2nd September 1916 On this day: Daily Battery Activity 236th London Brigade   236th London Brigade Royal Field Artillery record in their war diary: One Section of A236 Battery removed and placed alongside C236 Battery. Heavy artillery began their bombardment for the attack of the 3rd, 14th, and 15th Corps. War Diaries Zeppelin raid on London   The biggest raid to date was launched on 2,3 September, with 12 German Navy airships and four from the German Army taking part. A combination of rain and snowstorms scattered the airships while they were still over the North Sea. None of the naval airships reached London, and only the army's LZ 98 and the newly commissioned Schütte-Lanz SL 11 achieved their objective. SL 11 came in over Foulness with the intention of attacking the capital from the northwest. It dropped a few bombs over London Colney and South Mimms before it was picked up by a searchlight over Hornsey at about 0150 and subjected to an intense but ineffective barrage. It was lost in cloud over Wood Green but rediscovered by the searchlights at Waltham Abbey as it bombed Ponders End. At around 0215 one of the three aircraft in the sky that night finally came into range, a BE2c piloted by Lt. William Leefe Robinson flying from Suttons Farm. Robinson fired three drums of ammunition from his Lewis gun, one on each of three passes. After he emptied the third drum, the airship began burning from the stern and was quickly enveloped in flames. It fell to the ground near Cuffley, witnessed by the crews of four of the naval Zeppelins. There were no survivors. For bringing down the first rigid airship downed on British soil and the first 'night fighter' victory Leefe Robinson received the Victoria Cross. The pieces of SL 11 were gathered up and sold by the Red Cross to raise money for wounded soldiers. For unknown reasons, when the SL 11 became the first German airship to be shot down over England, it was described officially and in the press as Zeppelin L 21 (LZ 61's tactical number). This mis-identification persisted for decades, even though it is clear that the authorities were always aware of SL 11's correct identity. It has been suggested that the reason for this confusion was a calculation by the authorities that the downing of a hated and feared Zeppelin "baby killer"' would play better with the public than the destruction of an almost unknown Schütte-Lanz type. The loss of SL 11 ended the German Army's interest in raids on Britain. John Doran  Many Gas Casualties  Reliefs  Routine and inspections  Move  No Boots  Shelling  Working Parties  In the Trenches  A Gas Alarm  In the Trenches  Shelling  Working Parties  In Action  Training    Nothing to Report  Shelling  Quiet  In Support  On the Move  Defence Work  Trench Work  On the March  Diary  Diary B.O.O.12  Diary B.O.O.14  Messages and Signals  Zero Hour Announced  Quiet  Mines exploded  Aircraft Lost  Aircraft damaged  Aircraft Lost  Aircraft damaged  Aircraft Lost  Aircraft damaged  Aircraft Lost  Aircraft Lost  Poor Landing  Aircraft damaged  Orders  Found working parties of 600 O.R. and 10 Officers.  Orders  Return  On the March  Practice Brigade attack.  Working Parties  Wet Day  Reliefs  Reliefs  Reliefs  Orders received not to let off smoke.  On the March  Line Held  Training  Water Supply Officer   Quiet Morning  Marched to La Comte  Training Can you add to this factual information? Do you know the whereabouts of a unit on a particular day? Do you have a copy of an official war diary entry? Details of an an incident? The loss of a ship? A letter, postcard, photo or any other interesting snipts? If your information relates only to an individual, eg. enlistment, award of a medal or death, please use this form: Add a story.

Killed, Wounded, Missing, Prisoner and Patient Reports published this day. This section is under construction.

Want to know more about 2nd of September 1916? There are:60 items tagged 2nd of September 1916 available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.

Remembering those who died this day, 2nd of September 1916. Lascar Amanat Ali. Read their Story. Lascar Abdul Baba. Read their Story. Seacunny Anwar Bakhsh. Read their Story. Band. Frank Dodd. 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment Read their Story. Lpcl. Patrick Eyre. 24th (Tyneside Irish) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers Read their Story. Pte. James Goosetree. 12th Btn. Royal Fusiliers Read their Story. L/Sgt. James Edwin Harding. 7th (Service) Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment Sgt. Christopher Kershaw. 4th Btn. West Riding Regiment Spr. Austin John Lusmore. 255 Tunnelling Coy. Royal Engineers Read their Story. Pte. Thomas Martin. 24th (Tyneside Irish) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers Read their Story. Pte. John McMahon. Royal Munster Fusiliers Read their Story. Pte. John "Baity" Wilson. 11 Btn. C Coy. Durham Light Infantry Read their Story. Add a name to this list.

Previous Day     Next Day Select another Date Day: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31   Month: January February March April May June July August September October November December   Year: 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919

The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers. This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved - We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.