For our part of Kent, bombing was brought Home on 16th April 1915 with the death of a blackbird! Earlier, sightings were made.

The German Zeppelins were technical marvels, able to operate at altitudes beyond most of our aircraft and guns. The bombing raids soon became a 'cat and mouse'. On occasion, German warships bombarded coastal communities on the east coast.

An extended list of all war-time raids has been transcribed (below).

"Just before a quarter past 1, I heard from a westerly direction the heavy droning of a biplane, and looking up saw an aeroplane flying almost against the clouds, while some distance behind was a biplane, which I immediately made out to be a British craft. While watching he flight of the two machines, which I thought was really that of two machines making their way from one base to another. I was startled to hear the boom of a gun, followed in quick succession by other reports. Going to the top room of my house I was able to see the first fight and pursuit between German and British aircraft and British gunnery in Great Britain. For observation purpose the weather was distinctly unfavourable, for the morning fog, which had been particularly dense, had left a white mist behind it over river and countryside. High ground which on a normal day can be easily distinguished was barely visible, but practically the whole great reach of the Thames at this spot could be made out.
The aircraft moved at a great pace. The British craft had a decidedly more southern station when I first saw it, while the other machine, which I afterwards heard was an Albatross, kept a line nearer the centre of the river. The drone of the machines continued, broken only by the guns which were firing with great rapidity from the forts. From my window I saw distinctly shells bursting high in the air in the vicinity of the Albatross.
Far below seagulls were flying inland, apparently startled by the firing. Although the pursued and pursuer were flying at a great height – the German must have been at least 4,000ft. up – the British craft seemed to be gaining. 'Boom, boom,' went the guns, and the hills around re-echoed the sounds of the first of real warfare heard in the Thames estuary for centuries. Higher and higher went the Albatross as it passed over the forts. Suddenly it appeared to take a wide sweep in a north-easterly direction, in order evidently to elude British aeroplanes. The British biplane also made a sharp turn, continuing its pursuit of the Albatross, and within a few minutes both machines were lost in a mist, but from the lower reaches of the Thames one could continually hear the boom of guns.
The machine seemed to have a miraculous escape from the shells which burst quite close around it. One onlooker was emphatic that the British gunners scored a hit, but against this must be places the fact that when I last saw the machine disappearing in the mist there was no apparent diminution in its speed. The Albatross continued its way towards Southend, and by this time was sighted by the three aircraft which had set out earlier in the morning from the Isle of Grain, and the chase was continued across Essex."
[This Issue of The Times also included references to the first REAL bomb to land on British soil in the back garden of a Dover auctioneer (Mr. T.A. Terson), leaving a hole of 14ft. wide and 4ft deep.

Of all the stories of motorist spies which have been retailed during the last day or two the only one which has a plausible appearance is that of a car with exceptionally brilliant headlights which is alleged to have passed along the road through Lathington a short distance in front of the Zeppelin. To this there are several independent witnesses who all agree in their story. Two London ladies staying at the Hut, which s about 300 yards from the road, say that this car passed along in front of the Zeppelin. At about midnight Mr. and Mrs. Woods, who live at the Cottage, both saw the flaring headlamps, which lit up their bed room, some time before they heard the engines of the car. It was travelling quite slowly. A few minutes later the car was heard by an old couple in the village of Mundon, two or three miles away. Nearly half an hour later it was heard by the same people making its return journey, but, as was noticed, with headlights of much diminished brilliance.

CAR FROM NOWHERE

But this mysterious car, the existence of which a number of people are prepared to swear to, apparently came from nowhere and vanished into thin air. Before it passed the Cottage and the Hut it was seen about a mile distant as it came along from near the junction of two roads, one of which comes from Burnham, and the other from Southminster. Near the junction of these roads is a fairly populous district, and there were many people awake on Friday morning who are prepared to swear that no car passed along either road in the direction of Lathington. On the Maldon side of Lathington nearly a mile from the spot at which the motor-car was seen is a police station. The officer who was on duty along this stretch of road states quite definitely that no car from Burnham was seen by him between 11.30 and 12.30, but that at about half-past 12 a car passed him from the opposite direction containing several Southminster people whom he knew.

Altogether the evidence is very contradictory. If the car really existed it cannot have gone so far as Lathington police station, and there is no side road upon which it could have turned off. It may be said that the lights could have been extinguished and the car taken into one of the fields, but in that case it could never have passed through Mundon, where the inhabitants believe it went to pick up the men who, according to their firm belief, had been signalling to the Zeppelin.

The latest German air raid is to be reckoned amongst the more serious yet recorded. Though the civilian casualties were few and the material damage was insignificant, the facts remain that, through the bombing of naval barracks, over a hundred naval men were killed and that nearly an equal number of men of the same class were wounded. Moreover, the Germans are justified in claiming that their attacks were delivered on places of "military importance," such as Chatham and Sheerness. The enemy aeroplanes steered their course in the moonlight along the estuary of the Thames, and according to all accounts all of them escaped. The moonlight aeroplane raid on England is practically a new departure, which in future will have to be carefully guarded against. Those who are responsible for the aerial defences of this country must relax their vigilance neither by night nor by day, for the "Gotha" (above) is a much more destructive and dangerous machine than the Zeppelin.