RARE L-33 German Zeppelin 1916, crashed Essex, fabric piece

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RARE L-33 German Zeppelin 1916, crashed Essex, fabric piece

A framed souvenir piece of  Fabric from the German Zeppelin L33 ,  crashed 24th Sept 1916, Little Wigborough Essex. Donated by Mr Thomas Lewis of New Hall cottages.

The third raiding period during the 1916 Zeppelin offensive began when 12 navy airships headed for England, late in the afternoon of September 23rd. The ships, were led by Heinrich Mathy in the L31, and flew over the southern English coast.

This route assured a strong tail-wind and speedy flight past the most dangerous anti-aircraft areas over London. Smaller Navy ships L13, L14, L16, L17, L21, L22 and L23 took the direct route to the Midlands.

The Commander of L33, Kapitänleutnant der Reserve Alois Böcker, arrived over London’s East End, dropping devastating bombs onto Bromley-by-Bow, Bow and Stratford. These fired a lumber yard, oil depository, then demolished a row of houses, killing six people, injuring another twelve. The “Black Swan” public house was destroyed, killing four of its unsuspecting patrons !

Its mission accomplished, and turning back, a defensive shell fired from the British defence guns at Bromley, Kent, exploded inside the L33, with fatal consequences.

L33’s crew dropped much of the water ballast, (reported by ground spotters as a “smoke screen”) then drifted East, losing 800 feet of altitude each minute.

An airborne RFC pilot, 2nd Lt Alfred de Bath Brandon, MC., had previously shadowed the airship and decided to attack his enemy with several drums of Brock-Pomeroy ammunition – but no effective contact resulted……

 Despite the shell burst squarely inside one of the hydrogen cells, for some inexplicable reason, the gas did not catch fire, but merely escaped allowing the damaged L33 to land intact in Knapp’s Field and Five Acre Glebe Field, near New Hall Farm cottages and Peldon / Little Wigborough Church), north of Mersea Island, Essex.

Alois Böcker’s duty was to destroy the airship so she would not fall into enemy hands. His crew knocked on the doors of local homes and cottages to warn the families of his intention to destroy the dirigible. They then ignited the ship’s sensitive documents by making a puddle of gasoline inside the control gondola, and firing a flare into it. They also set fire to the hydrogen in one of the punctured gas cells. Normally it would have exploded violently and set fire to the rest of the ship, but the gas hissed upward in a bright jet that rapidly diminished, and went out. Having no more flares or matches, they left the scene to avoid capture by the Home Guard. 

RARE L-33 German Zeppelin 1916, crashed Essex, fabric piece