by Neil Storey
At the cinema, the film clattered to a stop and the glass lantern slide projected on the screen stating: ‘All officers wanted at Air Station immediately.’ Rushing back on foot, bicycle or bundling onto the station’s Ford tender, the aircrew and pilots knew the drill and soon, thirteen aircraft – DH-4s, DH-9s and Sopwith Camels – were in the air from Great Yarmouth, Burgh Castle and Covehithe, with twenty more soon joining them in the air over the county from airfields farther inland.
Leckie turned over the station to its permanent commander, and jumped in the observer-gunner seat behind Cadbury, in a DH-4 as its 375hp Rolls-Royce Eagle engine warmed up. Cadbury and Leckie were seasoned in Zeppelin combat. Both had already shot down airships and had been recognised for their gallantry.
Once over the sea, in an attempt to increase his rate of climb, Cadbury ditched the two 100lb bombs used against surface craft that had been fitted to the DH-4’s rack. This appeared to make little or no difference; Cadbury put it down to the barometric pressure.
At 9 p.m. Strasser sent a Morse code message to his command: ‘To all airships, attack according to plan from Karl 727. Wind at 5,000 meters [16,250ft] west-south-west three doms [13.5 mph]. Leader of Airships.’
At 9.25 p.m. the three Zeppelins were sighted by the pursuing aircraft ‘in line abreast with their noses pointing landward.’ The other two airships, L-56 and L-63, which were near Yarmouth at the time, were apparently not observed.
At 9.45 p.m. Cadbury emerged from cloud to see the shadowy shapes of the Zeppelins altering course north-westward at 17,000ft, some 2,000ft above the DH-4. The little aircraft’s climb was painfully slow, and ten minutes later Cadbury was 400ft below the Zeppelins when he pointed to the airship in the centre, indicating it to Leckie as their target. Once they were within range, at approximately 10.10 p.m., Cadbury concentrated on keeping the plane steady head on, and slightly to port, as Leckie took aim with the twin Lewis guns. He rattled a steady concentration of Pomeroy explosive bullets into the bow of L-70, blowing a great hole in the fabric, and a fire was started which quickly ran along the whole length of the airship.
The burning Zeppelin was seen from the Leman Trail lightship, about 40 miles away, and was described as ‘a large red flame’, the glare of which was seen on land as far away as Reedham (25 miles away). West of Blakeney Bell buoy, and having been narrowly missed by the bombs the Zeppelin had dropped earlier, the Amethyst had another lucky escape. When the Zeppelin was coming down, several more bombs fell near the ship, followed soon after by the flaming superstructure of L-70, which landed only 300 yards from the schooner!
On seeing the fate of their companion, the other two airships immediately altered course east and made off at high speed. At about 10.25 p.m., L-53 dropped a large number of bombs in the sea.
Major Cadbury’s engine now failed temporarily, but he managed to get it going again and closed with L-65. He again attacked bow-on, and Captain Leckie opened fire within 500ft of it. Fire immediately broke out in the midships gondola, owing probably to the ignition of a deposit of oil and grit accumulated from the exhaust of the forward engine on the underside of the gondola. There is little doubt that this Zeppelin would have also been destroyed had Captain Leckie’s gun not jammed with a double-feed which, at the critical moment and in the darkness and perishing cold conditions, could not be cleared; a situation that was not helped since, in the rush to leave Yarmouth, Leckie had forgotten his gauntlets.
The fire in the gondola was extinguished by the crew of the Zeppelin and, though Major Cadbury maintained contact with L-65 for about five minutes, the gun could not be got into working order again and the action had to be broken off. The machine gun fire from the Zeppelin during the attack had been heavy but fortunately it had also been inaccurate.
Another aeroplane attempted to attack L-65 after Cadbury had broken off the fight, but it was too low, being 2,000–2,500ft beneath the target. L-65 and L-63 were fortunate enough to effect their escape into the now dark and rainy night, and eventually returned safely to their sheds.
The remaining two airships, L-56 (under Kapitänleutnant Walter Zaeschmar) and L-63 (under Kapitänleutnant Michael von Freudenreich) had proceeded from Great Yarmouth up the coast, being seen from Caister (over which one of them passed), the Newarp lightship and Winterton between 9.10 p.m. and 9.36 p.m. and off Haisborough at 9.42 p.m. They appear to have dropped flares between Mundesley and Overstrand at 10.05 p.m.
