Martyn Taylor recalls when Zeppelins brought destruction to Bury St Edmunds during WWI, defying expectations.
Zeppelins had cells filled with hydrogen. This replaced the usual single balloon idea, allowing them to become very large. These airships looked like cigars and had engines in gondolas outside with some engines reversed for easier docking. Zeppelins used machine guns and bombs.
In 1915, Germany’s Kaiser ordered bombings, wanting Zeppelins to bomb Britain unexpectedly. The first raids hit Great Yarmouth in 1915. Bury St Edmunds defied government orders for darkness by keeping its street lights on.
LZ38 dropped bombs near Bury’s Northgate station. Luckily, it was not accurate due to its height, missing the main target. While flying over Northgate Street, it bombed, missing the Red Cross hospital. The Anchor beerhouse was hit badly by fire, and flats now stand where it was.
The airship turned around and bombed Mustow House. The bomb bounced off the roof and landed safely in the garden. Next, it bombed the lit-up Buttermarket area where shops were damaged, including ones for photos, cleaning, tobacco, boots, clothes, and cycles. The Suffolk Hotel was not hit.
One dog died in the ensuing fire, which was very intense and took until the 1950s to rebuild Days shop site. The Zeppelin then targeted St Andrew’s Hall, a shop for art and stationery, where James Pettitt’s business was also located. The building lost its top floor from the bombing.
Leaving via Crown Street, the Zeppelin dropped more bombs carelessly and moved to the Stamford Court area next. Surprisingly it missed West Suffolk Hospital again. Along the way, it dropped more bombs, looking for Bobys Works, now making munitions, and possibly the army complex, but neither target was struck.
Finally, it left via Westley village, dropping bombs there for no reason and passed through Rougham and Woolpit, dropping its last bombs there. The Bury & Norwich Post condemned the raids in disbelief.
A second Zeppelin raid occurred in 1916. Bury had little WWII damage or deaths, leading people to wonder why these raids occurred. Bury was not a big industrial center then, and being in East Anglia, it was maybe an easy target.
L16 entered Bury via Barton Hill, where people shot at it. It went to Tayfen Road meadows, then turned toward Springfield Road. A bomb destroyed a stable near Durbar Terrace, injuring a horse so badly that officials had to put it down.
A bomb hit 84 Beaconsfield Terrace on Chalk Lane (now Road); thick curtains saved the people inside. Private Hubert Hardiment of the Cambridgeshire Regiment died at 81-2 Beaconsfield Terrace. A bomb killed Annie Evelyn Durreal and two kids living at 75 Mill Road; Annie had five kids total. Harry Frost, a foreman at Bobys Engineering, died being hit by falling brick.
Henry Adams, 61, and George Kimberley Adams, 15, died near Prussia Lane and Southgate Street from an ‘ariel torpedo’. The King of Prussia pub caught fire and was renamed the Lord Kitchener, but Greene King closed it in 1919, with a house now existing instead.
People widely condemned the raids. Funeral processions occurred with many in attendance.
Private Hardiman was buried near Wisbech after an inquest. The other six died and got burials afterward at the borough cemetery. Headstones got made for Frost and Adams. Tom Durreal was away, so the Durreal family headstone was missing at first. The parents of Hardiment and Dureall thanked everyone in the paper.
In 2015, Colin Jamieson, Tom and Annie Dureall’s grandson, contacted the Bury Society as there was no public memorial yet. In 2015, they put up a blue plaque May 29, marking the 1915/1916 raids; Denny Brothers let them use their shop wall. In 2016, a service happened March 31, with families of Durreal and Adams in attendance.
About 40 bombs were turned in. A postscript involves the old St John’s Street Police Station, where some WWI bombs were discovered in a closet. It was believed they had been put there years before, and no one realized they remained. The bomb squad removed them.
Zeppelins raided Britain 51 times, killing 557, wounding 1,358, and dropping 5,806 bombs. Damage reached over £1.5 million, and 30 of 84 airships were destroyed.
Were the Bury raids unfair? Yes, I think so. They likely had bad luck.
Local printers made postcards showing the bomb damage.