An anticipated and much talked of threat from military invasion by Germany gradually prompted the press to whip the nation into something approaching a spy frenzy, thanks often to sensationalist and speculative reporting of the day. It was particularly true of eyewitness accounts involving observations of unknown lights in the sky and convinced many people that this could only be related to the nefarious activities of balloon-laden German spies. It was a situation that suited both politicians and military strategists as media attention was actively encouraged and promoted.
The stories of sightings were many and spanned several years, with curious gaps when the lights seemed to disappear for long periods of time. A representative selection are as follows and draw your own conclusion: In May 1909 the residents of East Anglia became keenly excited at a reported series of appearances in the area involving a unidentified flying machine. It often travelled in the early hours of the morning and was equipped with a high-powered searchlight that it used to illuminate the terrain below. The object was seen hovering for weeks over a number of communities at night but no one was able to explain its existence.
It began early that month when a Peterborough policemen on duty late at night caught a glimpse of it above the city. Shortly afterwards it was spotted by several railway workrs who were on night duty in the nearby village of March. A few days later and it was seen again during the hours of darkness, this time over neighbouring Ely. Most of the witnesses agreed that it appeared oblong in shape, came equipped with a searchlight and propelled itself through the air at "great pace" to the accompainiment of a noise like that of a car engine. Initial reports were received with some incredulity but the fact that the craft had been sighted in several parts of North Cambridgeshire and the surrounding district at different days and times, encouraged the belief in its existence. It was concluded that an unknown airship was deliberately patrolling East Anglia in the hours between sunset and sunrise. According to contemporary newspaper reports only one person - a farmer, had observed the machine during daylight.
The authorities became particularly alarmed when an airborne object appeared to frequently monitor troop movements in Gypeswick Park, Ipswich and rumours soon circulated that it must represent the activities of Germans who were also engaged in spying on the defences of Britain. The mystery was never solved and the unidentified craft eventually ceased its inexplicable manoeuvres.
A flurry of nocturnal activity was reported throughout the length and breadth of England during January and February 1913, when aerial machines again appeared in the skies. Phantom airships were reported cruising over Cardiff, Dover, Hull, Ipswich, Liverpool, Neath, Newport, Portsmouth and Totterdown creating a minor furor. Events began when lights were reported in Yorkshire by witness C.T. Taylor and a companion, both of Scarborough. They saw what appeared to be a searchlight on the night of February 2 apparently illuminating a nearby racecourse and could distinctly hear the whirring sound of an engine. After some time the light was switched off but a smaller one remained visible as the object eventually travelled away towards Selby.
Airborne lights returned to the vicinity again a few nights later when, on the evening of February 6 they appeared above Castle Hill, moving in the direction of Raincliffe Wood. Witnesses noted that on this occasion two out of three lights were colored. The next night Selby inhabitants were greatly perturbed by a sudden appearance in the sky of a bright light which was accompanied by the unmistakeable sound of an engine. A Selby solicitor claimed he caught sight of a moving light in the direction of Hambleton at around 9:15pm. It was flashing on and off while appearing to conduct a series of manoeuvres within a five mile radius. It travelled very slowly at times and was also capable of increasing speed. After some 45 minutes reconnoitering the neighborhood the light disappeared in the direction of Leeds. That same night at approximately 10:00pm three lights thought to belong to an airship were seen in several parts of north-west Warwickshire; in Exhall and Longford. The evening was clear and policemen and colliers all reported seeing an illuminated vessel which travelled from the direction of Leicester and disappeared towards Birmiongham.
During the early hours of Saturday morning, February 8, a North Eastern Railway engine-driver claimed that an airship of sorts equipped with a powerful headlight, kept in front of the express he was driving from Weston Gatem, Selby, until it was lost in fog between Burton Salmon and Castleford. On the evening of the same day a unidentified light was seen by Lt James Boyce, a member of Scarborough Town Council and an officer in the Territorials. The mystery was also a principal topic of coversation at the Monday Market, with various farmers declaring that they saw aerial lights at Stillingfleet, Escrick, Cliffe and Barlby during the preceding nights.
