Zeppelin raid Sheffield.

[eskimo]

Hi Pals,

I received a request through my small website to my uncle from a person in Nottingham,and I am afraid I know nothing about zeppelin attacks in the North east region. can anyone help out. below is the email they sent.

I am a Family Historian who has been trying to find out about the Zeppelin

raid on the steelworks area of Sheffield on 26th September 1916. My

grandmother's brother, his wife and their 5 children were all killed.

Last night's Channel 4 programme (Not Forgotten)inspired me to try again

to find more details about this raid.

I was once told that a memorial window

exists in the area where the bombs fell that night, which lists the dead.

If this is so, I would like to add it to the list of memorials which

Channel 4 are compiling.

Thanks for looking Regards eskimo.

Edited 9 December , 2005 by eskimo

[Brigantian]

Eskimo

I am currently researching the Sheffield Zeppelin raid and have accumulated a large amount of material, including information about your contact's great uncle and his family. I will contact you off forum to discuss further.

Regards

Mark

[Mangham1]

Brigantian,

I was interested to see you are based in Sheffield. My father told me about a Zeppelin flying over Newhill, Wath-upon-Dearne and from what I could gather it was heading southwards towards Rawmarsh. Could this have been the same raid or were there others?

[TwoStroke]

Hello, If it's of any help, I remember seeing a little book for sale in the Imperal War Museum, North, (in Manchester) that covered the Zeppelin raids in the North of England. Good luck ! Nigel J. Shinn.

[Brigantian]

Grant

Apologies for the late response.

It is possible, but unlikely, that the Zeppelin described by your father was involved in the raid on Sheffield. After the raid the L-22 travelled east from Sheffield and followed a route taking it over Mexborough and Finningly towards the coast.

There were other raids in the area. On 24/25 September 1917 a Zeppelin dropped several bombs harmlessly in fields near an ironworks at Rotherham. I do not know whether it passed near Wath.

The Sheffield Daily Independent published an account of the Sheffield raid on 3 December 1918. Interestingly, the article also made reference to a subsequent raid:

“On one occasion afterwards – when a Zeppelin visited Rawmarsh and the district between Rotherham and Mexbro’ not a few people formed view that the raider narrowly missed Sheffield again, and passing wide of the city on the southern and western sides wandered somewhere round by Bradfield and Langsett, and in a circle through the Barnsley, Cudworth and Rawmarsh area, and back to the coast. The explosion of the bombs dropped was heard in Sheffield.”

This Zeppelin might be the one your father told you about. No dates for this raid are given but it could be the one of 24/25 September 1917.

If I come across any more information I will let you know.

Regards

Mark