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Zeppelin LZ61 L 21
L : 163.5m beam : 18.7 m Gas volume : 31900 m3
Engines : 4 Maybach HSLu 240 hp
Speed : 97 km /u
First flight : 10 Jan. 1916, 17 reconnaissance missions; 10 attacks on England dropping a total 14,442 kilograms (31,839 lb) of bombs. Intercepted and destroyed by Flight–Lieutenant Egbert Cadbury,[45] flying BE 2C, No. 8265, Flight Sub–Lieutenant Gerard William Reginald Fane, flying RAF BE 2C No. 8421 and Flight Sub–Lieutenant Edward Laston Pulling, flying BE 2C, No. 8626, firing phosphor rounds. L 21 fell into the sea about eight miles east of Lowestoft on 28 November 1916. There were no survivors.
It attacked Cleethorpes, dropping several bombs on the town just after midnight. One of which landed on the Alexandra Road Baptist Chapel, killing 31 soldiers of the 3rd Battalion the Manchester Regiment, who were billeted there.[3] One of the only British Army units to be directly engaged by enemy action on British soil during World War I.
It took part in the largest airship attack of the war with 13 other Naval airships and also four Army airships - 16 in total. During this raid the crew of the LZ 61 witnessed the downing of the SL 11, the first airship to be shot down over the British mainland.[4]
Literature : Warplanes WOI page 64,66
Crash of L 21