Zeppelin Raids over East London - Leyton? Isle Of Dogs?

[At Home Dad]

Hallo all

I noticed in another post that L10 bombed Leyton at one point.

Does anyone have information as to which streets were hit and how

bad the damage to life and property was? Was Leyton targetted/hit

more than once?

Merely asking from a vague 'local history interest' point of view

(as, opposite my current abode is the site of an early morning

September '44 V2 impact, which actually caused my house to

be condemned, but there was a housing shortage, so ....!)

Also, was The Isle Of Dogs and their docks ever a primary target?

Some of the bomb areas seem strange to me as a Londoner today,

places like Streatham and Croydon being bombed etc. Was this more

aiming at railway networks and hubs?

What was the reasoning behind the targetting? Being very naive,

but it would seem to me the most logical would be to come up the

Thames from the North Sea, arrive over Woolwich and bomb the Arsenal,

bank right and bomb the West India and Millwall docks before retreating

home!

Clearly, I know nothing of British Air Defences, or the German targetting,

or Zeppelin versus wind conditions and other weather issues, but would

appreciate any info you can give or pointers to websites.

Many thanks and kind regards, all

[Aspern]

L.10 did indeed bomb Leyton on 17 August 1915. She dropped her first bomb on Lloyd Park, Walthamstow at 22.32 then dropped bombs over Hoe Street, Bakers Avenue, Lea Bridge Road, Dunton Road, Farmer Road, Leyton High Road, Midland Road, Moyers Road, Grosvenor Road, Claude Road, Murchison Road, Albert Road, Twickenham Road, Oakdale Road, Ashville Road, Grove Green Road, Lincoln Steet, Mayville Road and Southwell Grove. 10 people were killed and 48 injured. Damage to property was estimated at the time at £30,750. Bombs also fell on Leytonstone on 31 May 1915 from LZ.38, and Leyton was hit again on 24 Sept 1916 by L.31, bombs falling along the line of the Lea Bridge Road.

The Isle of Dogs was hit twice. On 7 September 1915 SL.2 dropped bombs along the line of West Ferry Road before crossing over the Thames and bombing Deptford. West Ferry Road suffered again on the night of 24/25 August 1916 when L.31 began it's bombing run over south east London.

Can I recommend a new book, London 1914-17 - The Zeppelin Menace which details all the London Zeppelin raids and provides maps of each one. It is written by Ian Castle and published by Osprey Publications - ISBN 978 184603 245 5.

[seaJane]

Hallo all

<< >>

Some of the bomb areas seem strange to me as a Londoner today,

places like Streatham and Croydon being bombed etc. Was this more

aiming at railway networks and hubs?

Hallo there,

There were two WWI airfields in the Croydon vicinity (which eventually became Croydon airport).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croydon_Airport

May be one reason ...

seaJane

[At Home Dad]

Thank you, Aspern!

My road is listed there.

Wow, hit by the 'state of the art' technology from both world wars!

Incidently, it seems to be following the Gospel Oak to Barking railway line.

I shall certainly grab a copy of the book you suggested from Amazon

Many thanks!

[Aspern]

Which road? I may have the house number on file.

[At Home Dad]

Well, I'd be very interested in detail about the effect on

Claude Road, Murchison Road, Albert Road, Twickenham Road,

Oakdale Road, Ashville Road, Grove Green Road, but if that's

asking too much, just Albert Road.

I've been thinking about what visible evidence remains,

ie the newer houses, built probably 1918ish - 1920ish.

As the Primary Pram Pusher I get lots of opportunities to stroll

and look around at the houses, so in my mind I have a rough

idea of the flight path.

Maybe I can book a flight on zeppelintours dot com and get the

pilot to refly the route!

There are various odd 'between the Wars' houses around me which

I had thought were due to stray Heinkels rather than Zeppelins, as

the 7am V2 attack I mentioned previously took out the whole of the

middle of three parallel streets! A rough eye count shows that around

15-30 houses per road were vaporised.

I dont know what the calibre of the bombs would be but I'm assuming

that, for the period, the bombs were 'small' by todays standards (although

just as deadly if you're under them!).

I'll ask my 95 year old neighbour if she has any recollections of the period.

It was she that told me about the V2 as an eye witness and some of the

horror stories are truly frightening, they still deeply upset her to this day.

I have a good idea now of where I think the 'archeological evidence' is.

I wonder if there are any Googlemap overlays for this sort of thing?

I'm ordering the book this afternoon too

Many thanks and kind Regards!

Which road? I may have the house number on file.

[At Home Dad]

Aha, yes that seems plausible

Thanks, seaJane!

There were two WWI airfields in the Croydon vicinity (which eventually became Croydon airport).

[At Home Dad]

On a side note, anyone know which Zeppelin this was?

