Zeppelins Over Essex: an Introduction

To be able to mark the centenary to the day when bombs were dropped over Blackmore by Zeppelin L14 was both a privilege as well as a coincidence. The timing of Easter meant that the High Country History Group had to defer its meeting and Annual General Meeting by one week, from Maundy Thursday, to 31 March.

On Friday 31 March 1916, at 11.45pm, fleeing gunfire from Kelvedon Hatch, German Zeppelin L14, commanded by Oberleutnant Bocker, dropped nine bombs in anger in fields less than half a mile south of Blackmore village. No one was killed or injured but it was clearly a close encounter. Parishioners placed a commemorative window in the church inscribed; “This window is erected as a thank-offering to Almighty God for the protection in the Great Air Raid of March 31st 1916”.

This window has been a source of interest and was the starting point of research a number of years ago culminating in the presentation to the Group. It will be repeated at the Friends of St Laurence AGM at the Priory Church of St Laurence on 16 June 2016 – if you missed it.

The presentation focussed mainly on L14, which visited Blackmore, and L15, which was the first Zeppelin to be shot down marking a turning point for Britain’s defences.

Many present were interested in reading more about the subject and keen to know about the sources used in the presentation. This note will cover this as well as provide some further notes on Zeppelin raids, and an interesting footnote on Bocker, who was captured after his crew landed Zeppelin L33 at Little Wigborough on Sunday 24 September 1916.

Sources

There are many eye witness accounts of Zeppelins, particularly those who saw the downing of “the baby killers” in flames over Cuffley, Great Burstead and Potters Bar. The presentation lent itself to a script with accounts marshalled into a documentary format anchored by a Narrator. (The eventual length was 4300 words, taking about 40 minutes to read.) Over 70 PowerPoint slides were produced many showing a picture of the witness with text read by volunteers in the audience. Voices used were: Essex Weekly News report, 7 April 1916; Revd. Reeve, Rector of Stondon Massey; Revd. Clark, Rector of Great Leighs; Captain Morris; John Fleetwood; and, John Maryon.

These are the sources used in the presentation ‘Zeppelins over Essex: 31 March 1916’.

Newspaper accounts of events are detailed but, by 1916, vague due to the Defence of the Realm Act. The Essex Weekly News provides graphic detail of the air raid but does not mention Braintree as the location where four people were killed. It is referred to as “a town in the Eastern counties”. I discovered only recently the burial place of the family and that there is a commemorative blue plaque on the house in Coronation Avenue. A Sunday afternoon drive took me to the locations for photographs.

The most important local source by far is the writing of Revd. Edward Henry Lisle Reeve, Rector of Stondon Massey, in his account called ‘Materials for a Parish History’. The three volumes were transferred from the Vestry of Stondon Massey church to the Essex Record Office many years ago (and can be found under reference ERO T/P 188/1-3). Reeve had already published a history of the village in 1900, with a supplement in 1914, but this material remains commercially unpublished. (Using this and other material in 2011 I wrote a biography of this last gentleman clergyman.) It is a unique record in that nowhere else is the location of the nine bombs dropped in Blackmore recorded: “between the Soap House and the corner of Blackmore between the Church and Miss Barrett’s house”.

A few miles to the north of Stondon Massey, the Revd. Andrew Clark, of Great Leighs, was writing his wartime diary. It eventually amounted to 3 million words, spanning 92 volumes, and stayed undiscovered in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, until James Munson took on a project to edit the work into ‘Echoes of the Great War: The Diary of the Reverend Andrew Clark 1914-1919’, published in 1985 by Oxford University Press. The work is very overlooked by historians, out of print, and available on Amazon in used condition at ridiculously low cost. The BBC featured Clark and Great Leighs in its four-part series ‘Britain’s Great War’ presented by Jeremy Paxman (January 2014) and ITV used Clark’s words voiced by actor Brian Cox in episode three of its compelling four-part documentary ‘The Great War. People’s Story’ (August 2014), available as a book and on DVD. Although the documentary did not give reference to the date of the diary entry, the extract used was from 31 March 1916: “At 11pm, just as my wife had come up, there were two tremendous explosions … and caused her to call out involuntary ‘Oh Oh’”.

