Air raid Cleethorpes April 1915

[toofatfortakeoff]

Ive just read a 1970s article and I thin the Journo must have been drunk-the accompanying pic shows verbatim "the L15 lying in the Humber" which I believe to be false.
Also the aerial attack that killed 31 British troops who were alseep in a chapel-was the date right of April 12th or April 1st?
The corsairs were said to split off in one attack-one bombing Thornton Curtis hamlet and Saxby for God knows why which is miles away-what did it do inbetween. Such tiny targets, possibly easy targets.
One Zeppelin scoured Cleethorpes and Grimsby looking for targets apparently going round in circles without dropping a bomb! The Spurn battery opened up on it as did the Clee.Another conflict is that a trawler bombarded the sirship whose engines they heard This all seems to be the mixing of two reports.
anyone know the numbers of the batteries and/or their crew members.
Did the L15 indeed take part in these attacks.
Ta TFFTO

[MikeW]

There was an attack against the Humber area on the night of the 15th/16th April 1915 by the Navy Zeppelins L5, L6 and L7.

One person seems to have been injured and £6498 of damage caused.

Navigation difficulties, strong winds and British "blackouts"prevented the force which was commanded by none other than Strasser in L7, from finding its intended targets in the Humber area.

In fact, L5 bombed Norfolk damaging a wood yard at Lowestoft. L6 bombed Maldon and L7 returned without bombing.


The night before, L9 took the opportunity of turning a reconnaissance into a bombing mission and thought he had made landfall at Tynemouth but was in fact at Blyth!!! His bombs fell in open countryside but minor damage was caused by incendiaries falling on Wallsend.


No other Zeppelin attacks even remotely near Humberside in April.


The "troops in the chapel" sounds very familiar, though I'm sure it was during an attack on the southeast, perhaps Sheerness or Folkstone? If I can dig it out I'll get back.

Mike

[MikeW]

Doh! Your year is wrong - I think you meant April 1916.

At the beginning of April there were four separate Zeppelin raids agains East Anglia and Northern England, not to mention three raids against London.

On the night of the 31st March/1st April 1916 L15 was brought down by AA fire whilst trying to attack London, the craft broke its back and ditched in the sea 15 miles north of Margate.

L22 tried to attack Grimsby, dropping bombs at Humberston and Cleethorpes - this was when the church/billet was hit and 29 soldiers died/53 injured.

I think your journalist stitched the two reports together!

Mike

[Graeme]

According to "The Zeppelin In Comat" by Douglas Robinson, the raid on 31 March/1 April 1916 was carried out by seven Zeppelins, two of which (L9 and L11) aborted the mission:

Heinrich Mathy (L13) came in at Saxmundham but pushed no further than Stowmarket where he dropped all of his bombs despite coming under fire from the ground and suffering at least one hit;

Werner Peterson (L16) crossed the coast at Winterton and made his way to Bury St Edmunds where he dumped all of his bombs;

Alois Bocker (L14) scattered his bombs over a wide area hitting Sudbury, Braintree, Blackmore, Doddinghurst, Springfield, Stanford le Hope and Thames Haven.

Max Dietrich (L22) flew in a feint to the north, hitting a chapel in Cleethorpes that was being used as a temporary billet by the 3rd Manchesters, 25 of whose number were killed and 53 wounded.

Joachim Breithaupt (L15) had been the first to cross the coast had taken a course to the eastern suburbs of London. The airship suffered shrapnel hits over Rainham by the guns at Purfleet, Abbey Wood, Erith Marsh, Southern Outfall, Plumstead Common and Plumstead Marsh. Despite bombs being dumped upon Rainham, the Purfleet gunners scored a hit which tore a large hole in the airship's flank and at around the same time Second Lieutenant Claude Aylward Ridley, flying a BE2c from Joyce Green, fired 20 rounds towards the airship which managed to evade the searchlight beams and disappear into the dark.

Shortly before 22:00, when L15 was east of Brentwood, the airship was attacked by Second Lieutenant Alfred de Bath Brandon flying a BE2c from Hainault Farm. Making three separate attacks, Brandon used a box of explosive darts, incendiary bombs and his machine gun and apparently caused severe damage to L15 which buckled up and fell into the sea shortly after midnight only half a mile from the Kentish Knock lightship.

Six armed trawlers arrived a little while later and one actually opened fire upon the airship until the destroyer HMS Vulture arrived and took off the Zeppelin's crew. The destroyer took the hulk in tow but the airship broke up and sank off Westgate.

In all official accounts the destruction of the airship is given as due to ground fire, Brandon receiving no recognition for his acts although it would seem they were the deciding factor in L15's destruction.

Graeme