The Zeppelin Terror World War I at Home

Britain's airspace is one of the most tightly defended in the world.

You can't fly anywhere up here without someone knowing abott it.

Every square inch of our sky is monitored 24/7.

But a hundred years ago, an attack on a Norfolk coastal town

A Zeppelin, an airship the size of an ocean liner,

slipped in undetected and unleashed carnage on the people living below.

It was the start of a terrifying new campaign aimed at killing innocent

men, women and children and forcing an early end to the war.

By re`visiting the bomb sitds from down on the ground and from up

here in the air, I'm going to find out how close the Germans came to

The story of the impact of Zeppelin attacks on the Home Front whll take

us from Norfolk to London, from Hertfordshire to Essex.

And it all started in the seaside town of

For hundreds of years the Royal Navy had protected the British

against attack from the sea, but they were powerless agahnst this

On the night of January 19th 1915 people reported hearing an derie,

throbbing sound above them, followed shortly afterwards by the

Bombs began falling on the town and on the docks area but it was

in the streets below me now, the St Peter's Plain area of town

that the full horror of aerial warfare was unleashed on thd British

Barely a building here escaped damage and when the smoke cleared

two people lay dead, 72`year`old spinster Martha Taylor

Blown to pieces in the streets where they lived, they were Britahn's

I suppose the only thing we could compare it to today is

a terrorist bomb suddenly going off without any warning.

There was no military advantage to it.

It was all about instilling terror and really that's what these aerial

bombardments did, the Zeppelins would come out of the dark, you

couldn't see them and it was totally random ` you didn't know if you were

running towards danger or away from it, you couldn't know where

the next bomb was going to be dropped or where it was going to

explode and I think that's what is so terrifying and must have been

So it's just a matter of luck whether you live or die

I mean, Samuel Smith, I'm sure he must have been just drawn ott by

the sound of the propellers, so he must have heard something different

and just stepped out of his workshop to be hit by the shrapnel.

Martha Taylor was just coming back from the shops.

Back in the 1970s, people living here were intdrviewed

about their experiences that night and even half a century

Miss Taylor lived at number two Drakes Buildings and

when they came away, my mother said Miss Taylor walked a bit too slow.

She hurried on in front and I can remember this door being flung open

and the window was coming in, my mother being thrown onto the couch,

we had an old`fashioned couch and Miss Taylor was unfortunate she got

killed on the road so if they'd kept together my mother

It happened just on the corner about a hundred yards away from hdre.

Plenty of damage around herd and plenty of spectators

the next morning, sightseers, I don't know about troops there might

have been one or two, the soldiers, the odd one or two because some

The man over there, Mr Ellis, he had his head split open,

Yes, I remember him standing there with a bandaged head.

Great Yarmouth became headlhne news, but today many people living in the

streets where the attack happened have no idea about the night their

It's Kate Argyle's role to pass the story onto a new generation who

are used to seeing aircraft in the sky all the time.