The catastrophe to L-70 occurred at 10.25 p.m., as Kapitänleutnant Freudenreich was to record:
I was nearing the coast when we suddenly saw an outbreak of flame on L-70, amidships or a little aft. Then the whole ship was on fire. One could see flames all over her. It looked like a huge sun. Then she stood up erect and went down like a burning shaft. The whole thing lasted thirty, maybe forty-five seconds.
Fearing that the same fate would befall him and his crew, L-63 made off north-north-east, making a considerable detour in order to ensure her safe return.
Major Egbert Cadbury DSC DFC (left) and Captain Robert Leckie DSO DSC DFC, photographed at RNAS Great Yarmouth a few hours after they shot down Zeppelin L-70.
Meanwhile, L-56 went south-east back along the coast and, over an hour later at 11.45 p.m., appeared off Great Yarmouth. The GHQ Intelligence Section notes state:
Apparently her commander had no mind to return to Germany without having attempted to do some damage and the danger from aeroplanes which had attacked L-70 and L-65 having now presumably been evaded, he essayed an attack upon Lowestoft. Three bombs were dropped in the sea and then the airship seems to have crossed the coast at 11.56 p.m. flew from north-west to south-east over Lowestoft (evidently without her commander knowing where he was, as she dropped no bombs) and out to sea again and between midnight and 12.15 a.m. dropped fourteen or fifteen bombs in the water. No damage was done to any craft.
Cadbury and Leckie were a long way from their base at Yarmouth but, sighting the flares of Sedgeford, made a safe landing at 11.05 p.m. It was only when he jumped down from the cockpit that Cadbury realised why the DH-4 had climbed so sluggishly. The two bombs that he thought he had released into the sea were still in place (and primed), but by some miracle were still intact despite a rough landing. Just one more jolt and the DH-4 could well have been blown to pieces! Later, both Cadbury and Leckie were recognised for their action, with the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).
The RAF (the RFC and RNAS had combined) had sent up thirty-three aeroplanes but, owing to bad weather, the inland machines were not able to see anything. Lieutenant Benitz of 33 Squadron was killed when his plane crashed, and a Sopwith Camel flown by Lieutenant G.F. Hodson, and a DH-9 crewed by Captain B.G. Jardine and Lieutenant E.R. Munday, did not return.
Aftermath
The German official communiqué was particularly imaginative in its account of the action:
In the night 5th–6th August the so often successful leader of our airship attacked, Fregattenkapitän Strasser, with one of our airship squadrons, again damaged severely the east coast of Middle England with effectual bomb attacks, especially on Boston, Norwich and the fortifications at the mouth of the Humber. He probably met a hero’s death in the raid with the brave crew of his flagship. All the other airships that took part in the attack returned without loss or damage in spite of strong opposition. Besides their experienced fallen leader the airship commanders Korvettenkapitän J.R. Prölss, Kapitänleutnants Walther Zaeschmar, von Freudenreich and Dose took part with their brave crews in the success.
A search of the sea soon revealed that neither Strasser nor any of his twenty-two crew had survived. The British military authorities did not wait for the sea to give up its dead. Within two days, a trawler in naval service had located and buoyed the wreckage of L-70. Over the following three weeks, much of the wreck was recovered by divers and wire drags. From this watery grave came code books and all manner of airship intelligence, even the barograph that recorded that she had just reached 5,500m when she
fell.
The body of Peter Strasser and a number of crew were also found; others were washed up on the nearby coastline. All were buried at sea, and with them the future of the Zeppelin in combat.
APPENDIX 1
Aircraft Raids 1914–18*
As an aid to researchers and to avoid confusion between what were Zeppelin or aeroplane raids, what follows is a list of aeroplane raids conducted 1914–18, originally published in The German Air Raids on Great Britain 1914–1918 by Captain Joseph Morris (London, 1925).
Note: Those attacks shown as taking place at night occurred between dusk and dawn. Where the raids continued beyond midnight the double dates are given.
