Date:	Sunday 24 September 1916
Time:	01:00 LT
Type:	Zeppelin LZ.74
Owner/operator:	Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy)
Registration:	L.32
MSN:	LZ74
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 22 / Occupants: 22
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Snails Hall Farm, near Great Burstead, Billericay, Essex -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Three attacks on England dropping a total of 6,860 kilograms (15,120 lb) of bombs; LZ.74, commanded by Kapitan-Leutnant Werner Petersen, with LZ.72, LZ.76 and LZ.78 were part of Zeppelin raid on the night of 23-24 September 1916.

LZ.74's target was London, but because of an anti-aircraft barrage, it dropped its bombs near Purfleet. It began to make its was back to Germany when it was intercepted and destroyed by 2nd Lt Frederick Sowrey, of 39 (Home Defence) Squadron, RFC, in a Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2c.

The airship was picked out in the night sky by searchlights and Sowrey launched his attack. Firing three drums of incendiary ammunition into the body of the airship, she caught alight and plummeted to the ground at sometime after 1 a.m.

One witness described how in the night sky he saw a pink glare which turned to coppery red, then a ball of flame emerged which changed its shape to a perpendicular cylindrical mass of flame. LZ.74 came down at Snails Hall Farm, Great Burstead, Billericay, Essex, all 22 of the crew dying, with some, including the commander, Oberleutnant-zur-See Werner Peterson, choosing to jump rather than burn to death.

Crew of Zeppelin LZ.74
Oberleutnant zur See Werner Gustav Iwan Peterson (29)
Adolf Bley (29), Obersignalmaat
Albin Ernst Bocksch (30), Obermaschinistenmaat
Karl Bortscheller (27), Funkentelegrafieobermaat
Wilhelm Otto Brockhaus (27), Oberheizer
Karl Friedrich Brodrück (25), Leutnant zur See
Paul Dorfmüller (26), Maschinistenmaat
Richard Hermann Fankhänel (34), Obermaschinistenmaat
Georg Hagedorn (28), Obermaschinistenmaat
Friedrich Heider (28), Oberbootsmannsmaat
Robert Klisch (23), Funkentelegrafieobergast
Hermann Mägdefrau (36), Obermaschinist
Bernhard Mohr (21), Obersegelmachersgast
August Müller (28), Matrose
Friedrich Pache (26), Bootsmannsmaat
Karl Paust (26), Obermaschinistenmaat
Ewald Picard (29), Obersignalmaat
Walter Prüss (21), Maschinistenmaat
Paul Schiering (31), Obermatrose
Bernhard Schreibmüller (23), Steuermann
Karl Völker (27), Obermaschinistenmaat
Alfred Zöpel (27), Oberbootsmannsmaat

By 3 o'clock that night, not only had the local people rushed to see the wreckage, but cars full of Londoners started to arrive to view the wreckage of twisted and broken aluminium struts. Access to the area was limited by a narrow country lane and by 8 o'clock it was reported that the lane was blocked with "motor cars, motor-cycles, bicycles, traps, tradesmen's carts, and pedestrians, all jammed together". By far the most popular transport was bicycles with hundreds laying abandoned on the fields.

Souvenir hunting was prevented by a cordon of soldiers armed with fixed bayonets, and police, but this did not deter the souvenir hunters who scoured nearby potato and mangold fields looking for debris. Even lemonade sellers set up their stalls in an attempt to profit on the spectacle.

The crew's bodies were buried at Great Burstead, then in 1966 exhumed and reburied at Cannock Chase. Sowrey was later awarded the DSO; He died in 1966 aged 75.

1. Puget Sound Airship Society
2. German Air Raids On Great Britain 1914-1918 / Joseph Morris
3. Lockwood, Martin. "Somewhere over Essex" Essex Police Museum at https://museum.essex.police.uk/
4. Robinson, Douglas H., The Zeppelin in Combat Henley-on Thames: Foulis, 1971 (3rd ed) ISBN 0-85429-130-X
5. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1916.htm
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin_R_Class#Service_history
8. http://www.historyhouse.co.uk/articles/zeppelins.html

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
23-Jan-2008 05:00	ASN archive	Added
27-Jan-2008 12:02	JINX	Updated
25-Oct-2011 13:02	harro	Updated [Source, Embed code, Narrative]
13-Feb-2017 20:02	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
29-Dec-2018 22:33	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Source, Narrative]
29-Dec-2018 22:34	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
17-Mar-2019 13:44	Cobar	Updated [Embed code]