Zeppelin bombing raid kills four in England
Second major German attack on British mainland in a month
Yarmouth, 20 January 1915 - Four people have died and many more have been seriously injured following a German air raid in which six zeppelins dropped bombs weighing more than 100 pounds over Norfolk on the east coast of England yesterday.
Amongst the dead was Martha Taylor, a 72-year-old who was walking home along St. Peter’s Plain in Yarmouth when she was struck by a piece of the bomb and was severely mutilated.
Another woman to have lost her life was Mrs. Gazely, whose husband was killed last year in fighting in Belgium.
Two men were also reported to have died in the raid, Samuel Smith, a shoemaker in Yarmouth and Percy Goate, a 17-year-old from King’s Lynn.
A large unexploded bomb found near the fish wharf in Yarmouth. (Image: Illustrated London News [London, England], 23 January 1915]
It was thought that a third man - Private Poulton of the 5th Essex Regiment - had died after receiving wounds to the chest, but it now appears that he has survived and is recovering in hospital.
Attack in the night
The zeppelins struck shortly after 8.30pm and, despite the lights in the towns of Yarmough and King’s Lynn being extinguished, bombs were dropped and destroyed areas of both towns.
One eyewitness said: ‘We were sitting in the living room when my daughter said to me: ‘Mother, I hear an airship or aeroplane.’ I said: ‘Surely, you don’t!’ Then suddenly something came along with a whizz right by the side of me. We got the children out and I found that the windows were broken and that plaster from the roof had fallen right on the children’s heads.’
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
