Theatreland Raid 1915

Theatreland Raid
13/14 October 1915, England.
The Theatreland Raid was part of what is known as the First Blitz, the World War One Zeppelin raids against England.

     On 13 October 1915, 5 airships made their way across the English channel from Germany. They arrived at the Norfolk coast at around 
1830 hours, when they were spotted by an anti-aircraft emplacement. The emplacement began firing on the airships to no effect up until one of 
the zeppelins (possibly L15 or L13) dropped a HE bomb on the gunners, destroying the emplacement. As the ships moved on towards their 
target, London, all but one got lost due to faulty navigation.
      L15, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Joachim Breithaupt, made it to Central London sometime between 2100 and 2200 (reports vary on 
the actual time of arrival by the zeppelin). The targets of the raid had been the Bank of England and the British Admiralty; however, the 
first bombs instead fell upon London's theatre district. In one street alone, 17 people had been killed by a single bomb. The closest that L15 
got to the Bank of England was several blocks away.
      While L15 was reigning terror down upon London, L13 and L14 were dropping their payloads elsewhere. L13, commanded by Germany's 
best airship commander Heinrich Mathy, hit the Woolwich Arsenal (by mistake, he had meant to hit the Royal Docks), killing one man. L14, 
commanded by Kapitänleutnant Alois Böcker, hit a Canadian Army Camp (Otterpool) killing 15. Böcker later found himself over East 
Croydon where he dropped the rest of L14's payload, killing 9 (including 3 boys).
       In total, the Theatreland Raid would claim 71 lives and would injure a further 128. L15 accounted for roughly 80 of the injured, and around 
46 of the deaths, more than half of the raids casualties. The raid itself had been planned by Mathy after a previously successful raid that had 
claimed the lives of 32 people.