The night the sky caught fire

On the night of 2 September 1916, sixteen German airships crossed the North Sea to bomb London. One of them, the wooden-framed Schütte-Lanz SL11, came in over Hertfordshire.

Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson of 39 (Home Defence) Squadron had taken off from Sutton's Farm in Essex. After a long climb he reached the airship, raked it from below with new incendiary ammunition and, on his third attack, set it alight. The burning airship fell into a field behind The Plough at Cuffley. Its crew of sixteen were killed.

It was the first German airship destroyed on British soil, and it broke the spell of fear that the raids had cast over London. Robinson was awarded the Victoria Cross within days. He died in the influenza pandemic of December 1918.

See it today

A granite obelisk, funded by Daily Express readers and unveiled in 1921, stands on East Ridgeway. Its land was given by Mrs Kidston of Nyn Park, Northaw. Visit the memorial and raise a glass at The Plough.