The Bombing of the East End

[Guest ljcole]

My family were living in Hoxton, Shoreditch during The Great War. They moved suddenly to the south coast before the Armistice. I am interested to know how closely affected they may have been by the airship bombings.

Is anyone able to direct me to a publication or resource that will tell me when and precisely where the bombs fell? I understand that Shoreditch was badly affected.

Laurence

[Dolphin]

Laurence

You might like to start with Cole & Cheesman's The Air Defence of Britain 1914-1918 (ISBN 0 370 30538 8), which will certainly give you the date of every raid and the intended and actual targets.

I hope this helps

Gareth

[Sgt_Hazell_Great_Grandson]

Laurence , not much i know but ...

" The London Music Hall in Shoreditch was destoryed by German bombing in 1915 "

Roland.

[Guest ljcole]

Thanks for your help. I'll see if my library has a copy of the book.

Laurence

[Bruce Dennis]

Laurence, if I remember correctly, the IWM has a record of the bombing sites. There is a large map of the London area that was (is?) on display at IWM Duxford showing the WW11 sites where V1s & V2s fell, and I was told many years ago that they have a similar one from the Great War with bombsites marked "Zepp" & "Gotha".

Let us know if you find it, I would be interested.

Best of luck,

Bruce

[Brett Holman]

You might like to start with Cole & Cheesman's The Air Defence of Britain 1914-1918 (ISBN 0 370 30538 8), which will certainly give you the date of every raid and the intended and actual targets.

Unfortunately Cole and Cheesman doesn't list targets in the index, so it would be a bit hard to dig out the info without knowing the relevant dates. Thomas Fegan's The 'Baby Killers' is better in this regard, but doesn't list Shoreditch, nor the East End! It has a gazeteer of bombed locales, the only entry for Shoreditch is 28 January 1918, though it's not about bomb damage - there was a panic at Bishopsgate Railway Goods Station (an air raid shelter) which caused a stampede and 14 people were killed.

My only other suggestion are a couple of primary sources, which I haven't seen myself yet: Edward C.P. Monson and Ellis Marsland, Air Raid Damage in London (British Fire Prevention Committee, 1923) and Joseph Morris, The German Air Raids on Great Britain, 1914-18 (Sampson Low, 1925). My copy of the latter should be arriving this week so I'll try to remember to have a look!

PS If they moved house in 1918 it was more likely due to the Gotha and Giant raids of 1917-8, which by then far outweighed the Zeppelin threat in the public mind.

[BeppoSapone]

IIRC the seaman's union official 'Captain' Tupper says something about Londoners moving to Brighton to avoid the WW1 raids in his autobiography 'Seaman's Torch'.

Sussex was Tupper's old stamping ground. He was born at Worthing but was then living in Crawley.

IIRC Tupper, being Tupper, introduced race into the equation claiming that a lot of the people moving to Brighton were Jews. It is a long time since I read about him, but was not Tupper's Union one of the driving forces behind the anti-black riots that took place in sea ports in 1919?

[Guest ljcole]

Thanks for all the information.

Regarding maps I recall seeing a couple of interesting maps in a book called, I think, The History of London in Maps. This did show bomb sites but was fairly high level and detailed only the main roads but it did clearly show a high concentration of bombs in Shoreditch.

I will follow up on the new leads, thanks again.

Laurence

[Adam M]

Wondered whether anyone may be interested in a picture / report i found amongst my grandfathers things which tells the storyof...

"At Cuffley Herts. on Sept 3rd 1916 Schutte Lanz airship S.L.11 commanded by Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm was shot down in flames by Captain Leefe Robinson flying in a B.E.2c aeroplane"

[Adam M]

Combat report.....See previous post

[Dolphin]

Adam

Lt Robinson's exploit with the German Army airship SL 11 was the subject of an earlier discussion at

You might find it interesting.

Regards

Gareth

[Adam M]

Thanks Gareth. I suspect the reason this was in my G'fathers things was the simple fact that he was brought up in rural Herts. His relations may have witnessed the event. At the time my g'father was busy in a trench in Belgium! The thread has helped my understanding - I didnt realise the pilot was awarded the VC - I guess it must have been quite an event! In his diary my grandfather wrote a couple of entries in respect of airplanes he witnessed in Belgium- I've provided a quote which suggests my grandfather was rather intrigued by them! He was based in Ypres at the time..

Sept 4th – 13th 1915

Nothing very much happened during this period but the usual digging and ration fatigues. We witnessed a rather exciting air fight here over the German lines; four Bosche planes were up when a Frenchman appeared on the scene and gave fight; they tried to get away but were chased and one of them brought down; the Germans were firing at the Frenchman the whole time with their anti aircraft guns but he didn’t seem to mind them in the least; we counted over three hundred shells burst in the air around him, and at last unfortunately they hit his tail; he brought his machine down alright, but whether over our own lines or the enemies we weren’t sure.

[Clive Harris]

Hi Laurence, glad you are showing an interest in this important part of East End History, the man you need to speak to is David Warren, he is quite an authority on the Great War Blitz, he does guided walks around the area via my website www.frontlinelondon.com you will find him a font of knowledge. If you want to email me your contact details I will put you both in touch....

[Guest ljcole]

Thanks Clive, email on its way.

Laurence

[greg873]

I have a book titled 'War on Great Cities' by Frank Morison, published in 1937 by Faber and Faber, that gives a detailed account of the air raids on London during the Great War.

A quick look through the appendices which list fatalities within London shows a few for the Shoreditch area:

8/9 Sept 1915 6 killed 9 injured on motor bus in Norton Folgate

13 June 1917 8 killed 16 injured at Gibraltar Walk Bethnal Green; 1 killed 2 injured at 30 Charlotte Street Shoreditch; 1 killed 3 injured at 17 Great Chart Street, Hoxton.

7 July 1917 3 killed 6 injured at Wenlock Road Shoreditch; 2 killed 8 injured at Murray Street Hoxton; 2 killed 5 injured at Herbert Street Hoxton; 1 killed 8 injured at 68-70 Wenlock Road Shoreditch; 2 killed 15 injured at 36 Cavendish Street Hoxton.

1 October 1917 4 killed at 52 and 54 Hows Street Shoreditch.

28 Jan 1918 1 killed 4 injured at Florida Street Betnal Green.

The raid of 8/9 September 1915 was carried out by Zeppelin LZ13, commanded by Kapitan-leutnant Mathay, which was subsequently shot down over Potters Bar on 2 October 1916, by Lieutenant Tempest. The remaining raids were carried out by aircraft.

John G

[Guest ljcole]

John, this is just the kind of detail I needed. Thank you. I am alarmed at the number of deaths and injuries from the bombs falling on Hoxton. My family were living in Hoxton throughout this period. This was a period in history when just seeing a flying aircraft was an amazing event. I cannot imagine their terror when bombs started raining down on them from the sky.

I'll need to study the street maps to see just how close these bomb sites were.

Thanks again

Laurence