The Brilliant Exploit That Marked the First “Down” of a “Zepp” by
Airplane
The air raids on the coast towns of England were regarded as the most
brutally wanton of the cowardly “frightfulness” tactics of the Germans
employed against England. The killing of non-combatants, chiefly women
and children, and the destruction of private property were the only
material results of those raids, but the moral indignation of the world
was aroused. After a period of suspension of this sort of warfare the
Germans once more, in June, 1915, began raiding the East and Northeast
Coast, the most serious of any that had happened being the raid of June
6.
The raiders sailed over a town on the East Coast during the night and
bombed it at their leisure. One large drapery house was struck and was
completely wrecked, the entire building—a somewhat old one—collapsing.
Adjoining these premises, with only a narrow roadway between, there was
one of the most beautiful Norman churches in England. The church was
wholly uninjured save a few of the panes in the glass windows. A rumor
was spread over the country, and was generally believed, that a large
number of girls and women “lived in” on the draper’s premises, and were
killed when the house was struck. This rumor was false. The drapery
firm had ceased to house its attendants on the premises for a couple
of years before the raid. Some working-class streets were very badly
damaged, a number of houses destroyed, and many people injured. It was
one of the peculiarities of this raid that, unlike results from most of
the others, all the people injured were struck while indoors. The total
casualties here were twenty-four killed, about sixty seriously injured,
and a larger number slightly injured.
The outrage was quickly avenged by a young British naval airman, Flight
Sub-Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford, in one of the most brilliant aerial
exploits of the war—the first Zeppelin brought down by an aeroplane.
Mr. Warneford, who was only 22 years of age, was the son of an
Anglo-Indian railway engineer, and before the war was in the mercantile
marine. He went home to “do something” for his country, enlisted in
the 2nd Sportsman’s Battalion, was transferred to the Royal Naval Air
Service, passed the tests for a pilot’s certificate within a few days,
and was given a commission. He was noted at the flying school as one of
the most brilliant pupils the instructors had ever known. A month after
obtaining his commission he went to France, where his reckless daring
soon made him conspicuous in a service where venturesomeness is the
general rule. On the morning of June 7, 1915, at 3 a.m., he encountered
a Zeppelin returning from the coast of Flanders to Ghent, and chased
it, mounting above it and sailing over it at a height of 6,000 feet.
Zeppelin and aeroplane exchanged shots, and when the Zeppelin was
between one and two hundred feet immediately below him he dropped six
bombs on it. One bomb hit the Zeppelin fairly, causing a terrific
explosion, and setting the airship on fire from end to end.
[Illustration:
© _Leslie Weekly._