Having just returned from a few days r ‘n’ r in pastures old (Essex) and new (Suffolk) – for those of you who read the Back in Blighty posts, new categories for both counties will be appearing in due course – here’s a single photo, for the moment, from the trip. Not exactly what you would normally expect to find in your local church. Unless this is your local church, of course. Anyway, what could it be? Answers on a post card, etc etc.
Part of frame of a Zeppelin?
Might be. Okay, it most certainly is! And no, I had no idea it was there when I went into the church. The full story in good time.
L48 (aka LZ95) was a German Zeppelin that was shot down by a succession of RFC aircraft over Theberton Suffolk in 1917 with the demise of most of the crew. It had lost its way during a raid on England’s coastline and rather than escaping back across the channel had in error travelled north and left itself more vulnerable to attack from a nearby airbase. It caught fire due to the large number of incendiary bullets fired into it from the attacking RFC fighters and crashed in flames. Apparently many pieces of the craft’s wreckage were appropriated for souvenirs. I suppose those sections are either some of those or from subsequent excavation of the crash site in more recent times?
JG
That’s the basic story, John. There are two pieces of the Zeppelin still in existence, the other piece held at the Ancient House Museum in Thetford in Norfolk. As far as I know the authorities quickly removed the Zeppelin’s remains for military investigative purposes, so I imagine the two surviving pieces were most likely left at the scene at the time. Three men survived the crash, the others being originally buried in Theberton Churchyard; I will tell the whole story in a future post.
Ticked box for follow ups M hope I’ve got it right. M
Right M, if you ticked the ‘follow-up’ box, then you should receive an email telling you that I have replied – and you will receive a mail if anyone else comments on this L48 post, but it only applies to this post. To receive notification whenever I publish a new post you need to tick the ‘Notify me of new posts by email’ box, not the ‘follow-up’ box. Make sense?