Sub-Lieutenant Warneford bombing a Zeppelin in Mid-air.
(By permission of The Graphic.)
A description of this exploit, which won Sub-Lieutenant Warneford the Victoria Cross, is given on page [382].
Before the war a Zeppelin had travelled 1,800 miles on a single journey, and had remained in the air for thirty-five hours at a stretch. I have already told you that the Germans had built great airship sheds on the island of Heligoland. From this base to Yarmouth, on the east coast of England, is a distance of only 280 miles. It was, therefore, clear that, given suitable weather, a Zeppelin could not only cross the North Sea and return, but could sail over large areas of Great Britain as well. The Germans had long dreamed of making Zeppelin raids on London and destroying it by means of big bombs; but most people in this country laughed at the notion. We pinned our faith to the aeroplane, and believed the Zeppelin to be little more than an expensive failure. No real efforts were, therefore, made to cope with the threatened danger. A few anti-aircraft guns were stationed round the capital, searchlights were installed, street lamps were obscured, and windows were darkened, but that was all.
On the evening of January 19, 1915, the people of Yarmouth were startled by the sound of loud explosions in their streets. The Zeppelins had at last arrived. Bombs were dropped, two persons were killed, houses were wrecked, and holes were blown in the streets. The raiders then flew to Sandringham and King's Lynn, at both of which places bombs were dropped. Happily the King and Queen had left their Norfolk home for London on the previous morning. At King's Lynn four houses were destroyed, several others were damaged, and the widow of a soldier and a boy of fourteen were killed. People stood aghast at this new form of German "frightfulness." It was directed not against fortresses or places of military importance, but against peaceful civilians in open, unprotected towns. It was sheer murder, and was intended to terrorize the British people and bring them to their knees. The Germans have never been able to understand our national temper. They had still to learn that such blows only weld us the more firmly together, and steel us to greater resistance. Every Zeppelin raid brought flocks of fresh recruits to our banners.
A month later a German aeroplane appeared over the Essex coast and dropped bombs on and near Colchester, but no lives were lost. The summer air campaign began in earnest on 14th April, when airships appeared on Tyneside and attempted to destroy the great shipbuilding yards. Bombs were dropped, but almost at random, and very little damage was done, probably because the pilot was out of his reckoning. There were three other raids on the East Coast in the same month; but though houses were wrecked, no lives were lost. On 10th May Southend was attacked. At the first alarm people left their beds and rushed into the streets half dressed. They could see the body of the Zeppelin outlined against the sky, and the bombs falling like balls of fire. Many houses were destroyed, and others blazed furiously, but only one person was killed—the wife of a labourer. During the first nine months of the war the results of the air raids must have been very disappointing to the Germans. Half a dozen people had been killed, a few had been injured, and damage to the extent of some hundred thousand pounds had been done. The Germans were soon to improve on this record. "London has not felt it yet," they said.
A week later a Zeppelin passed over Ramsgate, on which it dropped two dozen bombs, happily without causing any loss of life, and then over Broadstairs and Dover. News of this raid had been sent to the station of the Royal Naval Air Service at Dunkirk, and eight seaplanes at once set out to intercept the Zeppelin. Flight-Commander Bigsworth dropped four bombs on the airship, but it managed to get home, though seriously damaged. On 26th May there was another raid on Southend just as the people were leaving places of entertainment. A lady visitor and a little girl, seven years old, were killed, and others were gravely injured.
The first attack on London was made on the last day of May. The Zeppelins passed over Colchester at ten o'clock in the evening, and twenty-three minutes later were dropping bomb after bomb on the most crowded part of the East End of London. Six people were killed, amongst them a little girl of three, who was burnt in her bed. Many houses burst into flames, and a great deal of damage was done. Earlier in the month German tradesmen, who had been allowed to remain and carry on business in London, had been mobbed; now the people, angered by the murderous raid, attacked their shops, and in many cases wrecked them. In June the raiders once more visited the East and North-East Coast. On 6th June they reached a town on the East Coast during the night and dropped many bombs on it. A large drapery house was destroyed, but a beautiful Norman church hard by escaped almost uninjured. Twenty-four persons were killed and about sixty others seriously wounded during the attack. The outrage was speedily avenged by Lieutenant Warneford, who, you will remember, destroyed a Zeppelin in Belgium the next day.
