Zeppelin raid(s) - Sept 1915

[Charles Fair]

Hello All

I've been editing my family's letters from WW1 for imminent publication and am in final stages of editing. I'm trying to insert a few more footnotes to explain a few things that come up in the letters. This is one query that is a bit outside my area.

My grandmother wrote to her fiancee a couple of times describing Zeppelin raids on London. She was a nurse in a VAD hospital in Ware, Hertfordshire at the time. On 9th September 1915 she wrote:

Talk of you running into danger in the trenches. Read this evening's paper and see how a Zep visited Waltham and dropped bombs. Think of two maidens returning by a late train, hearing a noise, and looking out of the window and there, like the Ghost Ship “sailing comfortably over the stars” was a fine fat Zeppelin. Soon – Crash! Crash! and we caught a glimpse of falling bombs, our heads thrust out of the window. Then, splash! one fell into the river quite close at hand as well. The [River] Lea water does not improve coats and skirts and Olive says we shall send in the bill to the Kaiser! The damages were – so they say – two men killed and two poor old women died of fright.

At 2 am on 10th September 1915 she wrote:

WHY GO TO WAR? Stay in beautiful London: AIR RAIDS DAILY. Fine views of Zeps in action. Bombs dropped in all quarters. Numberless casualties and all without crossing the Channel!

Yesterday morning the rumour came: Liverpool Street in ashes. But the truth is one signal box destroyed and some of the offices outside damaged. Also a bomb fell in the road outside Broad Street. Heaps of damage was done behind the Guildhall among warehouses and alongside the river. Casualty lists not yet out. But there were 56 killed and injured on Tuesday when New Cross and Woolwich caught it. One explosion was only a few hundred yards from the Arsenal. Everyone round here, except the two night nurses, heard them last night. They came this way, according to hearsay, to travel to London by the help of the Lea, their only guide. .....

I'm not much of an expert on the air war/home front, so I would be grateful if anyone could please steer me in the direction of a good source and/or confirm which raid or raids she would have been referring to.

Many thanks

Charles

[Adrian Roberts]

This would have been the raid on the night of 8/9th September by KapitanLeutnant Helmut Mathy, the most famous wartime airship commander, in Zeppelin L13. He bombed several areas of Central and North London including Golders Green, Holborn and the City. 26 people were killed and 45 injured and £500,000 of damage caused, which apparently made this the most destructive single raid of the war.

Mathy was killed in the destruction of L31 at Potters Bar on 1/2nd October 1916.

Source: "The Baby Killers: German Air Raids on Britain in the First World War", Thomas Fegan, Pen & Sword, 2002

[Aspern]

Charles

These are two raids mentioned in the letters on consecutive nights. On the night of 7/8 September 1915 two German Army airships attacked London: (Zeppelin) LZ.74 and (Schutte-Lanz) SL2. The majority of bombs fell in south-east London. The following night the Navy airships attacked London, but only Kapitanleutnant Heinrich Mathy's L.13 reached the target, having approached the city via King's Lynn, Cambridge and Ware before circling to the north west and beginning his run across London from Golders Green. As Adrian has already written, this raid caused the most material damage of all the London Zeppelin raids - Mathy dropped the first 660lb bomb dropped by a Zeppelin on London during the raid which landed close to St. Bart's Hospital. Interestingly he also devestatingly bombed a pub called The Dolphin on the corner of Lamb's Conduit Passage. In 1989 the group Crosby, Stills and Nash recorded a song based on the incident called 'After The Dolphin' - lyrics can be found on the internet.

Both raids are covered in my book 'London 1914-17: The Zeppelin Menace' which includes maps of the raids showing the routes taken by the Zeppelins over London and marks where the bombs fell.

Regards

Ian

[rugbyremembers]

I can heartily endorse Aspern's recommendation of his book, although I note he does not give the author's name which is Ian Castle. There are many books on Zep raids , but Ian's allows you to plot the course and is extremely well set out.