Strangely enough not one airship was reported between February 15 and 21, phantom or otherwise, but several weeks later northern newspapers again reported the mystery light having been clearly visible in the night sky above Hull on February 25. Its movements were followed for a half hour by pedestrians in the city and later it was spotted by residents and coastguards over nearby Hornsea. The night before in Ipswich a very bright beam of light pierced gloom above the city at around 9:30pm before disappearing at "great speed" in a south-westerly direction. Could it have been the same craft which then turned up on the south coast and hovered soundlessly high in the air, while shining a very bright light on the inhabitants of Gosport, just outside Portsmouth. Its appearance caused a sensation but its outline was indistinguishable in the darkness. After some time spent in the vicinity of the marine barracks it eventually travelled north in the direction it had first appeared from.
Hoaxing is not a new phenomenon and in newspaper accounts published in Britain during April 1913 we learn how a number of Somerset folk became the victims of lights in the sky. These had appeared at night in the area over a period of two months, but the ruse was finally uncovered when shattered remnants of an enormous box-kit were finally recovered in the vicinity of the Mendip Hills. It appears the flying machine had been equipped with a large acetylene lamp and the hoaxers were evntually identified and caught after having been dumb enough to advertise for the lamp's return.
For nearly fifty years prior to the onset of World War One, prophetic tales of a Europe-wide conflagration were constantly being published in the press, magazines and in books. One such famous prophet of doom, Col George Tomkyns Chesney, published a pamphlet in 1871 entitled, The Battle of Dorking. In it he expounded on the fictional fate of an ill-prepared country such as England, which in the near future, he claimed, would fall victim to an invading Prussian army. Were many incidents of phantom airship waves recorded around the world simply a result of war hysteria? Quite likely it would appear.
The first instance of this phenomenon probably took place in 1899 when the Transvaal government sent orders to all its telegraph offices to report any aircraft that may be seen. Though no successful airships nor airplanes were known to exist, the Boers did not want to be taken by surprise in case the British had such a secret weapon. Unfortunately, the response to the order was overwhelming. Nearly every telegraph station reported seeing at least one airship most of which were equipped with a powerful searchlight. From Vryheid, Natal, the following dispatch was sent: "Airship with powerful light plainly visible here in far off distance towards Dundee. Telegraphists at Paulpietersburg also spied one, and at Amsterdam three in the direction of Zambaansland to the south-east." What steps the Boer government took in response to these many reports is not clear, but a stop was put to the wasteful practice of using up ammunition on stars and bright planets.
For Britain, conclusive proof that Germany was behind the airship scares came when the German zeppelins LZ.3, LZ.4, and LZ.6 lifted off from Fuhlsbuttel and Nordholz on the night of January 19, 1915. Though the LZ.6 turned back over the North Sea due to engine trouble, the LZ.3 and LZ.4 succeeded in dropping explosives and incendiary bombs across the Norfolk countryside and in killing two civilians. At the start of the Great War, Antwerp was bombed from the air by German zeppelins as were the fortresses at Liege. The zeppelin raids over London would not start until the following September. Yet, it is interesting to note the first zeppelins approaching the Norfolk coast were described as "two bright stars moving along some thiry yards apart."
Today, with the ever-present threat of global warfare on an unprecedented scale, one must question how much of the hysteria of these phantom airship scares of the past might still be found in current reports of UFOs made by ordinary people the world over. Though some witnesses think they have seen some secret American or British weapon or craft being tested in our skies, the identity of these phantom invaders has largely been transformed from an earthly menace to an extraterrestrial invasion. The credibility of the UFO witness must take into account the subconscious fears and beliefs which shape the nature of the UFO reported to the investigator.
Mystery Airships of Britain
During the first decade of our 20th century when aviators and their flying machines assumed a growing familiarity, the skies over Britain were invaded by unknown forces. A catalog of mysterious and unidentified visitation incidents quickly fired the imagination of a curious and nervous population. These elusive and shadowy craft traversed the air unchallenged and at will night after night, while managing to disguise their true origin and purpose.
