Raid 25 - 8 - 9 September 1915
The Raid
Four airships came over from Germany and Belgium.
The L9 came in over Whitby, Yorkshire and headed in land. It dropped bombs which didn’t do much or any damage until they reached the Iron Works at Skinningrove where 9 HE and 12 incendiaries were dropped. A lot of damage was done by the TNT stores were saved and no one was injured as the workers went into the neighbouring mines.
L13 was seen off the Norfolk coast were armed trawlers fired at her. The airship followed the coast around to Kings Lynn then turned inland and set course for London. It looks like he got lost and had to drop flares to find a location, it was over 2 hours before it arrived over Golders Green when the first bombs were dropped not doing much damage other than breaking windows. The Official Report believes they were looking for the Aviation Ground at Hendon.
The airship followed on into London and dropped bombs on Woburn Place and Russell Square. A bomb on Lamb’s Conduit Passage caused a lot of damaged and started a fire. One man was killed an a fireman died later who is not mentioned in the Report. More people were killed and seriously injured in the area of Gray’s Inn. The course, and bombs, carried on over the City causing damage.
Unfortunately, near Liverpool St Station a couple of buses were hit, killing the drivers and some of the passengers.
The Norfolk Coast is also where L14 came ashore. A bomb was dropped on an army camp but it didn’t do any damage. Over East Dereham 4 men were killed including 2 soldiers.
LZ77 went along the Suffolk coast then down to Dover before heading back over the Channel.
Victims & Damage
There was serious damage in London, the estimated value for just the City was put at £510,672. The Iron Works was damaged but not as bad as it could have been. Some damage was done in Norfolk and a cow was killed. The total estimate of damage caused by the raid was £534,287.
Summary
The Official report says the Skinningrove Iron Works was built by German contractors and workers so they knew what was there and what they were doing. This was the first raid but none of the others did as much damage.
An amusing story is included in the Official Report:
Owing to the firm belief in Germany that the Bank of England was damaged, if not destroyed, in this raid, a photograph published in an illustrated paper of the wrecked premises of the very minor banking establishment in Theobald’s Road was confidently claimed in the German Press as proof of the belief: the work ‘Bank’ could be clearly seen in the picture!
The Official Report also includes an interview the captain of L13, Kapt-Leutant Mathy conduced by an American Journalist Karl von Wiegand and published in Germany and the US. The strangest thing mentioned is he said he was so low he nearly hit the dome of St Pauls!
Weather – Very fine with local mist.
Response – 3 planes from Redcar went up after the L9 but was not able to find it, partly due to the smoke of Middlesbrough.
The AA fire over London really opened up on the L3 but the reports seem to suggest not much of it came close.
Bombs – 152
Injured – 94
Raid details taken from Air Raids, 1915, Airship Raids August - September 1915, Complied by the Intelligence Section, General Headquarters, Home Forces, published June 1918. (National Archive AIR/1/2123)
Header Photo - IWM Q 70239 London General Omnibus Company bus brought into Willesden garage after bomb damage at Norton Folgate, London E1 8 September 1915