Vera Brittain's wartime diaries have many refs to Zeps, and there is a very good article in the last but one journal from the Western Front Association.

CSN reference is fascinating - how did that happen!? Graham Nash is a Manc...

[ZeppRaider]

Charles

Just a line to confirm that both Ian's book and "the Baby Killers", as recommended by Adrian, are excellent sources of information in respect of Mathy's raid. An older book (published in 1960 by Evans, London) called Zeppelins over England, written by Kenneth Poolman, provides a detailed account of the raid and its aftermath. Also, HG Castle's 'Fire over England' (published 1982) isn't a bad reference book.

Good luck with the editing ........... loved reading the letters.

Regards

David

Ian - I loved the Crosby, Stills and Nash reference - not heard that one before! I work just around the corner from the Dolphin .......... they've redecorated recently and moved the clock to a different position in the bar.

[phil@basildon]

I will have to dig out my copy of 'Zeppelin Adventure' by Rolph Harben. This gives the story of the raids from a German perspective.

[Aspern]

Ian - I loved the Crosby, Stills and Nash reference - not heard that one before! I work just around the corner from the Dolphin .......... they've redecorated recently and moved the clock to a different position in the bar.

Yes, it is an interesting one - I only heard about it a year ago when I was interviewed about my 'Zeppelin Raid' book on BBC Radio - a listener phoned in and left a message about the song! I can only presume that Graham Nash must have been a regular in the pub at some point, saw the clock and learnt about the story - but that is only a guess.

Ian

[Charles Fair]

Thanks to all for your most helpful posts. I will track down a copy of Ian's book.

I actually work about 150 yards away from The Dolphin, in the office block on the corner of Red Lion St and High Holborn. I had heard about a Holborn pub with the stopped clock from the Zep raid, but hadn't realised that that was the one. Intrigued by the CS&N reference. Looks like a good excuse for a swift pint after work.

Charles

[Charles Fair]

Here is another Zeppelin related quote from the family letters. This is by Philip Dodgson who nearly became my grandmother's brother-in-law. He was an officer in 'A' Battery 237 Brigade RFA, 47th London Division. On 29th September, 1916 he wrote:

..... The British Nation seems to be quite unbalanced as far as Zeppelins are concerned. To a casual reader of the papers it would seem that the destruction of one Zeppelin was of more importance than everything else put together. I suppose it is natural as it is only by reason of the Zeppelins that large numbers realize there is a war at all. When it comes to spending hundreds of pounds on a memorial of the spot where the Zeppelin was brought down it is getting rather absurd. It is bad enough giving the man who brings the thing down money, especially as he also got the VC. What about the airmen out here who run greater risks almost every day? .....

Presumably he is referring to Leefe Robinson VC and the 2/3rd September 1916.

[Theo]

Thanks to all for your most helpful posts. I will track down a copy of Ian's book.

I actually work about 150 yards away from The Dolphin, in the office block on the corner of Red Lion St and High Holborn. I had heard about a Holborn pub with the stopped clock from the Zep raid, but hadn't realised that that was the one. Intrigued by the CS&N reference. Looks like a good excuse for a swift pint after work.

Charles

Charles

I have mentioned this in another post in this section but, my personal favourite and one I would recommend is Raymond Fredette's 'The Sky on Fire'. Fredette served in the USAAF in WW2.

[Charles Fair]

Ian - your book was perfect for what I needed and allowed me to footnote the letters to my satisfaction.

many thanks

Charles

[Aspern]

Ian - your book was perfect for what I needed and allowed me to footnote the letters to my satisfaction.

many thanks

Charles

Glad I could help - I've just posted a reply to your query about the Gotha raid. I have a book coming out later this year covering the bomber raids - following up from my Zeppelin raid book, with similar maps which you may find helpful too.

Regards

Ian.

[Charles Fair]

Thanks Ian, that would be useful. However, I'm trying to get my manuscript finalised in the next month or so as I'm hoping for publication before Xmas so it might not be out in time. My grandmother refers to several Gotha raids in her letters.