On 15th June there was another raid on the North-East Coast. A number of workmen ran out of their shops to see the Zeppelins, and were caught by the bomb explosions. Some sixteen of them were killed, while thirteen others were injured. Only one raid, and that an unsuccessful one, took place in July; but in August there were three, all of them on a large scale, and all on the eastern counties. On 9th August Zeppelins swept over a large area and killed one man, nine women, and four children, besides wounding at least fourteen others. One of the Zeppelins was damaged, and on the homeward voyage was attacked and destroyed by our aircraft.
On the 12th the visit was repeated, and three men, eleven women, and nine children fell victims to the bombs, while many others were badly injured, and numerous houses were wrecked. One bomb fell into the middle of a little crowd of old men, women, and young children standing at a street corner in a little country town, and worked frightful havoc. Though the Zeppelins were attacked by anti-aircraft guns, they succeeded in escaping. The third raid was on 17th August, when ten persons were killed and thirty-six persons were injured, including three children. In this case, too, the Zeppelins came under the fire of our guns, and perhaps, as in the former case, one of them was hit.
By this time it was evident that we were without proper means of defence against the enemy airships. They could come and go almost at will, and scatter death and destruction amongst us almost unchecked. After every raid the German newspapers published glowing accounts of the destruction which had been wrought. One of them said, "We cannot rain bombs enough on England." Our Government had given us only the briefest accounts of the raids, and people began to ask why they could not be told the whole truth. Mr. Balfour said that it was necessary to keep the Germans in ignorance of what they had done, and it would be folly to give them information which would help them on future voyages. Up to the end of August, he told us, no soldier or sailor had been killed, and only seven had been wounded. Only on one occasion had damage of military importance been done.
Raids were made on London on the evenings of 7th and 8th September. On the first night outlying districts were attacked, and on the following night bombs were dropped in the very heart of the city. The Zeppelins arrived between ten and eleven o'clock, when the places of amusement were open, and the streets were full of people. Suddenly the sound of explosion after explosion was heard. An American writer thus described the scene:—
"Traffic is at a standstill. A million quiet cries make a subdued roar. Seven million people of the biggest city in the world stand gazing into the sky from the darkened streets. . . . Among the autumn stars floats a long, gaunt Zeppelin. It is dull yellow—the colour of the harvest moon. The long fingers of searchlights, reaching up from the roofs of the city, are touching all sides of the death messenger with their white tips. Great booming sounds shake the city. They are Zeppelin bombs—falling, killing, burning. Lesser noises—of shooting—are nearer at hand, the noise of aerial guns sending shrapnel into the sky. . . . If the men up there think they are terrifying London, they are wrong. They are only making England white-hot mad."
Many people were killed, great fires arose, but no important public building was damaged. The Germans reported that they had practically wrecked London; but though they had done mischief enough, the result fell very, very far short of their boastful claims. Shortly afterwards Admiral Sir Percy Scott was placed in charge of the air defences of the capital.
There were four raids on the East Coast in September, and on 13th October London and parts of the eastern counties were again attacked. In London alone thirty-two persons were killed and ninety-five injured, and the total casualties of that night were fifty-six killed and one hundred and thirteen wounded. A cry now arose that our aircraft should treat German towns to a dose of their own medicine; but there were many who believed that we ought not to repay evil for evil, and that reprisals would not bring the war any nearer to its close.
The October raid was the last which took place during the year 1915. On twenty several occasions during that year the Zeppelins had paid visits to various parts of the East Coast of England. They had murdered no fewer than 199 people, and had inflicted injuries upon 421 others.