SIR – Next Monday and Tuesday marks 100 years since the first Zeppelin raid on the UK mainland. An earlier attack on January 13 was abandoned due to adverse weather.

During the Great War, Britain suffered its first casualties from an air attack when two German Zeppelins dropped bombs on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn on the eastern coast of England. The intended target had been Humberside but strong winds blew the airships off course.

The Zeppelin, a motor-driven rigid airship, was developed by German inventor Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin in 1900. The Zeppelin’s rigid dirigible, with its steel framework, was by far the largest airship ever constructed. However, in the case of the zeppelin, size was exchanged for safety, as the heavy steel-framed airships were vulnerable to explosion because they had to be lifted by highly flammable hydrogen gas.

For this attack Germany employed three Zeppelins in a two-day bombing mission. One turned back after encountering mechanical problems, but the other two succeeded in dropping their bombs on English coastal towns. Four people were killed and 16 injured.

Peter J Palmer, Buttermere Road, Bradford