"A WOMAN who saw a Zeppelin being shot down during the First World War has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Daisy Tozer remembers sitting on the railings outside her house seeing the airship fall to earth as a teenager

in Hackney, and going to visit the pilot's grave afterwards."

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/search/di...urous_daisy.php

I've looked at a wiki zeppelin list but cant find one that went down over or around Hackney.

she is 100 years old, so you can forgive her if she got it wrong!

[At Home Dad]

I guess it could have been SL11 or L31 she saw

http://www.brookmans.com/history/features/...lin/index.shtml

Absolutely fascinating

[Aspern]

Well the short answer is - 57 Albert Road was hit by an incendary bomb which caused a 'slight fire' which 'badly damaged the house. Another incendary hit 78 Albert Road with the same result, but also slightly injured a woman and a child. 130 Albert Road was 'badly damaged' by an explosive bomb, but there were no injuries.

The long answer is:

117 Claude Road was wrecked by an explosive bomb, killing a man, woman and child. In addition the same bomb broke 175 windows in Claude, Morley and Norlington Roads.

181 Murchison Road was hit by an incendary bomb which resulted in broken windows.

62 Twickenham Road was also hit by an incendary bomb which formed a 'slight fire' and badly damaged the property.

78 Oakdale Road was hit by an explosive bomb and another fell in Ashville Road (unsure of house number). 78 Oakdale Road was badly damaged as were 29 other houses in Oakdale Road, Ashville Road and Pearcroft Road. In addition 123 houses in the same three roads had their windows broken and sufered other slight damage. These two bombs caused most of the casualties. 2 men were killed, 4 men, 10 women and 6 children were injured.

The bomb listed in Grove Green Road actually fell on tracks of the Great Eastern Railway and was an incendary which caused no damage.

The book mentioned previously has a detailed map of the bombs that fell in this raid. The raid was over in 11 minutes. I'd be interested to know if any of the houses at these addresses are substantially different to those around them.

Regarding the lady who celebrated her 100th birthday in 2007, my guess would be that she saw SL.11, brought down over Cuffley near Potters Bar on 3 September 1916 (making the lady 9 at the time). SL.11 was approaching central London when the AA gun based in Finsbury Park opened up on her. More guns joined in the attack and SL.11 veered away over Harringay towards Tottenham then Edmonton and Enfield - so easily seen from Hackney. A large proportion of the London population were woken by the heaviest bombardment so far and watched SL.11 held by the searchlights as she tried to evade attack - eventually shot down William Leefe Robinson of No.39 (Home Defence) Squadron. The following morning tens of thousands left London to go and see the crash site so her story rings true.

Hope all this helps.

[At Home Dad]

It certainly does.

I'll report back any significant findings

Kind regards

Hope all this helps.

[Harper]

Thanks for this information because it adds details to a story my father told his children.

He was born and grew up at 594 High Road in Leytonstone. He said that he remembered hiding under the dining room table during Zeppelin air raids. Now I know the dates of these raids. Thank you.

[At Home Dad]

Just a quick recce today, dodging the rain!

Regarding 57 Albert and 117 Claude, whatever was rebuilt

(if anything) was removed by the September V2 mentioned earlier!

78 Albert still stands, no visible damage.

Regarding 130 Albert, it still stands and looks completely in character

with the surrounding terrace of flats. (These flats are called 'Abraham

style' and are purpose built flats from around 1900. see pic - that's not

130 by the way, just an estate agents pic for another flat in the street!)

HOWEVER! According to my 90+ years neighbour (told to me before

I had any thoughts or questions of the Great War) it does still have

a thirty foot shaft (rubble filled) directly below the kitchen floor which

to this day causes problems with any type of building work. Meaning the

bomb passed through the first floor flat into the ground floor flat and beyond.

Apparently (and I guess quite obviously) it was a UXB!

I'll try to pick the neighbours brain to see if she remembers that

shaft being there long before WW2 or if it arrived during WW2.

[seaJane]

Not quite germane to the question but my grandma (1909-2005) remembered her school's air-raid drill for Zeppelin raids to the end of her life:

1. Take your slate out of the slot on top of your desk and put it inside your desk

2. Get under the desk

3. Put your hands on your head

4. Sing "Land of Hope and Glory"

[Aspern]

HOWEVER! According to my 90+ years neighbour (told to me before

I had any thoughts or questions of the Great War) it does still have

a thirty foot shaft (rubble filled) directly below the kitchen floor which

to this day causes problems with any type of building work. Meaning the

bomb passed through the first floor flat into the ground floor flat and beyond.

Apparently (and I guess quite obviously) it was a UXB!

Hello again. Well one of the more common explosive bombs being dropped by Zeppelins weighed 58kgs (128lbs), that would easily have smashed through the roof and two floors of the house to explode on the ground floor - although a 30 ft shaft would be too deep. However, I can imagine it would have made a big hole that would have needed some filling! No 130 was classed as badly damaged.