When a Zeppelin struck terror into Tynesiders
A NORTH EAST BOMB RAID ON THIS DAY IN 1915
THE events of World War I have all but vanished from living memory. Each passing year sees the conflict, which was one of this country’s defining chapters, slip further into history.
The war took place not just on the killing fields of France and Belgium, but also at sea, in the air, and at various hellish points around the globe.
And, meanwhile, what of the home front?
A new book Northumberland and Tyneside’s War, Voices of the First World War, by Neil R Storey and Fiona Kay tells the often forgotten story.
It recounts the story of the people of Tyneside and Northumberland during the war, both in action on the front line and on the home front.
One of the dramatic incidents told in the book is a Zeppelin raid on Northumberland and Tyneside which took place on this day in 1915.
The giant airship suddenly seen hovering in the skies was the L9 and it was over 500ft long.
One can only imagine the shock local people must have felt when it appeared 102 years ago.
L9 flew over Blyth shortly after 7pm and was and was attacked with rifle fire from the 1st Battalion Nothern Cyclists at Cambois.
It then dropped bombs on West Sleekburn - the first of more than 20 on its way to Newcastle.
Bombs, all which appeared to fall vertically, also fell at Choppington and Bedlington.
Another eight bombs fell on Tyneside, injuring a mother and child in Wallsend - thankfully the
only casualties of the evening.
The Illustrated Chronicle reported how: “The Germans dropped two bombs at the high end of Station Road, Wallsend.”
One hit the house of Mr G Robinson, a worker at nearby Swan Hunter shipyard.
Mrs Robinson was busy bathing her three-year-old daughter at the time. The mother suffered burns to her dead, as did her seven-year-old son.
But Mrs Robinson was the hero of day and it was reported she “rushed through the flames and turned off the gas at the meter”.
Although nobody was killed in the April 14 raid, it marked the beginning of a series of attacks on the North East which would kill dozens of people.
The book, meanwhile, is filled with previously unpublished accounts of life on the front line, the stories of soldiers written in their own words in letters from the front, and in accounts written in the years after that have remained in family archives ever since.
There are also numerous accounts published in local newspapers during the years 19141919 - and not published since.
Illustrated with a selection of photographs from the authors’ extensive archive of original photographs and postcards, many of which have not been published since the war, the book presents a revealing insight into the story of the North East, its military forces and its people during the Great War. ■■Northumberland and Tyneside’s War, Voices of the First World War, by Neil R Storey and Fiona Kay, published by Amberley.