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Rockcutting

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Re the Zeppelin L61.......it flew over Runcorn (did it go over Warrington too ?) on the evening of 12 April 1918 in an attempt on Liverpool.  It's commander flew as far west as Runcorn, but turned north in the belief that he was further east than he actually was. He dropped his bombs over Ince, Wigan and Aspull; seven people were killed in Wigan, they were the most westerly victims of German air raids in WW I in the last large scale Zeppelin raid of the war.
 
Some interesting info and a photo of it here about the attack on Bold and Wigan.....
 
http://www.suttonbeauty.org.uk/suttonhistory/suttonwar.html#zeppelin
 
snippet of info from the page ....

"The photograph below is of the actual Zeppelin L61 airship that flew over Lancashire on April 12th 1918 and which bombed Bold. It was commanded by Kapitanleutnant Ehrlich with a crew of 19 and it crossed the Mersey above Malton at 18,000 feet. At 11.17pm the first of its bombs fell, damaging a milestone on the A57 Prescot to Warrington Road by Bold Bridge. The bomb also damaged the road surface and a water main and caused minor damage to adjacent property.
zeppelin_l61.jpg
The Zeppelin L61 airship that bombed Bold in 1918 - contributed by Harry C. Redner - website

A second bomb was dropped at 11.20pm in a field at Abbots Hall Farm in Bold, which created a crater seven feet deep and fifteen feet across. The Zeppelin went on to bomb Wigan, killing a total of eight people (five instantly and three after the event), before returning safely to base. There were only two Zeppelin raids on Lancashire during the Great War and this was the second, although the pilot reported in his log that he had bombed Sheffield, not Wigan!

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If you want more detailed info RC then this book sounds like what you need.  You can order it from Waterstones and it's only £5 or the library might have a copy.

 

Zeppelins over Lancashire by Peter J C Smith
Price £5.00

Description - During the First World War two Zeppelin raiders reached Lancashire. In September 1916, L21 dropped bombs in the Rossendale Valley, on Holcombe and on Bolton. In April 1918 L61 attacked Wigan. This book deals with the two raids in detail, using eye witness accounts and British and German official reports. Information on the airships, their commanders and the British Home Defence service of the time. Well illustrated with photographs of the bomb damage, plans of the Zeppelins' courses and other material. (36 pages A4)

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Ok, thank you all for this. The only contemporaneous accout I can find says that it turned "North East over Malton", once it had flown over the Mersey. Please excuse my lack of local geographical knowledge but is there a town nearby named "Malton"? I guess that you all are going to say "yes, of course there is" which will put me in my place once and for all, but I can't find it. I am wondering if the town was actually "Halton", or even Walton, but that if possibly fanciful.

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Was some of the info supplied from the  flight log  from the information the German pilots had of the area.

 

The only other possibility if he had turned north east over Malton would be if two reports had become confused , particularly if a pilot had reported bombing Sheffield , he may then have crossed the Humber estuary then turned north east over Malton  (N.Yorks) to head back to Germany.

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Halton sounds more like it to me too.

 

RC... you said L63 on your last post (today) but L61 on your first one.  Are we still looking for L61 or the other ? 

 

Anyway..... probably not much help but his map shows the path the L61 took over wigan and where it bombed.  

 

http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/photo.php?opt=8&id=12573&gallery=ZEPPELIN+RAID+1918&offset=0

 

As mentioned in my other post.... that link also says that the fuller details are in the book "Zeppelins over Lancashire" by Peter C Smith :)

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Try this book....

 

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YKhFaNI12-EC&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=zeppelin+L61&source=bl&ots=I9S0n3lyQ6&sig=1VlIKK5XuzQNIMibwMAWssXEAh4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LO7FUvNwxbDsBt6NgZAM&ved=0CHAQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=zeppelin%20L61&f=false

 

(note it might just be showing the pages which my search criteria found.  You can change the search on the left hand side of the screen.

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