Look at the state of that building. Do you think anybody could survive

in that building? You are looking at the man that was in the house at the

time. Now, it's easy for us to forget that

in 1915 many people had nevdr even seen an aeroplane, so to see a

Zeppelin suddenly appear in the sky would have been like somethhng out

of science fiction and these things were massive ` over 500 feet

long and more than 50 feet wide. That's longer

and wider than this entire street. The aim of the Zeppelins was clear,

by bombing civilians the Germans hoped to create mass panic,

break morale at home and force the British government into

abandoning the war in the trenches. But as revealed in those accounts

from the 1970s that wasn't puite There wasn't the sort of chaos and

panic that the Germans had wanted. So no hysteria broke out,

people weren't rushing left right and centre, there was just this

shock and then... And then getting on with it,

there was not mass hysteria, the Germans had failed in that

intent and in fact I think the people reacted very stoically, they

got on with the job of clearing up. That British sense of,

"We're not being phased by this " That people reacted so calmly seems

incredible, it must have been a tremendous shock that something

so large could appear over their The first flight across the channel

by Louis Bleriot had only t`ken place some six years before, but now

the Germans were able to come across But it was a matter

of luck where the bombs landed. The attack on Yarmouth had

been intended for the Humber. As a pilot, I can understand how

difficult it must have been back then getting to Britain, let alone

navigating to a specific location. For the Zeppelin crews, at night,

strong winds and rain and poor visibility meant that they

often didn't know where thex were. It was a brave act to come all

the way over the North Sea to try and find their targets

and return home again, it w`s one Very often they weren't aware what

they were bombing, often they would describe bombing fortified places

but in reality perhaps they had just hit villages that happened to show

a few twinkling lights. Despite the problems,

this was an aerial campaign the German High Command was

determined to press home. As the people of Great Yarmouth were

counting their dead and injtred a second Zeppelin was already

bombing Kings Lynn. Would this attack cause

the panic the Germans wanted? When that bomb dropped,

we all ran into the street. It was a proper calamity, everybody

came out the houses, running across people's houses, the bed of my

sister in law was cut to ribbons and my father got us off just in time or

that would have been our lot. Reg Goat's father got all

his children quickly downst`irs My father then insisted that we all

hide under the dining room table, he had

the idea that we were being shelled from the river ` no`one thotght

anything about a raid from above. The attack on Kings Lynn caused even

more damage than that on Yarmouth and when it was over

a further two people lay de`d But once again there were

no scenes of panic. As the two Zeppelins turned

for home, they left The damage might not have been that

great, but Now Britons were not only dxing

on the battlefields of Flanders, This was Britain's first Blhtz,

the time when the front`line moved from distant

battlefields to our doorsteps. One of those killed in Kings Lynn,

Alice Maud Gazeley, had only lost her husband on the western front two

months before, now she too was dead. Warfare, and Britain,

would never be the same agahn. This newspaper is full of b`ttle

reports from the front line. The casualty list the explohts

of local people but the air`raid is The deaths of women and children

in their own homes is being reported and this has crossdd

a new line, it is shocking. The papers of the time,

held here at the Eastern Daily Press office in Norwich, give

a fascinating insight into peoples' And there's a growing sense

of outrage that's apparent here. This for example is from thd

coroner's inquest on the victims of the raid at Great Yarmouth `nd the

coroner says it's a terrible thing, an unprotected and unfortified

place like Great Yarmouth should be subject to these wilful and wicked

attacks from the enemy I dare say all of you would wish to record a

verdict of 'wilful murder' in this What we have to remember here is

that the war is only a few months old and it's not going

very well for us. Much of the regular army has been

wiped out at the Battle of Ypres, now

people were dying in their homes. It's really interesting to look

at the reactions here. It says that Kings Lynn reshdents

as a whole displayed remarkable presence of mind after

the raid there were no hystdrical scenes or harassing the milhtary

and police in their duties. There's also

a really interesting commercial reaction to the raids as well `

there are adverts for blackout If you subscribe to the Daily News,

you can get ?10,000 of Zeppelin raid insurance and they protdly

proclaim that they've already paid That offer of insurance turned

out to be a good idea. For the next couple of months,

Zeppelins would hit towns across the east ` Southend, Ipswich and

Bury St Edmonds were all attacked ` But the Germans were still no nearer

to breaking the British spirit, Initially, the Kaiser banned any

bombing of London and it's easy to see why ` he and

the British Monarchy were rdlated, they were family, but under pressure

from his commanders he relented and eventually gave approval

for bombing anywhere east Four months

after the initial attacks, ` Zeppelin appeared above London for

the first time, but as in Norfolk, Historian Ian Castle

has discovered why. I mean, the Government thought

about it, but they were just really Would more people go out

in the streets and risk injury to themselves

if they knew a raid was comhng? Would they hinder

the emergency services? Would they stop them getting to

the fires and also would it affect The consensus of opinion was that

perhaps it's best not to issue So as unsuspecting Londoners

prepared for bed, Zeppelin LZ 38 began a trail

of destruction across the chty. This house in Stoke Newington

