actually took place. Only one unsuccessful attempt was made in March, and no extensive reconnaissances were recorded. The Zeppelins L-3 and L-4, which had carried out the raid on 19 January 1915, were lost in a snowstorm off the Jutland coast on 17 February, and no doubt imposed caution on the airship command.

  Two new naval airships, L-8 and L-9, of an enlarged type, had, however, replaced these losses. On 4 March L-8, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Beelitz, attempted a raid on England from Belgium which failed. On her return the weather was cloudy and she came in too low under cloud; she was hit by gunfire off Nieuport and, losing gas, came down too low to ascertain her position. She was riddled with fire from a land battery and five of her gas bags were pierced by shell fragments. She just cleared the chimneys of the town of Tirlemont and eventually fell into some trees close by, being totally wrecked.

  L-9, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Mathy, had meanwhile made several successful reconnaissance flights from north Germany over the North Sea. Her commander was a man of great courage and resource, and soon proved himself capable of raiding England with effect. On the night of 14 April 1915, he inaugurated the series of raids on northern England which were to become a speciality of the Imperial German Naval Airship Service.

  He is said, on this occasion, to have first taken his Zeppelin up the coast of Jutland to the neighbourhood of Norway, then to have crossed the North Sea to the coast of Scotland, coming southward in order to attack the industrial establishments of the Tyne, which he found with success, though the raid did little damage.

  Mathy appeared off the mouth of the Tyne and coasted as far as Blyth, where he was off the harbour at 7.30 p.m. The Zeppelin appeared to take her bearings, then proceeded up the River Blyth to Cambois where she was fired at by members of C Company, 1st Northern Cyclist Battalion. She then carried on to West Sleekburn, where the first bomb, of incendiary type, was dropped in a field, doing no damage.

  The Zeppelin passed on, by Bomarsund and Barrington collieries, to Choppington. Four incendiary bombs were dropped on fields on the way. A sixth incendiary bomb was dropped in front of a house at Choppington, breaking a window of the Station Hotel, just before 8 p.m. The next bomb thrown was explosive, and dropped in a field west of Glebe Farm, Choppington. Two more HE bombs were dropped in the same field. The tenth bomb, also HE, was dropped in a field west of Bedlington, followed by another HE in a second field close by. At Bedlington, L-9 turned south, passing over Crowhall Farm, where a 50kg HE bomb was d
ropped, again in fields doing no damage, though it fell within 30ft of two police constables, who were saved by throwing themselves flat on the ground.

  The Zeppelin then proceeded towards Cramlington, dropping another HE bomb in a field, which again did no damage. At Cramlington an incendiary bomb was thrown, which fell through the roof of a warehouse. A small fire was caused but was soon extinguished by some workmen.

  Proceeding south, L-9 dropped an incendiary bomb in a field near West Cramlington. The Zeppelin was then seen about 2 miles south of the latter place, apparently hovering in the air for a short time. Three more incendiary bombs were dropped in this vicinity, falling in a field west of the railway and close to the line.

  L-9 then turned westward to Seaton Burn, and on the way, another incendiary bomb fell in the village but caused no damage. The Zeppelin headed further west, in the direction of Dinnington Colliery, 1 mile distant from Seaton Burn, and when about two thirds of the distance had been covered an HE bomb was dropped in a field, making a large crater. Going south-east the airship passed over Forest Hall at 8.35 p.m. and then went south over Benton, where an incendiary bomb was dropped, falling in a field a little west of the railway station.

  Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Mathy.

  Incendiary bomb dropped, by L-9 under Mathy, on Choppington during the Zeppelin raid of 14 April 1915 (in ring). The lady is standing where the bomb actually dropped.