Ian Castle

Tweeting about WW1 air raids on Britain. Latest book, "Gotha Terror - The Forgotten Blitz 1917/1918" out October 2024. Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

[Ian Castle @IanCastleRaids]

Breath easy - it's got a Skegness crest, and while it might be bracing there, it wasn't bombed!

[Albertina McNeill @GreenfordBlog]

@Taff_Gillingham @IanCastleRaids

[Ian Castle @IanCastleRaids]

Should anyone know which squadron of the Norfolk Yeomanry it is in the photo, we could probably narrow it down a bit.

[Ian Castle @IanCastleRaids]

It is indeed a Zeppelin incendiary bomb, of the type used exclusively by German Naval Zeppelins. As to when, that's a bit harder as if it is in Norfolk, that county was subject to fairly random bombing raids throughout the war.

[Taff Gillingham @Taff_Gillingham]

@PaulSuttonKing @henryspil It’s a Zeppelin Bomb!
They look like Norfolk Yeomanry fellas to me.

[Andy Saunders 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 @1940Andy]

On tour in Australia and a stopover with an old friend who just happens to be building a Sopwith Camel in his shed. As one does.

[WFA South of Scotland @WFASouthScot]

Just a few days before our branch event with historian Nick Jellicoe, here is some rare footage of his grandfather, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, who commanded the Grand Fleet at Jutland, making a speech at a prize-giving in 1935, shortly before his death. https://t.co/rmqCYkxt7J

[WW1 AHT @ww1aviation]

All good to go this morning. The Albatros will be Stow Maries Wings and Wheels on Sunday 24th May.

[WFA South of Scotland @WFASouthScot]

Vardar River, Salonika - 5 May 1916.
Zeppelin LZ 85 of the Deutsches Heer was shot down by naval gunfire during a night raid on the harbour. The crew survived.
The following day, British & New Zealand medical officers carry away wreckage from the airship.
IWM (Q 31972)

[WFA South of Scotland @WFASouthScot]

Hafrsfjord, Norway - 3 May 1916. (10am)
After its epic traverse over the Highlands of Scotland, Zeppelin L20, desperately short of fuel, couldn't make it back to her base at Tondern - and ditched near Stavanger in neutral Norway.
Franz Stabbert & the 15 crew members survived.

[WFA South of Scotland @WFASouthScot]

The man who broke the windaes at Craig Castle.
Franz Stabbert, Zeppelin L20. 3rd May 1916. Disorientated by darkness & strong winds, Stabbert never reached Rosyth, but was swept into the Cairngorms. He scattered bombs in Aberdeenshire, breaking some windows in the 16thC castle.

[WFA South of Scotland @WFASouthScot]

'Target Rosyth' - 2 May 1916
Foiled by bad weather in April, German Zeppelins again had the newly opened naval dockyard in their sights. Eight naval airships left their bases in NW Germany to begin the long haul across the North Sea.
Image: HMS Vampire in dry dock. IWM (Q73854)

[WFA Sussex Branch @SussexWfa]

Not looking bad for 2027 Subjects include Russia/Zeppelins/Surgeons/PostOfficrRifles/Digging/Aunty

[Andy Saunders 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 @1940Andy]

Once again, the venue resonates with the subject matter of tonight’s talk: the V1 Flying Bombs in the Mayfield district of the Weald of Sussex. In the summer of 1944, my mother lived on the distant ridge to the south in this view. These now peaceful skies were a battlefield over which the V1s burbled towards London all day and all night as RAF fighters attempted to intercept them before reaching the city. Many locals were, in effect, potentially ‘sacrificed’ - or at least put in harms way - to protect London from a greater toll. On one occasion, my mother upturned my eldest sister’s pram into a ditch and threw herself on top as a V1 with RAF fighter in pursuit approached. It passed. But further inland, another family were not so lucky when it impacted in Kent. Hard to imagine, looking at this scene.

[Ian Castle @IanCastleRaids]

Oh wow! I want one!
https://t.co/05mAaoVsSU

[Ian Castle @IanCastleRaids]

Unsurprisingly I think it's quite good 😀, but I'm not the only one!

[Great War Reading @GreatWar100Yrs]

📖 Gotha Terror – The Forgotten Blitz, 1917-1918 by @IanCastleRaids (@Frontline_Books)

➡️ https://t.co/5APzz9oJ92

[Ian Castle @IanCastleRaids]

@SussexWfa @TheWFA @paulthedom Where's the new venue, Paul?

[Ian Castle @IanCastleRaids]

@GreatWarHuts Amazing job - congrats to everyone involved.

[Dr Ross Mahoney @AirPowerHistory]

This Thursday (UK time), I am giving a lecture at the @RAFMUSEUM on the challenges encountered in the production of 'The War in the Air,' the official history of the RAF in #WW1, and evaluating its place in the development of #airpowerhistory. https://t.co/ETLw23CGci

[WFA South of Scotland @WFASouthScot]

NEXT BRANCH MEETING
Sunday 17th May 2026 (2pm)
Location: Scots Guards Club, 1st Floor, 2 Clifton Terrace, Edinburgh, EH12 5DR.
Speaker: Nick Jellicoe.
Subject: 'Jutland: The Unfinished Battle'.
Visitors welcome. Suggested donation £5.00.
Please DM to reserve a place.
1/2

[Taff Gillingham @Taff_Gillingham]

A quick reminder that our April #HuttedHistories talk is this coming Wednesday, 22nd April, at 7.30pm.

It’s my turn to be the speaker so I will be talking about…

‘A Very Different War - Suffolk Soldiers in the Far East’

It is now over 80 years since VJ Day and the Second World War will soon have slipped from living memory.

Many of the campaigns and battles of 1939-45 are firmly etched into the national conscious, but the story of the war in the Far East, and in particular the disastrous campaign in Malaya, are not so well known.

The suffering of those who were captured at Singapore in February 1942, and the cruelty endured by them in captivity, should be much more widely known.

Many servicemen, servicewomen and civilians were captured after the Fall of Singapore, but East Anglia suffered disproportionately so it is appropriate that the story is told through a Suffolk perspective.

With anecdotes and artefacts from many of the Far East Prisoners of War that he knew, Taff tells their stories and reminds us why we must not forget.

Many local people will have relatives who served with the 4th or 5th Suffolks, 1st or 2nd Cambridgeshires or the other units of the 18th Division. Do come along and share your stories.

For more details and tickets:

https://t.co/jjdnQ71Ke3

[Ian Castle @IanCastleRaids]

@collectfootball Still got my Arsenal one.