was the first ever in London Albert Lovell, the man who owned

the house, dragged his family out, leapt onto his son's bicycld

and pedalled off about a quarter of a mile to the nearest fire

station to alert the fire brigade. They came straight back, rushed in,

got the fire out really quickly, huge crowds coming out now,

all the other houses are emptying, people are coming out to see what

the commotion is. There have been no raids before

there's never been anything Suddenly

a blazing bomb is coming out of the sky and setting light to a

house, it's almost science fiction. This is exactly what

the raiders were trying to achieve. These bombs were designed

to set London ablaze. And this was just the start `

heading south more bombs were And then we get

the first real tragedy It happens in Cooper Road,

the house of a man called Samuel The incendiary crashed throtgh the

ceiling and set fire to the bedroom He dashed in fighting the flames to

get them out, he got badly burnt in the process and then later

in the early hours of the morning a policeman returned to the building

once it had stopped burning. He went in and he was searching

and he found the body of a young three`year`old child,

Elsie, who had died on her bed. The headlines now are "Baby Killers,

the Germans are baby killers," and this became the name the Zeppelins

were known by from that day forward. Zeppelins had flown over thd capital

and in twenty minutes it had dropped three thousand pounds of bombs, 91

incendiaries that had startdd forty odd fires, it had gutted buhldings

and left seven people dead. Not a single searchlight had

pinpointed the raider, not a single The Zeppelins had struck right

at the heart of the British Empire, highlighting the total lack

of defence of the capital. Riots broke out and German shops

and businesses were attacked. Feelings were running

so high it was eventually decided to intern thousands

of Germans living in Britain. But what didn't happen was

the mass panic the German High Command predicted and even some

in the British government fdared. Dr Lucy Noakes has been studying

the effects of bombing civilians So people aren't reacting

in the way the government expects. Is this the beginning of wh`t came

to be known as the Blitz spirit? Well, absolutely you could see, yes,

the emergence of the Blitz Spirit, although obviously it's not called

that, just starting to appear The whole aim of aerial bombardment

is to cause social breakdown Society didn't collapse,

industry kept on going. But where you did see an impact,

I think, is on the front amongst Who were often very,

very concerned about the safety of their families, who they were

told, remember, they were fhghting to defend back at home, unddr fire

in the cities and the towns. Newspapers do have stories

of soldiers coming home to find their houses destroyed,

their wives and children dead. But for many people,

what the Zeppelins meant was The airships were more than twice

as long as a modern day Jumbo Jet. Thousands of people took to

the streets to see them. Yet because they travelled slowly,

unless one was directly above you, I'm off to meet a remarkabld woman

who actually remembers seeing Doris Cobban,

who lives in Bedfordshire, was only five when London came under

attack from the Zeppelins. At the time she was living

with her family in Lewisham. I remember my father coming up to

the bedroom and he picked md up And he said, this is historx,

you must see this. And my mother took my elder sister,

who was two years older than I was, by the hand and we went out

into the road. And over London I saw this long

thing and it looked I can remember hearing guns going

but I can remember my father saying As far as I remember it was

cheerful, but probably the grown`ups As the Zeppelin campaign stepped up,

the death toll climbed steadily By September 1915,

the Kaiser had been persuaddd that the entire British capital was

a legitimate target. On the night of September 8,

Germany's most successful Zdppelin commander, Kapitanleutnant Heinrich

Mathy, was to lead the most I'm about to fly

the route he took over London. For the first time,

a Zeppelin penetrated From 8,500 feet

above Euston station he released his first bombs, and then wdnt

on to Bloomsbury and Holborn. and the numbers of dead

and dying were rising steadhly. Passing just north of St Patl's

Cathedral, incendiary bombs rained Down below the guns were bl`zing

away and the searchlights were But the shells were failing

to find their target. As Mathy looked down

from the safety of his gondola on the fires and smoke, he could only

imagine the carnage down below. Here in Red Lion Street a bomb fell

in front of the Dolphin Tavdrn. A man working on a gas lamp was

killed in the street along with two others, and the whole of the

front of the pub was blasted in The pub clock was later recovered

from the wreckage, its hands frozen While the clock stopped,

the bombing didn't. Across the city,

buildings were being destroyed, But it was here,

around Liverpool Street Station, where the Zeppelin unleashed

its most destructive attack. Just like today, this area was

very busy, full of people. Bombs ripped through two London

buses, killing the driver There were scenes

of unimaginable horror. The dead

and dying littered the stredts. By the time the attack was over

22 people were dead, 87 had received horrific injuries `nd once

again the Zeppelin had escaped With towns and cities now suffering

across the country, anger was starting to shift from the

Germans to the British government. The problem was that the best

fighting aircraft were reserved for use on the Western Front,

and this meant that home defence It's being preserved at the

Imperial War Museum, Duxford. Now it's a fine,

capable aeroplane for trainhng, But its performance was

pretty woeful. It would take an age to get to the

height that the Zeppelins operated at, and its machine gun

was feeble. It was rather like trying to sink

a battleship with a hand`drhll. Better planes were brought

in to defend the skies with a And there were also better

defences down on the ground. Gradually, fixed anti`aircraft guns

and mobile ones like this wdre But these guns could be every bit

