HERE WERE BURIED 16 GERMAN AIRMEN
CREW OF ZEPPELIN L 48 17th JUNE 1917
"WHO ART THOU THAT JUDGEST ANOTHER
MANS SERVANT" ROM. XIV-IV.
LZ95, coded L.48, the first 644 ft. 8 in. (196.5 m) U-Class Zeppelin, had its maiden flight on 22nd. May 1917. She had a control gondola much lighter than previous airships and incorporated other improvements that enabled her to operate smoothly at 17,000 ft. (5,180 m)
On 16/17th. June 1917, six Zeppelins were tasked to attempt an attack on London. Two were kept in their sheds by high winds and another two were forced to return home due to engine failure. L.42 bombed Ramsgate, Kent hitting a munitions store.
L.48, of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy), commanded by Franz Eichler was the last of the six to get into the air from her base at Nordholz near Cuxhaven, North Germany.
She crossed the Suffolk coast a little north of Deben at 17,000 ft. (5,180 m). Eichler, unsure of his position decided to head towards Ipswich, and en route dropped 9 high explosive bombs on Falkenham, 16 on Kirton and 3 on Martlesham. They fell mostly in fields, doing little damage.
At 03:00 L.48 received a radio message from a German observation ship in the North Sea. It reported a good westerly wind at 13,000 ft. (3,960 m) which cheered Eichler, who was in trouble. He reckoned that the tail wind would blow the Zeppelin safely home, but his luck run out over Harwich, Essex. L.48 was losing height, her forward engine had failed and the rudder controls were faulty. Worse, a British air attack was under way. The Zeppelin started drifting from side to side and, instead of going east, turned north towards Aldeburgh and Leiston at a height that favoured Royal Flying Corps (RFC) fighters.
A Royal Aircraft Factory B.E. 2c, serial number A8896, flown by Lt. E.W. Clarke from the Armament Experimental Station (AES) at Orford Ness, Suffolk, was the first to attack. Between Orford Ness and Harwich he fired 4 drums of Lewis gun ammunition at the airship which was 2,000 ft. (610 m) above him. For all the expenditure of ammunition there seemed to be no effect on L.48.
A second AES fighter, a Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2b, serial number B401, attacked next. Pilot Lt. Frank D. Holder and crewman Sgt Sydney Ashby also fired 4 drums of Lewis gun ammunition, plus an additional 30 rounds from a 5th. drum before their gun jammed. They were approximately 5 miles from Leiston and within 900 ft. (275 m) range of their target. Previously they had seen their 'sparking fizzling tracers whizz away through the dark night sky, like thousands of cigarette ends all flicked at the same time, streaking away being frustratingly absorbed into the giant shape of the invader'. However they had achieved success and a small fire had started in the stern near the tail, a small glow initially, but one that slowly gained in size.
Frank Holder survived a crash at Eastbridge, Suffolk a few weeks after the L48 episode and much later became deputy mayor of Chelmsford, Essex
Sgt Ashby died in a crash at Martlesham, Suffolk later in 1917.
Capt. Robert H.M.S. Saundby in a Airco D.H.2, serial number A5058, was the next pilot to attack. He managed to fire 2.5 drums of ammunition at the target. Now there was a really serious blaze in the rear section of the airship and L.48's tail section began to take on a 'Chinese Lantern' effect as it was illuminated from within.
Captain Saundby was later awarded the Military Cross for his part in this action. He continued his career in the RAF, rising to be deputy commander-in-chief of Bomber Command in WW2. He was knighted in 1944 and retired from the RAF in 1946 with the rank of Air Vice Marshall.
As the airship fell it was finally chased by Canadian, 2nd. Lt. P Watkins in a Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.12, serial number 6610, from 'A' Flight, 37 (Home Defence) Sqn. at Goldhanger, Essex . He fired another 2 drums of ammunition from 2,000 ft. (610 m) down to 1,000 ft. (305 m) and then another drum from 500 ft. 150 m). "She broke into a 'V' shape and fell slowly past me, the flames roaring so loudly that I could hear them over the sound of my engine” he wrote. It was Watkins who would be credited with the final 'kill' of L.48.
