The Raid

It was another large raid. The L14 and L16 both came in near Skegness. The L16 wandered around before dropping some incendiaries on Caythorpe. The airship then went over Newark and hovered over town for a while before dropping bombs on the outskirts. It headed towards Lincoln, dropping incendiaries at Metheringham and West Ashby. It headed home having caused no damage.

The L14 turned south and dropped bombs on Wisbech and March. It circled around then dropped bombs and incendiaries on Croxton Heath near Stanford. The heath was already on fire after a previous bomb had been dropped by the L22. The airship then turned and went over Thetford dropping bombs on Bunwell then Buckenham station near Acle. The last stop was Reedham before heading out over Yarmouth.

The third airship was the L13 who came in over the Wash and seemed to be heading to Wisbech before turning suddenly. It dropped an incendiary near Sandringham then going onto West Rudham that Guist dropping bombs in both places. After reaching Cromer it went along the coast to Sheringham where it went out to sea.

L11 was seen going round the Norfolk coast, dropping the first bomb near Cley where it landed in the sand. More bombs were then dropped on Binham, Field Dalling, Gunthorpe. Briningham, Briston. Thurning. Wood Dalling and Cawston. The airship then went over to the Boards. No damage was done other than slight damage at Thurning.

The L17 came in over Yarmouth and headed straight to Norwich which it was assumed was the target but no bombs were dropped over the city. Bombs were dropped on Tuddenham, probably attracted by the aerodrome. No damage at all was done.

Lowestoft was where the L22 came over and headed over to Stowmarket where it stayed for about 5 minutes keeping out of range of the guns. It then headed to west Suffolk and dropped bombs on Poslingford doing no damage. It then went down to Castle Hedingham then Haverhill before dropping more bombs on Withersfield. Again, no damage was done. It headed up to Newmarket then Thetford where more bombs were dropped without doing any damage.

It then dropped a flare on Croxton Heath which started the fire that was shortly after bombed by the L14. Bombs were dropped at Hevingham and Burgh-next-Aylsham still with no damage then out to sea over Mundesley.

The L23 attacked the military ammunition store near Southwold without damage then headed straight out to sea.

Kent was the next target with L31 started bombing as it got near the coast, about a dozen ended up in the sea. It was seen over Westgate, Margate and Ramsgate where 3 bombs were dropped before it headed back to sea dropping more bombs in the channel. The airship didn’t head straight home, it went down the Kent coast to Dover where it crossed the channel. The L31 caused an issue once it had crossed the channel as it went over Holland and so violated neutrality.