Ian Castle - Zeppelin Onslaught: The Forgotten Blitz, 1914–1915

For Mum and Dad

This is what I do all day!

The Forgotten Blitz 1914 1915

IAN CASTLE

ZEPPELIN ONSLAUGHT

The Forgotten Blitz 1914 1915

First published in 2018 by Frontline Books,

an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS

Copyright Ian Castle, 2018

The right of Ian Castle to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN: 978-1-84832-433-6

eISBN: 978-1-84832-435-0

Mobi ISBN: 978-1-84832-434-3

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LIST OF MAPS

Map 1 Zeppelins over East Anglia, January to April 1915

Map 2 Aeroplane Raids December 1914 to September 1915

Map 3 The Raids of Army Zeppelin LZ 38, 29 April to 31 May 1915

Map 4 Zeppelin Raids Around the Humber, June to August 1915; Zeppelin Raids Around the Tyne, April to June 1915

Map 5 Zeppelins Over London, August to September 1915

Map 6 Zeppelins Over Essex and Suffolk, 11-14 September 1915

Map 7 London Surrounded The Zeppelin Raid of 13-14 October 1915

Map 8 Zeppelin Raid Penetration 1915

About fifteen years ago, while strolling around London one lunchtime, I stumbled across a plaque on a building in Farringdon Road. It showed that a Zeppelin bomb had destroyed the original building during an air raid in the First World War. As a military historian and a Londoner it occurred to me that period of Londons history was one I knew very little of. I began to read what I could find, which was all very interesting but inevitably it did not go into the level of detail that I love. I started carrying out my own research, which in time resulted in two books on different phases of the London raids. In numerous conversations after this, people often commented they were unaware that Britain had been bombed prior to the Blitz of 1940. Those early twentieth century air raids had become almost a forgotten Blitz.

With the approach of the centenary of the First World War, I spread my research further afield and began to build a website detailing the air raids on all parts of the country, to reveal just how wide-ranging they were. I am therefore extremely grateful to Martin Mace of Frontline Books who saw the potential in my research and offered me the opportunity to expand it further into a series of books, which will eventually extend to three volumes, offering a level of detail not previously available. By bringing together stories from all corners of the country, from autobiographies, letters, diaries and newspapers, and weaving them together with official accounts, I believe I have been able to present a new and revealing insight into this first war on the Home Front.

While benefitting from these resources I have at the same time been frustrated and saddened by the absence of a national register listing those civilians killed in air raids. Their sacrifices deserve to be remembered as much as those of servicemen at the Front, at sea or in the air. During the process of writing this book I began building a list of my own and, perhaps surprisingly, the last two London raids have proved the most difficult to complete. I would therefore be delighted to hear from anyone who can help fill those gaps.

Although writing a book is naturally a solitary existence, through the magic of the internet help and assistance is always close at hand from people near and far. I owe a debt of gratitude to many. From Germany, Marton Szigeti provided me with excellent information on the raids on the Dsseldorf Zeppelin sheds, while in France, Benoit Dubus kindly granted me permission to quote from his great grandfathers diary on the same subject. Closer to home, I must thank Steve Smith for our numerous long discussions on the raids on Great Yarmouth and Kings Lynn and for his enthusiasm in visiting the sites we discussed to photograph them for me. Rob Langham helped me with information regarding the North Eastern Railway and at the other end of the country, Andy White kindly made available a copy of The History of Gravesend . I met Christopher Langdon of the Southend Museum at a talk I gave in the town and he has subsequently answered a number of my questions regarding finer details of the two Zeppelin raids there. In London, Elizabeth Green at the Hackney Archives helped with copies of newspaper reports covering the first London raid. Then, while working on the details of the London raid on the night of 89 September 1915, I received helpful information from Helen MacDonald at the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust, and Sandra Gittins alerted me to the involvement of a group of men from the Great Western Railway. In other matters concerning that raid, I received a warm welcome at Wrotham Park from Charles Dace, the archivist there. For the final raid of the year, in October 1915, I received valuable assistance from Andrew Mussell, Archivist of the Honourable Society of Grays Inn and from Rose Brown and Rachael Merrison, archivists at St Bartholomews Hospital Archive. In addition, I would like to thank Aura Hargreaves for permission to quote from a letter on her website ( www.ww1-letters.com ) and Richard Dunning for some local insight into the raid on the Guildford area.

In Austria, as ever, I thank my friend Martin Worel, who is always available to help with German translations, and I offer special thanks to Alastair Reid. After a discussion, he translated the whole of Pitt Kleins 1934 book Achtung! Bomben Fallen! and has made it available in English for the first time, through Lulu.com , and from which I have quoted.

Throughout the course of writing this book I have been able to check Zeppelin facts with author Ray Rimell and always enjoy my exchanges with David Marks, another who, like me, caught Zeppelinitis many moons ago and supplied many of the illustrations used in this book from his wonderful collection.

On this occasion though, my biggest debt of gratitude must go to Ian Campbell in Australia. Ian found me through my website back in 2014 after seeing a Zeppelin documentary aired on television. His enthusiasm for the website project saw him using his editorial experience to run an eagle eye over each entry as I added it. With the start of the book he continued in this role, reading chapters as I completed them, coming back with advice or suggestions for greater clarity and readability. I cannot thank him enough for his help. Nor can my partner Nicola as it saved her the task!