This is a collection of images and other items relating to the shooting down of airship SL11 over Cuffley, 3 September 1916
In the early hours of 3 September 1916, German airship SL 11 became the first airship ever to be shot down over England. The deed earned pilot Lt. (later Captain) William Leefe Robinson the Victoria Cross, but also resulted in the death of all 16 German crew members. These men were buried at nearby Potters Bar, but in 1962 were re-interred at Cannock Chase German war cemetery. The airship crashed in flames in the Hertfordshire village of Cuffley, just 15 miles (24 km) north of London. This is the village that I grew up in - in fact the site of the crash, now marked with a memorial to Leefe Robinson, was the spot where for several years I waited each day for the bus to take me to school. The village is now looking to find descendents of the German airmen who were killed, and to invite them to Cuffley. The airmen were: Wilhelm SCHRAMM Hauptmann Jakob BAUMANN Obermaschinist Hans GEITEL Leutnant Rudolf GOLTZ Vizefeldwebel Karl HASSENMULLER Feldwebel-Leutnant Bernhard JEZIORSKI Gefreiter Fritz JOURDAN Untermaschinist Karl KACHELE Untermaschinist Fritz KOPISCHKE Obersteuermann Friedrich MODINGER Obermaschinist Reinhold PORATH Obermaschinist Rudolf SENDZICK Obersteuermann Heinrich SCHLICHTING Unteroffizier Anton TRISTRAM Unteroffizier Wilhelm VOHDIN Oberleutnant Hans WINKLER Untermaschinist