Raid by Zeppelin L32 on Crockenhill, Kent

By Susan Pittman

Reference is made to the raid by Zeppelin L32 on Crockenhill in Peter Titley’s intriguing article, A First World War Bomb at Penhurst (KAS Newsletter 113)1. The incendiary device found in Penshurst may have come from this vessel. Still, perhaps more certain is a piece of shrapnel from bomb casing which was picked up by Aleck Clements on the morning after the raid in Crockenhill which remains with the family. The account of the raid by the Clements family adds perspective to this historic event.

Crockenhill was selected in 1916 to form one station in an outer ring of extra air defences around London. On 20 February 1916, an anti-aircraft gun was installed at Wested on the North Downs plateau above Crockenhill. Also, a searchlight was set up on allotment land on the edge of the village2.

These two installations were to work in conjunction with an aeroplane operating from an airfield near Farningham Road Station.

It was an attempt to penetrate this defensive line that L32 tried to put out the searchlight3.

The air raid of 23/24 September was a significant event in the village. Elsie Clements, who lived at Tilecroft, Stones Cross Road, her husband, Aleck, and young family, kept a diary from 1909, and in the war years recorded thirty-six Zeppelin and aeroplane raids passing overhead, including the occasions when the gun at Wested fired4. However, by far the closest encounter with a Zeppelin came in late September 1916.

Elsie’s diary entry for Tuesday 24 September reads as follows:

“Heard a funny noise at quarter to 2 a.m. asked Aleck who was awake what it was, but could tell it was a Zepp travelling near, it dropped 5 bombs and a torpedo it appeared to be after the searchlight, which was near High Croft Hall, where a quantity of glass was broken. The torpedo fell in one of Lee’s orchard Deepshades, where about two hundred fruit (trees) were destroyed & an immense hole made. One bomb dropped in Aleck field just above Gosen Hill. Grace & her mother who were alone in the house, thought the roof was coming in. Lil who was sleeping here was very frightened, had a fit of shaking & had to have a dose of brandy. Aleck looked out back and front, but could see nothing but searchlights. Soon after we heard clapping & cheering & heard that the Zepp that passed over us had been brought down in flames at Billericay, the crew being dead.

Mab took Beryl to the chapel in the morning, she was very good. Grace came up just before 11.00 to tell Aleck about the hole in his field, until then he had no idea. Lil took Joyce out for a walk up Gosen Hill before dinner. We all went out about 3.30 & paid a visit to the hole in Lee’s field, thousands went during the day & a collection was made for the Cray Cottage Hospital & Red Cross fund. Syd Everest found a propeller off the torpedo. Lil brought the children home & got tea made while Aleck & Elsie went on to Gosen Hill. Aleck stayed at home, Elsie went with Grace to evening service, Harvest Festival, and sat in Baker’s pew.”

The raid was also reported in Orpington & St. Mary Cray District Times of 29 September 1916 under the head-lines ‘A Wakeful Night - How the Zeppelin fell in flames in Essex – A Thrilling Spectacle (by an onlooker)’. Most of the article described the end of the Zeppelin. Still, the tailpiece headed ‘Some Bombs which fell Harmlessly’ mentioned that a reporter had cycled over to the fruit fields in the neighbourhood of a particular village, where bombs had been dropped. He inspected the hole at Deepshades, which had been cordoned off and was large enough to bury a horse and cart in5.

He said the visitors paid cheerfully to see what damage a Zeppelin might do. In the village itself, he saw many windows blown out by the blasts.

There are queries which arise from Elsie Clements’ account. First, there is a discrepancy over the time she heard the Zeppelin – 1.45 a.m. Since L32 was shot down over Essex at

1.10 a.m., this must be inaccurate. Perhaps she forgot the newly introduced Summertime, making it

12.45 a.m. which would tie in with official accounts of the raid as being

12.50 a.m. Second, official records also mention seven bombs, but no torpedo6. The propeller found may have come from the tail end of a large carbonite bomb. In 1916 a new type of high explosive carbonite ‘torpedo bomb’, designated PuW, was introduced. It was larger, long, and cylindrical, and with the propeller-like tail, may have looked like a naval torpedo.

The air raid of 23/24 September has proved a fascinating and, in some parts, terrifying, account of wartime bombing in Kent during the First World War. The same searchlight and anti-aircraft sites were used in the Second World War, so the strategic importance of Crockenhill in defence of London continued.

Above

Fig 1: Bomb casing shrapnel found by Aleck Clements after the attack by Zeppelin L32 on the searchlight at Crockenhill, September 1916, wrapped in the original newspaper of the period.

References

1 Titley, P. 2020 A First World War Bomb at Penhurst, Kent Archaeological Society Newsletter 113: 8–10

2 Bernard Clements, Elsie’s son, made extracts from the 1909–1923 diaries, and Susan Pittman photocopied the diary from 1914–1916 (both in the Pittman collection)

3 Miscellany 2 paper by Dr Wilf Duncombe A First World War Airfield at Farningham (Farningham & Eynsford Local History Society no.20, 1997

4 For more about the raid and the sightings reported by Elsie Clements see www.felhs.org.uk

(Home Page click WW1)

5 Dr Susan Pittman The Lee Family – Farmers at Crockenhill, Kent (Darenth Print 2019) for more about the various locations and the Lee family

6 The War in the Air Professor Sir Walter Raleigh (6 volumes OUP 1922–1939)