History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

During WWI the Germans began Zeppelin airship attacks in 1915. Because they had never seen anything like it, people came out to stare in wonder at these huge flying machines, but they soon became more cautious as the bombs started to fall.   Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (1838 -1917) On the 19 October 1917 a group of 13 airships left Germany to attack the Northern industrial cities of Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield. Climbing to 16,000 feet they encountered extremely strong winds which forced them off course and made it very difficult for the commanders to establish their position. Lt. Waldemar Kolle was in L.45 aiming for Sheffield, but he found he was being blown rapidly south. He dropped a number of bombs on Northampton, but around 23.30 the crew saw a large number of lights and realised they were over London. Kolle dropped several bombs which damaged the Grahame-White Aviation Company in Hendon. Continuing south-east, he dropped further bombs which landed near C...