Raid 46 - 5 - 6 April 1916
The Raid
The L11 came over again, with the L16. It came in by Hull and followed the railway to Sutton where dropped a bomb in a field. The AA guns round Hull meant the airship went off to the south east and dropped some bombs on the way
After this the L11 was not accounted for until 3 hours later when was seen over Skinningrove where it circled the ironworks. It dropped high explosive and incendiary bombs before heading home
L16 went over Hartlepool, hovering for some time to get their bearings. Headed off towards Bishop Auckland then turned towards the Railey Fell Colliery and Evenwood and Randolf Colliery, they were showing light.
Having done this the L16 went towards Bishop Ackland again and dropped bombs on Close House, Eldon where there was another Collery (Auckland Park)
The airship was last seen by the mouth of the Tyne
Victims & Damage
Broken windows and some slight damage in Hull. More damage was done to a house in Park Avenue by AA fire, 2 men and 2 children were injured by the shrapnel.
The bombs dropped in Skinningrove caused a lot of damaged, the laboratory at the ironworks, the school, co-op and houses were also damaged.
15 miners cottages were seriously damaged and 70 more were slightly damaged. Luckily only one man and one child was injured.
2 miners cottages were destroyed in Close House, with 11 more seriously damaged and a lot of windows broken.
There was one fatality, Robert Moyle who was aged 9. His funeral was hold on April 8 1916 at St Mark’s Church, Eldon. The Northern Echo reported
“Thousands of people witnessed the funeral of the boy victim of Wednesday’s Zeppelin raid. The village church was incapable of holding anything like the number of people who desired to show their sympathy with the bereaved family, but they crowded the churchyard to witness the last rites,”
It goes on to report the vicar’s sermon:
The Germans’ “barbarous, abominable methods of warfare” which were “absolutely unscrupulous and ruthless, indescribably pitiless and cruel…cowardly and showing a devilish disregard of innocent life”.
Summary
It seems that the collieries were all showing light whether from lights or just the fires caused by what they were doing.
Weather – Mostly fine with a few cloud patches. The wind got up to 20 miles an hour in some places.
Response – AA guns at Hull is thought to have worked and scared the airship off, the Official Report thinks that some damage was done to the airship. As mentioned above, the AA fire was responsible to damage and injuries.
At Skinningrove there was an AA gun but no searchlights had been installed so they didn’t fire.
Planes went up in response, one plane from Cramlington crashed into a house killing the RFC pilot Lt J Nichols. Another of the planes was damaged when it collied with a hedge
Bombs – 83
Killed – 1
Injured – 9
Raid details taken from Air Raids 1916 31 March to 6th April 1916, Compiled by the Intelligence Section, General Headquarters Home Forces, March 1917
Header Photo – Crater in Dene Valley from thenorthernecho.co.uk