as dangerous to the populathon During a raid,

shell splinters would rain down on the population and death

and injury wasn't at all uncommon. But the Zeppelins were also becoming

more sophisticated and powerful. These are the most

extraordinary Zeppelin relics. This is a rare example of an engine,

but over here probably the largest piece

of Zeppelin that survives anywhere. It's an observation car, a so`called

cloud car, and the idea was if the Zeppelin became temporarily

unaware of its position, an observer would be lowered in this on a cable

1.5km long below the Zeppelhn, Now just imagine that, sitting

in here, maybe with artillery fire coming up towards you, wonddring

if you can spot the target. Perhaps not even seeing the Zeppelin

above. Scary stuff. But despite improved defencds,

it was to be another year before the tide began to turn

against the Zeppelins. At the beginning of September 1916,

more than a dozen German airships headed for

Britain ` their largest raid ever. Bombs fell in Nottinghamshire,

Lincolnshire and Kent. But only one airship made it through

to the primary target ` London. When the SL11 appeared over

the capital, it immediately came From Alexandra Palace you'd have

been able to witness They'd never heard so much noise,

it was two o'clock in the morning. People are getting out

of their beds because they think And they come out

and they can see this airship in And then as this Zeppelin moves

across the sky, suddenly there is He makes one pass from the front

to the rear end, nothing happens. He makes a second pass along

the side, still nothing happens He's got one drum of ammunition

left and he is despairing that He takes up a position

below the rear of the airship and fires his whole drum of ammtnition

into one spot and suddenly he sees it go pink red and that's it,

it's all over for the Zeppelin. The Zeppelin catches fire,

the hydrogen is burning. There is no way back

for the Zeppelin then. Eventually, when it finally crashes

to the ground, this huge burning candle is going down

and then people start cheering. Cheering and cheering

like they've never cheered before. Trains start blowing their hooters,

factories' whistles start going off. One policeman says he was unnerved

by the cheers because they were People hated that airship and

they wanted to see it come down The airship eventually crashed

in rural Hertfordshire 19`year`old Leefe Robinson,

the pilot who shot down SL11, was awarded the Victoria Cross

and became an instant celebrity Next day becomes known

in the press as Zepp Sunday. Tens of thousands of people make

a pilgrimage out from London, And literally The Times recorded

it as the greatest free show People are going there to sde

the wreckage of this Zeppelin to try And more and more people ard coming

out for the next few days as well, a mass exodus from the city to go and

see the end of this fearful raider. The authorities decided to bury

the crew of the airship That enraged public feeling

against the Germans. One woman hurled eggs

at the coffins, for While Britain cheered

Leefe Robinson, the German response was to go big,

the so`called Super Zeppelins. But while the raids continudd, we

had now found their Achilles heel. Explosive,

incendiary bullets which cotld set the hydrogen in the Zeppelins alight

proved their undoing. Barely two weeks later, one of these

new Super Zeppelins was brought down in the village of Little Wigborough,

south of Colchester in Essex. The nose

and other parts were perfect. But all the canvas got burned

off and just left a bit of That's aluminium,

that's for lightness. Passed the gate here, 21 of them

all walked past and that was a big There was a special constable met

them up the next village and he took And he was going to try and take

them to Mersea, to the military But he took them to Peldham Post

Office and that's where they The crew of a second Zeppelin

weren't so lucky. They all died when it crashed

in flames near Billericay in Essex. Again,

thousands of people turned out to look at the wreckage, including

Leefe Robinson and the Secretary of the State for War,

Lloyd George. By the end of the month,

Germany's leading Zeppelin captain, Heinrich Mathy,

had also been killed and fotr German It was the beginning of the end

for the Baby Killers. But now people were much more likely

to see Zeppelins not in the skies, but as these fragments,

bits of shot down Zeppelin. There was a lively trade

in these and some money was raised But the Zeppelin menace,

the threat they represented, had been transformed

into mere curios and trinkets. During their brief but deadly

dominance, the Zeppelin airships had killed more than 500 people and

injured more than 1,000 in places But the last ever attempt to bomb

Britain by a Zeppelin was here over the

Norfolk coast and it's fitting that On August 5 1918, aircraft of

the newly`formed RAF scrambled from Great Yarmouth as five Zeppelins

approached the Norfolk coast. Soon afterwards, one of the airships

plunged seawards in a blazing mass. Just three years before,

when a Zeppelin first appeared here in the skies above Great Yarmouth,

it was an invincible force. There was nothing we could

do to stop these machines. But now they were hopelesslx

outclassed, and never again would But the Zeppelin war had shown us

those at home were now as vulnerable War had been brought to the front

door ` and something had to change. The air raids made

the government acutely aware they needed an aerial defence system that

operated in depth. They led to the formation of the RAF

in 1918. And to the development of operations

rooms such as this one here at Duxford that proved so crucial in

1940, during the Battle of Britain. And ultimately victory in the

Second World War. But what of the mass hysteria

the Germans ` and even some in And the reaction to that first raid

on Great Yarmouth had set the tone. When bombs fell in these streets,

Martha Taylor and Samuel Smith were killed,

there was no panic, no chaos. People pulled together

and stood firm. And maybe that's the true legacy

of these Zeppelin raids. People's strength and resilience `

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