In the early hours of September 25th 1916, citizens of Mapperley and Netherfield were sent into a state of panic as news filtered through that a Zeppelin had been sighted and was heading towrads their towns.
Two zeppelins L 14 and L 17 had come to Britain together over the Lincolnshire coast at about 10.00pm on September 24.
L 17, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Hermann Kraushaar, advanced towards Lincoln with L 14 and then they went separate ways at about 10.45pm.
It was about an hour later that L 17 reached Newark and dropped an incendiary bomb that missed its targets and landed in the River Trent at North Muskham.
But lights from Nottingham were visible 16 miles away and they attracted Kraushaar’s attention. He then set a course towards the city.
Early sightings of the Zeppelin sent the city into near-panic, and lights in households and businesses were immediately extinguished. Unfortunately, the railway companies didn’t follow suit and their lights kept the L17 on course.
At 12.34 am, L 17 reached the outskirts of the city and released a bomb and four incendiaries, with one landing in Netherfield on Dunstan Street, near the junction with Cross Street. It demolished six houses. Luckily, no-one was killed.
The town bombing site remained level for many years and for a while housed a children’s playground. New houses now occupy the site.
Local schoolboy Peter Wooley was one of those to witness the bombing on that night. He wrote about the incident in a letter at the time that was then placed in a school time capsule. The capsule was discovered in the grounds of Netherfield Primary School back in 2015 and the letter was recovered
He wrote: “It was definitely well past midnight when I heard a strange hmmm and then a ghostly apparition (I learnt this new word at Sunday school) at a distance in the sky.
“It looked like an air balloon, but then I heard the air-raid warning. What lights that were on were suddenly extinguished, and looking from my window I saw people appearing at windows and doors up the street. While the whole village plunged into darkness, the shape grew closer even though I could see it was very high in the sky, as it passed directly over us.
“The bottom of my street exploded with a loud bang and the street lit up like a bonfire.”
Following its Netherfield attack, L 17 then zeroed in on the illuminated city railway buildings, dropping a clutch of bombs in a line, from Eastcroft through the Meadows, to Nottingham Midland Station, along Carrington Street, Greyfriar Gate, Wheeler Gate, Lister Gate and on to Victoria Station
Kraushaar released eight high explosives and 11 incendiary bombs during the city raid; the first two causing minor damage but the third had a devastating impact, landing on 32 Newthorpe Street destroying it and neighbouring houses. Alfred Rogers and his wife Rosanna, were killed in the explosion and eight people were left buried in the rubble. The latter luckily all survived their injuries.
Other bombs injured two men at the Midland Railway goods yard and caused damage around the station.
An incendiary that struck No. 3 Chancery Place claimed the life of 21-year-old Harold Renshaw who suffered horrendous burns in the resultant fire. The Nottingham Evening News of September 25, 1916 reported that ‘Harold Renshaw was in bed with his wife when a bomb crashed through their ceiling, setting fire to his clothing. Mr Renshaw was so badly burned, he died soon afterwards in hospital. His wife, lying beside him, was uninjured.’
L 17 bombed Victoria Station on the Great Central Railway, with the last bomb on the city falling on the station’s Platform 7.
At 12.49am the Zeppelin steered away and went on to drop a single bomb in Mapperley. The explosion damaged a house and smashed window panes in the street. The aircraft then followed a course back over Lincolnshire and flying out to sea near Spurn Head, where the 3-pdr AA gun opened fire at her at about 2.00am.
Kapitanleutnant Kraushaar made his final voyage in 1917. On the morning of June 14 he was flying the zeppelin L 43 over the Dutch North Sea coast when he encountered a British seaplane that was on a reconnaissance mission. The L 43 fired ammunition at them. When the seaplane flew over the tail, one of the crew fired a Lewis machine gun at the Zeppelin’s hull. After two hits, the Zeppelin exploded. Kraushaar and his 23-man crew were killed.
Arnold spared