We came across an interesting article in the Eccles and Patricroft Journal from February 1916 which told how precautions were being put into place to warn residents about the possible threat from Zeppelin raids in the area.
Zeppelins were rigid-framed airships much favoured by German air forces.
The first recorded Zeppelin raid on Great Britain took place in East Anglia on the night of 19 January 1915.
Two airships set out to bomb Humberside, however the weather conditions were that poor that they dropped their bombs on the seaside towns of Yarmouth and Kings Lynn, killing four people and causing considerable damage.
The wider impact on the British population was the knowledge that the Germans were capable of flying over the North Sea and bombing targets at will, which naturally spread fear and alarm.
The threat to Lancashire towns did come to fruition in September 1916 when a zeppelin flew over the Todmorden, Bacup and Rawtenstall area dropping bombs on terrified civilians.
From there it flew over Bolton with deadly effects when bombs killed 13 people and wounded many more before heading back over the North Sea to safety in Germany.
Zeppelin raid on Kirk Street, Bolton – © Bolton Museums
An order was given by the Home Secretary that from an hour and half after sunset to an hour and half before sunrise all factories and houses must have reduced lighting, blinds had to be drawn on railway passenger trains in the evenings, and the lights on tramcars and omnibuses should be cut.
In the event of the approach of an enemy aircraft, warnings would be sent to the county police stations at Old Trafford and Preston and then relayed onto the local police stations.
A special hotline was set up at Trafford Park which was deemed to be a possible target because of the munitions and war-machine industry taking place there.
The Chief Constable of Lancashire, Mr HP Lane, stressed that people should not use buzzers, rattles or whistles to raise the alarm as these might be a guide to the airships where there were no lights.
He also urged that people should stay indoors in the case of an air raid instead of rushing out into the streets as this was one of the main reason for casualties on previous raids.
As you can imagine it must have been an awesome sight to see one of these zeppelins, 179 metres long, flying in the night sky, raining death and destruction on the poor people below.
In Eccles a volunteer fire brigade was hurriedly formed and arrangements had been made for the electricity supply to be cut off on the main roads.
A newspaper article from February 1916 also mentions an early form of propaganda being used by the Germans. Conversely, it could have been British spies spreading these rumours.
It stated that wireless messages had been picked up in which the Germans had been overheard saying that they had plans to bomb the Irlam and Partington Steelworks and that one air raid in the Partington area a single bomb had destroyed 22 houses, killing many civilians.
They also said that they had bombed steelworks in Manchester and had completely destroyed two blast furnaces and two steelworks in an unamed area.
All of this was completely untrue: not a single bomb fell on the Eccles and Salford area during the war by a German zeppelin.
The nearest bombs actually fell on Wigan and Radcliffe in April 1918 in which seven people were killed, these were to be the last air raids of the First World War.
On reflection it was almost a miracle that the industrial area of Trafford Park wasn’t bombed during the First World War, the zeppelins had the capacity to reach Greater Manchester as shown above.
Sadly Trafford Park would feel the wrath of the German Air Force in World War Two along with the civilians of Salford, Eccles and Swinton.
