12 FEATURE 1916 ZEPPELIN RAID
Edinburgh local Andy Arthur
recalls two explosive nights in
Edinburgh’s war history
I
t was fittingly dark and late when I started to write
this, the story of the Zeppelin air raid on Edinburgh
and Leith of 2-3 April 1916. It is a longish story
which I’ll break down into three parts. Hopefully,
I can clarify a few points and add some extra
details to complement other tellings of it.Part 1: Prelude
The frightening and fascinating new technology of
Zeppelins burst quite literally into the British public
consciousness on 19-20 January 1915 when an attack
on Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn and Sheringham left
four dead and fifteen injured. Follow up raids are a
failure, until bigger and more capable Zeppelins arrive
and in April and May 1915 towns across the southeast
of England from Ipswich to Dover are targeted and hit.
Three are killed and there is public outrage.
Public and newspaper ire is directed as much at the
authorities for failing to protect the populace and smite
the aerial menace as much as at the German military. In
September, a Zeppelin humiliatingly appears with
impunity over London. By the end of 1915, 203 people
have been killed and a further 711 injured in monthly
raids over (mainly) the Eastern and South Eastern
counties of England.
The authorities have been largely impotent in
response, but try to mobilise the public outrage as a
recruiting tool.The Daily Mail is amongst popular
newspapers which offer its loyal readers a compensation