Lt. Watkins was killed in France in 1918.
German records show that L.48 made her first flight at Friedrichshafen on 22nd. May 1917 and flew a total of 3,790 miles (6,099 km) before crashing at 03:30 on Sunday 17th. June 1917 at Holly Tree Farm, Theberton, near Leiston, Suffolk, little more than three weeks after her first flight.
L.48’s second in command, Otto Meith was hurled back against the wall of the radio compartment. With earphones on he had not heard a warning of the attack. A big explosion was followed by smaller ones as gas tanks were touched off. As the Zeppelin struck the farms cornfield the control gondola was split from the rest of the airship. Meith suffered broken thighs and burns. He woke up in hospital to hear a voice asking him “Do you want a cigarette?” Otto Meith died on 30th. April 1956.
Executive officer Heinrich Ellerkamm was the other L.48 man to survive the war. “The ship was crashing at a terrific rate and the air whistled as she cut her way through it,” he remembered. “The gas bags were burning away like mad, a sound just like greasy paper does when you throw it on the fire. Suddenly the ship’s stern crashed to pieces with a fearful din. I only knew that a chaotic jumble of girders, bracing wires, benzene tanks and metal fittings were coming down on my head. My fur coat was burning on my back. I was imprisoned in a cage, the bars of which were a glowing a red-hot mass. With all my strength, I pushed against a girder. Another girder gave way in front of me and left a gap free. I crawled along the ground and felt grass. I rolled over two or three times, then found myself in the open air.”
Heinrich Ellerkamm, was the last living survivor of the crash and died on 4th. August 1963.
Engineer Wilhelm Uecker, survived the crash but was badly burned. He died in hospital from complications and influenza on Armistice Day, 11th. November 1918.
The three survivors from the crash of L.48 were the first and last men to escape from a burning airship in England.
Mr. and Mrs. Ulkey of Holly Tree Farm saw the crash from 1,300 ft. (400 m) away. Over the coming hours they provided well water for thirsty servicemen, notably a Suffolk Regiment cyclists battalion that threw a cordon around the wreckage. Despite all efforts to keep people away, an estimated 30,000 people visited the crash site and countless bits and pieces of wreckage were taken away.
On 20th. June, Ipswich coroner Bernard Pretty held an inquest in the front garden of the Staulkey farmhouse. That afternoon the burials took place with men of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service lining the route. A wreath on top of Eichler’s coffin read 'To a very brave enemy from RFC officers.
Meith sent this message to friends from his prisoner of war camp. “The British fighter pilots now have machines with greater altitude capacities and longer range. Furthermore, they seem to have incendiary bullets that cannot fail. The Zeppelin is doomed.”
The crew of L.48 who were killed were:-
Kapitanleutnant Franz Georg Eichler
Obermaschinistenmaat Heinrich Ahrens Maat
Obermaschinistenmaat Wilhelm Betz
Obersignalsmaat Walter Dippmann
Obermaschinistenmaat Wilhelm Gluckel
Bootsmannmaat Paul Hannemann
Signalmaat Heinrich Herbst
Bootsmannsmaat Franz Konig
Funkeltelegrafienmaat Wilhelm Meier
Obermaschinistenmaat Karl Milich
Obermaschinistenmaat Michael Neunzig
Obermatrose Karl Ploger
Obermatrose Paul Suchlich
Korvettenkapitan Viktor Schutze
Obermaschinistenmaat Herman Van Stockum
Steuermann der reserve Paul Westphal.
The crewmen of L.48's were buried in St. Peter's churchyard at Theberton, Suffolk. In 1964 the bodies were exhumed and reburied at the German Military Cemetery at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire.
