It will be the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One in 2014 and talks have already been held about what Brigg might do to mark the milestone next year. We expect details to be firmed up over the next century. It would be good if family snaps in Brigg household collections, plus languishing in old drawers and cabinets, could be copied for display. We have some our granddad, Charles Taylor, who was in "The Lincolns" as were many men from the Brigg area. He was wounded twice but survived, ending military life as a sergeant. Being too old "for the second lot" in 1939-45 he was an NCO in the Brigg Home Guard.
We were meaning to watch the recent TV documentary about the German Zeppelin raids on Britain during the First World War but managed to miss it. Wasn't there supposed to have been a bomb dropped by one of these airships near Wrawby? Hopefully they will repeat the programme and we can catch it second time round.
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The Wrawby Zeppelin bomb story is within the pages of 'Wrawby at War' - published by the Wrawby History Group....and the book is on sale at the TIC.
Essentially, 31st January, 1916 was intended to be the first mass Zeppelin raid both German Navy & Imperial Army - on a single target - Liverpool - the Zeppelins were navigationally aided by following a radio signal whilst over the North Sea - but over land, the radio signal was distorted by the terrain - there was some heavy cloud cover over much of England on the day - with hail and snow storms.
For the first 2 years of WW1, the airship could overfly Britain with impunity - there was no proper air defence and aeroplanes were often too sluggish to catch (speed and rate of climb) the Zeppelins that were often cruising at 10,000 feet and 60mph..
Consequently, two airships mistook the reflective wet coal heaps around Walsall (Spaghetti Junction on the M6) as the River Mersey and bombed Walsall; another 3 raided Burton-Upon-Trent - others ended up over North Wales, while only one of ?10 Zeppelins actually reached and bombed Liverpool.
Naval Zeppelin L13 (with others) was seen over Derby at about 7.30pm (the crew thought it was Manchester)....and was seen again over Burton-Upon-Trent (with others) at about 8.30pm.
At about 9.45pm, there was a report of a Zeppelin over the Humber...and orders went out to turn-off lights and Scunny steelworks did their best to dampen down the furnaces.
At about 10.45pm an official account indicates that 'a sound like a thundering train was heard in the direction of Burton Stather' and there were some reports of explosions in that directions.
L13 approached Scunny from the north and circled the town in an anti=clockwise direction - both high explosive bombs and incendiary bombs were dropped - a couple of houses in the top part of Revendale Street in the town centre were destroyed.
An incendiary device went through thro' the roof of an 84 year lady (a Mrs Markham) in Trent Cottages (now Trent Street) who was just going to bed - it landed on her bed...and 'a plucky neighbour picked it up with a shovel, put in a bucket of water and threw it out the window'.
Another guy was blown off his bike by a bomb and was hurled thro' the doors of the police station.
Circling, L13 then attacked the steelworks with high explosives and incendiaries - the steelworks remained undamaged although 3 (or was it 4 workmen) were killed in the raid.
The police superintendent, Holmes who rushed out of the police station on his, followed the Zeppelin and was injured in an explosion in Dawes Lanes.
The British already knew that the Germans incendiary bombs failed to ignite (properly), but didn't want to broadcast the fact in-case it alerted the Hun. A mass of such devices were found embedded in the soft sand in old iron ore workings at Pit Bottoms (now along the Winterton Road out of Scunny).
Zeppelin L13 was last seen over a doctor's house in Ashby 'just before midnight'.
A report of the raid says the Scunny townfolk fled into the countryside - many 'even in their night-clothes' on the cold and bitter night .. as they failed to demonstrated 'moral courage'
In 1924, an unexploded incendiary bomb 'with wings' was discovered on the fork of a tree by a Mr Hankin who was lopping branches from trees in a garden in Barton Road, Wrawby.
From Ashby to Spurn Point (an easily recognisable navigational feature from above) it is directly east; one of the German radio signal was often directed towards the mouth of the Humber - Broughton Woods and Wrawby lie directly beneath such a route.
It is assumed that Zeppelin crew were disposing of any surplus armed incendiaries before returning to the base - hence the bomb in the tree. (But are there other devices lying in Broughton Woods and elsewhere?)
PART 2 - As Hull and the Humber had been raided on at least 2 other occasions (1915) - Grimsby had also been attacked and Scunny raid was the ?4th 'local' attack - the Royal Flying Corps established bases at Elsham Top; Kirton Lindsey and Scampton in the spring of 1916 (the Zeppelin Zone) - but by the summer of 1916, the
Zeppelins were being slaughtered by a combination of better RFC aircraft and the use of a combination of explosive and tracer bullets - one bullet shot holes in the gas bags, while the hot tracer ignited the gas....the captain of L13 was shot down in flames and killed when he jumped from his burning Zeppelin in October, 1916 - just to the north of London.
SUGGESTION:
to commemorate the 100 anniversary of WW1.....
The solid geology of the Wolds - chalk - is the same as the North & South Downs and is very similar to the strata of Wiltshire Downs. The latter is famous for turf-cut figures, ie The White Horse.
My proposal is to locate a suitable site - possibly the scarp slope to the east of the nearby Low Villages around Bonby... and cut out a turf profile of a WW1 soldier....
Such a project will hopefully attract a government grant for such a unique scheme.
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