Date
Day or Night
Locality
Number of bombs dropped
Casualties
1914
24 December
Day
Dover
1
0
25 December
Day
Thames up to Erith
2 (on Cliffe, Kent)
0
1915
21 February
Night
Essex, Braintree, Coggeshall, Colchester
4
0
16 April
Day
Kent, Faversham, Sittingbourne, Deal
10
0
3 July
Day
East Suffolk
No bombs dropped on land
0
13 September
Day
Margate
10
2 killed, 6 injured
1916
9 January
Day
Dover
No bombs dropped
0
23 January
Night
Dover
9
1 killed, 6 injured
23 January
Day
Dover, Folkestone
5
0
24 January
Day
Dover, Folkestone
No bombs dropped
0
9 February
Day
Broadstairs, Ramsgate
13
3 injured
20 February
Day
Walmer, Lowestoft
25
1 killed, 1 injured
1 March
Night
Broadstairs, Margate
7
1 killed
19 March
Day
Dover, Deal, Margate, Ramsgate
48
14 killed, 26 injured
23 April
Day
Dover
No bombs dropped
0
24 April
Day
Dover
No bombs dropped
0
3 May
Day
Deal
9
4 injured
20 May
Night
Kent, Dover
59
1 killed, 2 injured
9 July
Day
North Foreland
No bombs dropped
0
9–10 July
Night
Dover
7
0
12 August
Day
Dover
4
7 injured
22 September
Day
Dover
7
0
22 October
Day
Sheerness
4
23 October
Day
Margate
3
2 injured
28 November
Day
London
6
10 injured
1917
14 February
Day
Deal
No bombs dropped
0
1 March
Day
Broadstairs
9
6 injured
16 March
Night
Margate, Westgate
21
0
17 March
Day
Dover
5
0
5 April
Night
Kent
8
0
6–7 May
Night
London
5
1 killed, 2 injured
25 May
Day
Kent, Folkstone
159
95 killed, 192 injured
5 June
Day
Essex, Kent
64
13 killed, 34 injured
13 June
Day
Kent, Margate, Essex, London
126
162 killed, 432 injured
4 July
Day
Harwich District
42
17 killed, 30 injured
7 July
Day
Margate, London
75
57 killed, 193 injured
22 July
Day
Harwich District
55
13 killed, 26 injured
12 August
Day
Essex, Southend, Kent, Margate
37
32 killed, 46 injured
22 August
Day
Kent, Margate, Ramsgate, Dover
50
12 killed, 25 injured
2 September
Night
Dover
14
1 killed, 6 injured
3–4 September
Night
Kent, Chatham, Margate
46
132 killed, 96 injured
4–5 September
Night
East Suffolk, Essex, Kent, Dover, Margate, London
90
19 killed, 71 injured
24 September
Night
Kent, Dover, East Suffolk, Essex, London
118
21 killed, 71 injured
25 September
Night
Kent, London
60
9 killed, 23 injured
28 September
Night
Kent, Essex, East Suffolk
45
0
29–30 September
Night
Kent, Essex, London
55
14 killed, 87 injured
30 September
Night
Kent, Margate, Dover, Rochester, Essex, Southend, London
92
14 killed, 38 injured
1 October
Night
Kent, Essex, London
73
11 killed, 41 injured
29 October
Night
Essex
8
0
31 October
Night
Kent, Dover
16
0
31 October–1 November
Night
Kent, Thanet, Essex, London
278
10 killed, 22 injured
6 December
Night
Kent, Thanet, Essex, London
421
8 killed, 28 injured
18 December
Night
Kent, Thanet, Essex, London
142
14 killed, 85 injured
22 December
Night
Westgate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate
No bombs dropped on land
0
1918
Night
Kent, Margate, Ramsgate, Sheerness, Essex, London
69
10 killed, 10 injured
16 February
Night
Kent, London
29
12 killed, 6 injured
17–18 February
Night
London
16
21 killed, 32 injured
7–8 March
Night
Essex, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, London
29
23 killed, 39 injured
19–20 May
Night
Essex, Southend, Kent, Margate, Dover Rochester, London
155
49 killed, 177 injured
17 June
Day
Kent Coast
No bombs dropped
0
18 July
Day
Kent Coast
No bombs dropped
0
20 July
Day
Kent Coast
No bombs dropped
0
Map of the Zeppelin and aeroplane bombs dropped on London during the First World War, produced in 1919.
Crater left by a bomb dropped from an aircraft onto Coggeshall, 21 February 1915.