Calls to honour war hero Bertie with place on city Walk of Stars
HISTORY has forgotten one of the very first fighter pilots. His stunning victory, which ranks among the RAF’s greatest achievements, is unknown to many.
Now, members of the Royal Air Forces Association are calling for a unique tribute to Egbert “Bertie” Cadbury – a member of Birmingham’s chocolatemaking dynasty – and his finest hour. They want him to have a place on Birmingham’s Walk of Stars. And they want it before the RAF’s centenary on April 1 next year.
The Broad Street tribute to Birmingham icons includes mostly rock stars, actors and football players. There must now be, say campaigners, a real war hero.
Because Sir Egbert, a truly magnificent man in his flying machine, downed Germany’s greatest Zeppelin, the L70.
At 693 feet long, with a maximum speed of 81mph and capable of flying at 23,000 feet, the monstrous blimp was a true leviathan of the skies.
Sir Egbert, a Quaker who turned his back on the religion’s pacifist code, downed the flagship of the Zeppelin fleet on August 5 1918, just months after the RAF was formed.
Major Cadbury was mightily miffed to be forced to leave a concert in which his wife was star singer to tackle L70.
Irritated, he took his De Havilland D4 biplane, with Captain Robert Leckie manning the rear-gun, to an unprecedented 16,400 feet. The lumbering L70 – flagship of the Zeppelin fleet – was strafed close to the Norfolk coast and plummeted to the sea, killing all 20 crew. Those who perished included Fuhrer der Luftschiffe Peter Strasser, commander of all airships.
Lawrence McGowan, of RAFA’s 573 branch, based in Cannock, is leading the campaign for a plaque to Sir Egbert.
“I was doing the research and realised no one in Birmingham knows about this,” he says.
“I suppose he was a hero and I think he should be honoured by either a plaque or slab on Broad Street’s Walk of Stars.
“After all, he destroyed the pride of Germany’s zeppelin fleet.”
Mr McGowan, a 76-year-old RAF veteran, from Huntington, South Staffordshire, adds: “Egbert had to ditch spare fuel and bombs to reach 16,400 feet. That was an achievement in itself.”
L70 was carrying a payload of 8,000lbs of bombs when intercepted by Cadbury. Four other zeppelins in the raid haemorrhaged their deadly cargo and turned tail. It was to be the last zeppelin raid on English soil.
By then, the zeps had already caused carnage. They killed 2,000 British civilians and were responsible for £1.5 million – a colossal amount in those days – of damage.
For the cool-headed another day at the office.
The next day, Major Cadbury wrote to his father: “You will have heard probably before this reaches you that my lucky star has again been in the ascendant, and that another Zeppelin has gone to destruction, sent there by a perfectly peaceful live-and-let-live citizen, who has no lust for blood or fearful war spirit in his veins.”
He received a Distinguished Flying Cross for bagging the L70. He wrote home: “At 22.20 we had climbed to 16,400 feet and I attacked the Zeppelin ahead slightly to the port so as to clear any obstruction that might be suspended from the airship.
“It was a most fascinating sight – aweinspiring – to see this enormous Zeppelin blotting the whole sky above one. The tracers ignited the escaping gas, the flames spreading rapidly and turning the airship into a fireball in less than a minute.
“The L70 dived headlong into the clouds. It was one of the most terrifying sights I have ever seen to see this huge machine hurtling down with all those crew on board.” pilot, it was