Source: File:
Zeppelin raid.jpg, 2015. Domestic housing following a Zeppelin raid on Yarmouth
January 1915. January 21,
2014 by norfolklibrarystaff.
21 January 1915. [online] Available at: <http://norfolkinworldwar1.org/2014/01/21/zeppelin-raids-on-norfolk-2/Norfolk in World War One> [Accessed: 21
January 2015].
Along the Norfolk coast sits Cromer -
An ordinary quiet English seaside
town,
With open beaches and traditional
pier -
Where on the evening of 20 January,
Gave witness to an unsettling sight,
That passed over their coastal
skies.
With Cromer town, sitting in a
hollow,
And at that time, in total darkness
-
Was to save them from a bombing raid,
From hovering enemy Zeppelins -
whose
Total numbers remained unverified.
The town authorities had been
sent
Urgent news of Zeppelins, that moved
From the direction of Yarmouth, out,
Potentially towards other coast
towns -
Giving time to shut down all their
lights.
Although sceptic from other previous
False alarms - the people reacted
Swiftly to the appearance of
soldiers,
Giving hurried orders - so the
lights
Everywhere were quickly extinguished.
The presence of those air machines,
Was first seen at 8 p.m. - at least
two
Of them visible - in the company of
one
Aeroplane, they moved slowly over
their
Town - one mile away from the centre.
The dirigible could be traced, to drift
Over the Great Eastern Railway
station -
It could only be assumed the crew
Were off their course - missing main
Streets and buildings, close to the
sea.
The Zeppelin was then steered about,
The high stack of the electric light
works
Out towards another seaside town, -
Five miles westerly - likely to
mistake
Neighbouring Sheringham for Cromer.
Runton – a resort west of Cromer,
Made witness at 8.45 p.m. of the craft.
Some men were talking on the street,
To hear a noise, like a traction
engine.
A nearby soldier realised that this
was
A Zeppelin – then the people all came
Out onto the streets, to see the shape.
Without lights, it was flying low,
at under
Half a mile in the sky – the black
bulk
Moving up the coast to Runton Gap -
At the boundary of Cromer – in a
turn
To the left, the craft vanished out
to sea;
No bombs fell on streets, full of
people.
In Sheringham, one of two Zeppelins
Just visible - circled the church then,
To drop a bomb at Whitehall-yard,
Windham Street – hitting a house.
The shell crashed through the roof,
Right to the ground, without
exploding.
In the drop, the fuse had detached -
One room the shell passed through,
Contained a man and wife and
their
Child, resting on a seat - the
wooden
Frame of which was grazed in the
fall.
Two more bombs were dropped - one
Near the home of Sir Digby Pigott -
Another on wasteland on Priory road,
Fifty yards from a house - A foot
wide
And two foot deep - then in the
Beeston
Ward, fell a fourth, as a plane was
seen,
Flying above houses of Windham Park.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Zeppelin Sighted – How Cromer
Was Missed. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 1 Jan. P.9. Col.3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11357843/Daily-Telegraph-January-21-1915.html
[Accessed: 21 January 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 21 January 2015).
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