Source: Leicestershire War Memorials Project.
Loughborough Echo
Friday February 4th, 1916
Zeppelins Over Six Counties

The Zeppelin raid of Monday – the most formidable which has yet been made – has, according to the official figures, been responsible for 54 deaths and 67 cases of injury. No fewer than 220 bombs are believed to have been dropped over an area including Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire. Except in one district the damage is said to have been “not considerable” and it is stated that no military damage was caused. The following reports were issued by the War Office on Tuesday:

“A Zeppelin raid by six or seven airships took place last night over the eastern and north-eastern and Midland counties. A number of bombs were dropped, but up to the present no considerable damage has been reported. A further statement will be issued as soon as practicable. The air raid of last night was attempted on an extensive scale, but it appears that the raiders were hampered by the thick mist. After crossing the coast the Zeppelins steered various courses and dropped bombs at several towns, and in rural districts, in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire. Some damage to property was caused. No accurate reports were received until a very late hour. The casualties up to the time of issuing this statement amounts to 54 persons killed and 67 injured. Further reports show that the evening’s air attacks covered a larger area than on an previous occasion. Bombs were dropped in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, the number being estimated at 220. Except in one part of Staffordshire, the material damage was not considerable, and in no case was any military damage caused.

German Claims: A Berlin official telegram states: “On the night of January 31st one of our naval airship squadrons dropped large quantities of explosives and incendiary bombs on the docks, harbour, and factories in and near Liverpool and Birkenhead, on the iron foundries and smelting furnaces at Nottingham and Sheffield, and the great industrial works on the Humber and near Great Yarmouth. Everywhere marked effects were observed in the gigantic explosions and serious conflagrations. On the Humber a battery was also silenced. Our airships were heavily fired on from all directions, but were not hit and safely returned.

Toll of Four Bombs in Leicestershire

In one town in Leicestershire where four bombs fell there was very slight material damage, for they all fell in the street. Windows were broken, and the front rooms and in some cases the roofs of houses were damaged by the concussion, but the inhabitants remarked philosophically afterwards that so far as damage to property was concerned it might have been much worse.

One bomb killed six people. Three people who were walking together, a mother and daughter and a young man, all of whom have relatives fighting at the front, were only 10 yards away from the spot where the bomb fell. Others were a greater distance away, and one man was standing over 30 yards away when killed. A number of people in the vicinity had very narrow escapes.

Another bomb which fell half a mile away in the middle of the road killed a young couple who had only been married five weeks, a man standing in a shop doorway, and a woman who was walking along the street. One bomb dropped near a public house and burst through the wall, killing a woman instantly. The fourth bomb dropped in a garden, uprooting a tree.

The Injured

Shortly after the explosion in the same town the police and many civilians were engaged in attending the injuries of the wounded, and in removing the bodies of those who had been killed to the mortuary. The medical men promptly came forward to render what assistance they could, in order to alleviate the sufferings of those who were injured, and thirteen cases were removed to the Hospital for treatment. Of these three – two men and a young lady – succumbed during the night, and it was found necessary to detain two other cases, while the remainder, after being attended, were allowed to return to their homes. This does not include the cases attended by the medical men and the police which were not taken to the Hospital, but were treated on the spot where the injuries were received. For the most part the injuries consisted of cuts sustained by broken glass, and shock, while a few were not so fortunate, for they sustained injuries of a more dangerous nature.

Inquest Yesterday

Yesterday the Coroner held an inquest on ten bodies which were killed in Leicestershire on Monday night. As was to be expected, expressions of sympathy with the relatives were in evidence. The jury was drawn from well-known residents. The Coroner, in outlining the duties of the jury, said it was their duty to consider the details in so far as they led to the cause of death, but at the same time, it was quite open for them to suggest what precautions might have been taken, and what might be undertaken in future. The inquiry lasted for three hours, and was mainly a matter of form – a form which is well recognised in the Coroner’s Courts throughout the country but which, at the same time, is very often occupied by detail rather than by anything of a sensational character, consequently nothing whatever arose in the evidence concerning the locality from which the Zeppelins arrived, nor in fact anything scarcely but a reference to the few moments during which the outrage was committed. The sex and ages of the deceased were as follows:

Man aged 49 ½
Married woman aged 49
Man aged 51
Single woman aged 25
Married woman aged 42
Married woman aged 44
Youth aged 18
Girl aged 16
Married woman aged 29
Man aged 27

A representative of the locality stated that he desired to publicly express his regret at the occurrence, and to extend the deepest sympathy with the relatives of the men and women who had been killed. It was very sad that to the horrors of this terrible war there should be added the slaughter of innocent and defenceless men and women. One little lad, who appeared with a bandaged forehead, and who evidently was more upset than he wished to show, told of how he was in the shop with his father, and having heard one of the bombs fall, they were in a state of wonderment when another exploded and a fragment of the shell caught his father in the chest. His mother rushed into the shop from the house in an endeavour to get her husband into safety, but he had not been many minutes in the living-room when he expired.

Another poor woman came forward and told the jury how that her husband had left home at six o’clock for work two hours before the bomb exploded, and he was killed. Sad as these are, even sadder still was the story of a stalwart-looking soldier in khaki of his family. They lived in one of the houses the windows of which were practically shattered, and consisted of the mother, son and daughter. Hearing the first explosion they ran out to a neighbour, and had scarcely been at the shop door a minute before the a second bomb dropped and cut the three down instantly, the same bomb being responsible for five lives.

Nor was the tale of three other victims less tragic. One was on her way home from work, and two others who were married last November, were on the way home, when they were struck down in this murderous manner and expired before any medical aid could be given to them. Strange to say, in another instance a poor woman had gone to a house for refreshment, and whilst she was being served she was hit by a piece of shell and expired from shock almost immediately, whilst the landlady who was serving was injured, but only slightly.

The same doctor gave evidence relating to the cause of all the deaths. One death arose from internal haemorrhage following the wounding, another from shock, others from wounds received, chiefly lacerating wounds, caused by a violent blow.

In summing up, the Coroner said the medical evidence showed in every case that death was apparently caused by the various wounds and shock produced by the explosion of shells or bombs, and there was also evidence of different people who picked up and found the dead and injured, under circumstances which showed they were injured by these bombs.

The jury, after an absence of twelve minutes, returned a verdict that the deceased met their deaths by explosives dropped from hostile airships, and they desired to express their deepest sympathy with the relatives and friends. The jury added a rider, in which they strongly recommended more efficient and stringent precautions should be taken immediately in regard to the lighting after dark.

The Coroner associated himself with the expressions of sympathy, and added that he thought it only right to congratulate them upon the behaviour of the public under the circumstances. On behalf of himself and the police, the Chief Constable added to the expressions of sympathy, and spoke of the fortitude with which the public had passed through the ordeal.

Research provided by Gerald Berrington from the Loughborough Library Local Studies Department 10/9/2018.