The Raid on Tondern

July 19th, 1918

The map and pictures are now are all "clickable" to see bigger versions of them

Click here for a full-size map of the mission Clicking on the map will bring up a full-sized map of the mission. Lt. Yeulett's fatal mission was on the Tondern Zeppelin Sheds in what was Germany but is now Denmark on the 19th July 1918.  The raid effectively ended the Zeppelin base at Tondern and therefore played a significant role in the war effort. What follows is an account of the days leading up to the 19th July and of the raid itself. Please refer to the references page for the credits for the photos and information in this article, they will provide you with links to places like the Tondern Zeppelin Museum which has a wealth of information about the site and Zeppelins in general. They have been a great help in putting this web page together.

Since the beginning of the war, Zeppelins had been a constant threat to both shipping and to the civilians of England. The Royal Naval Air Service had made a number of attempts on the bases of these airships but with limited success. Always operating at maximum range and limited numbers (due to the lack of real aircraft carriers), success was always going to be hard to come by. This was to change in 1918 with the modifications to HMS Furious which allowed the RAF (as the RNAS had been merged with the RFC by then)  to at last mount a raid within the range of her Sopwith Camels. The target was to be the three Zeppelin sheds at Tondern (pictured below, right). The training for the mission took place at Turnhouse airfield (now Edinburgh Airport) and initially didn't go too well for Lt. Yeulett as he was the youngest and least experienced of the team. At one point he was dropped from the mission because he wasn't ready but after one aborted attempt at the raid the training continued and Yeulett improved dramatically enough to rejoin the team.

Tondern was one of the biggest Zeppelin bases comprising of three hangars (seen right) the largest being "TOSKA" which was massive: 730ft long, 220 ft. high and 130 ft wide it could house two of the biggest Zeppelins which were 600ft long and 72ft wide. The smaller two being "TONI" and "TOBIAS". The successful raid of the 19th July 1918 was actually the third to have been mounted from HMS Furious in 1918. Operation F5 in June was planned as an attack by five Camels but was abandoned after Furious had left port - the reason for this is unknown to me at this time. Operation F6, also in June, was similar to F5 in it's composition but was also abandoned due to very high winds which made flying impossible.

 

click for full size pictureSo on 17th July 1918 Operation F7 left Rosyth dockyard in Scotland made up of the following: HMS Furious (pictured left as she was in July 1918 with "dazzle" paint - it's worth clicking on this to get the full size shot), a destroyer escort and five escorting cruisers (Caledon, Galatea, Royalist, Phaeton and Inconstant). Also at sea in support were the vessels Revenge, Royal Sovereign, Ramillies, Royal Oak and Resolution plus four other cruisers with their destroyer escorts.

 Click Here to read the Operational Orders that were issued for this mission. These are worth reading and, it must be said, not a little scary!!

Aboard Furious were seven Sopwith Camels which are perhaps pictured right. This photo was taken in July 1918 and does feature seven Camels, but whether it was taken just prior to the mission is not known. The aircraft were to be flown by Capt. Jackson, Capt. Dickson and Lt. Williams as the first flight, followed by a second flight comprising Capt Smart, Capt. Thyne, Lt. Dawson and a certain Lt. Yeulett. At 0300 hrs the first flight departed Furious and climbed to an altitude of 5,000ft heading south down the coast of Denmark until turning east and climbing to 6000ft to approach Tondern (by following roads!). The flight leader (Jackson) had arranged to signal his sighting of the target with a red flag - which, as it happened, he couldn't find in the cockpit when he sighted the target!!

Capt. Dickson attacked the first shed and dropped his first bomb from 700ft, hitting the target, or so he thought. In fact the other two aircraft in the flight were now diving on the real target (we don't know what Dickson hit). At this point it appears that the target was generally misidentified: it seems that the pilots thought TOSKA was two small sheds and TONI and TOBIAS one big shed. All three went in to attack and at least some bombs hit the targets resulting in flames and smoke rising to over 1000ft. After this attack the aircraft broke off and headed back for the fleet. Capt. Dickson's report stated that he located the first destroyer off Lyndvig Lighthouse at 0545hrs, after circling he landed on the water and was picked up by HMS Violent.

The whole flight had become scattered by this time and were effectively on their own. Capt. Jackon arrived at the prearranged rendevous at 0455hrs but started to have engine trouble and it eventually stopped. Switching to a gravity fuel feed he got the engine restarted, reclimbed to about 10,000ft but was effectively lost over the sea with clouds preventing being able to see coastline. At 0535 his engine stopped completely and he managed to find a bit of coastline. Crashing into a fence his machine overturned but he was able to get out and follow the standard instruction to burn his aircraft and all his documentation and maps. Lt. Williams was also forced to land (near Esbjerg) but was unable to destroy his machine due to the arrival of the local police. The story of how these pilots were interned but how Jackson escaped and got back home is told in full on a link at the bottom of this page, it is _well_ worth reading!! You can find a link to some photos of a detailed model of Williams aircraft on the Links page of this website.

Click for a bigger image In all, the first flight had succesfully hit TOSKA which, at the time, contained two Zeppelins (L54 and L60) both of which were destroyed. Jackson had hit TOBIAS and damaged a balloon inside but Dickson's first bomb appears to have been directed somewhere in the town of Tondern itself. The photo to the left shows the aftermath of the raid with smoke billowing out of TOSKA as the two Zeppelins burned. 

 

Click here for a bigger versionClick here for a bigger version

These two photographs show the remains of the two airships in TOSKA after the raid. The picture on the left shows bits of L54 and L60, the picture on the right is L54 only. As with all pictures on this page, you can click on them to see a larger version.

 

The second flight of four aircraft departed Furious at 0322hrs but only three reached Tondern since Capt. Thyne suffered severe engine trouble and was forced to return to the fleet where he was successfully picked up - although the rescuing destroyer actually went right over Thyne's aircraft and destroyed it. The remaining aircraft spotted the target at 0445 and they were subjected to some anti-aircraft fire (no doubt having been woken up by the first flight). They spotted that one of the sheds was already emitting a lot of smoke and went after the others, releasing their 50lb bombs from 800ft. Capt Smart (Flight leader) was unable to say whether he had caused any damage as he had to dive to just 50ft in order to try and escape anti-aircraft fire. After this, he too suffered considerable engine trouble but he successfully rejoined the fleet by 0630. The other two aircraft in the flight successfully attacked the target (although the exact details are unknown). Lt. Dawson was also forced to land in Denmark and rejoined Jackson and Williams in Esbjerg (see "Escape" link at the bottom of this page) but Lt. Yeulett, having departed on his own, was never seen alive again. 

Lt. Yeulett's aircraft was washed ashore near Havrvig (See map above) on 24th July and his body was washed up on a beach near Holmsland (on the shores of Ringkøbing Fjord) on 28th July. It is presumed that he ran out of fuel, was forced to ditch in the fjord and was drowned. He was buried in Havrvig Churchyard. His grave is pictured right with some flowers from the guys at the Zeppelin Museum, who took this photo for me. For his part in the raid Lt. Yeulett received a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross (which is kept safely by our family), most of the other pilots (with the exception of Thyne) also received awards for gallantry. DSOs went to Smart (as a Bar to a previous DSO) and Dickson whilst Dawson, Jackson and Williams also received DFCs.

Just as a small footnote to this, Capt. Dickson went on to become the UK's Chief of Defence Staff in 1958-1959. What makes this interesting for me is that he will by then have known my Godfather, Harold Watkinson, who was Minister of Defence in 1959 and was also related to Toby. I wonder if they knew of this link from 40 years previously?????

 

         

      

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