Captain Joseph Morris’ book, ‘The German Air Raids on Great Britain 1914-1918’, was originally published in 1925 and was the first complete account of the German bombardment of Britain during the First World War. It describes the efforts of British airmen in tracking and firing at the Zeppelins. It has been largely superseded following the release of then restricted official reports and documents held at The National Archives. ‘Zeppelin Blitz’ by Neil R. Storey (History Press, 2015) is a full, raid-by-raid, year-by-year account of the Zeppelins. Storey records the two bombs were dropped in Doddinghurst and a further nine in Blackmore on 31 March: Reeve recorded that nine of the thirteen bomb craters were located the following day. ‘Zeppelins Over Southend’ by Ken Crowe (Southend Museums Handbook 24, 2008) includes a map of the courses of the Zeppelins on 31 March 1916 copied from The National Archives records (AIR 1/2123/207/73/7) and confirmed the location and routes of the two Zeppelins L14 and L15 on the night in question.

John Fleetwood was a retired Essex clergyman living in Blackmore when I knew him. He wrote his autobiography ‘Reflected Glory’ in 1979, and I managed to obtain a copy on E-Bay in 2007. (The copy was once owned by Revd. Monty Knott, retired Vicar of Blackmore who has died in 2006, aged 100.) In a few paragraphs he speaks of his memories of being carried out aged 6 into the street of his Walthamstow home to witness the fall of the Cuffley and Great Burstead zeppelins, and of the nightmares he had of the Zeppelin visitations over London. (Do be aware that books with titles which include the word Zeppelin may not be about the subject but general accounts of the First World War.)

Finally, John Maryon. As a local historian I got talking to a family at a Teas In the Tower afternoon at Blackmore church. They had seen the window. They told me that they were direct descendants of the farmer of Snails Hall Farm at Great Burstead where the Zeppelin has come down in 1916 and would I like some information? (I discovered subsequently that my great grandfather farmed very close by, but left no records that I know.) They kindly sent me an eye witness account for publication on the Blackmore History blog, which has also been published in this Journal. John Maryon gives a very different view of the farm being overrun by a hoard of visitors on what became known as Zepp. Sunday (24 September 1916). The presentation could not omit this information and provided further context to the events at home that year. The family photograph by the damaged tree after the Zeppelin was removed and after the media circus had moved on is an important item which I was pleased to publish.

Events in 1916

It was important also to record the other events of 1916, particularly The Battle of the Somme which commenced on 1 July. Reeve’s words add cause for reflection about how terrible this was.

“1st July 1916: As I write, the reverberation of the great guns and explosion of mines are shaking the windows of the Rectory and of all the other houses, I suppose, in the southern and south-eastern counties of England. There is evidently a very heavy bombardment in progress.

“13th July 1916: The Great advance has been in progress for a fortnight. July 1st 2nd and 3rd were especially noticeable and the papers began to bring news of heavy losses.

“20th September 1916: The War Office is calling men up. Lads who are now eighteen are finding themselves called for. … I went yesterday to see the reproduction of the Somme activities on the Cinematograph in London.”

Some supplementary notes
Neil Storey’s book ‘Zeppelin Blitz’ provides detailed information of each Zeppelin night-time raid.

Two days after the bombs were dropped over Blackmore, LZ-90 commanded by Oberlautnent Lehman was fired at by 75 rounds from the Kelvedon Hatch gun without success as it flew between Ingatestone and Blackmore at 11.30pm (2 April 1916). Ten minutes later it was over Stanford Rivers en route for Waltham Abbey.

An earlier visit on 17 August 1915 by the L10 followed the route to Waltham Abbey along the railway around 10.17pm. It was later seen between Ongar and Blackmore where it later attacked Chelmsford. A house was destroyed but the bomb failed to explode becoming embedded in the basement.

At about 10.50pm on 25 April 1916 Zeppelin LZ-97 dropped 47 incendiary bombs along the line of the River Roding between Fyfield and Ongar. The only damage was to one shed in the town. The airship continued to follow the river over Stapleford Abbots.

Finally the story of Zeppelin L33 which was brought to the ground by Bocker at 1.20am on Sunday 24 September. It was fired at by the guns of the London defences, including at Kelvedon Hatch whilst at a height of 9000 feet, and is thought that the splinters from the shrapnel had pieced the hydrogen air bags. Lieutenant Brandon did fire at the Zeppelin from his aeroplane but was unsuccessful in bringing the L33 down with incendiary bullets. He turned his attention towards the L32 but Lieutenant Sowrey was to claim success. The crew of the L33, including Bocker, were taken prisoners but were exchanged in 1918 on condition that Bocker did not fly again. He became a director of aviation training at Nordholz flying his old Zeppelin, the L14. Both had survived the War.