The Zeppelin raid of May 2, 1916, was probably the first time that war had come quite so close to home.

Many people had already lost loved ones, fighting away at the front, but this time, the bombs fell on the very streets of York – in the areas around Nunthorpe Avenue and Upper Price Street and at St Saviour’s Place, among others.

Nine people in all were killed in York – six men and three women.

A full report of the raid was carried in the Yorkshire Herald. Presumably for reasons of wartime censorship, the report does not refer to York by name – merely to “a certain place in Yorkshire”. But York it was – and the shock still reverberates to this day: Full Story of the Zepp. Raid, ran the headline.

“At about half past ten on Tuesday night a hostile airship visited a certain place in Yorkshire.

“A few moments before its arrival the detonation of the bombs could be heard in the distance, as though ten to fifteen miles away.

“The ominous thud of the bombs attracted a good many people into the streets, and very shortly the long cigar-shaped form of a Zeppelin, flying at about 3,000 to 5,000 feet, came into sight. The airship, with its droning, humming accompaniment of sound, passed over the town. Great volumes of smoke issued from the machine.

“Eighteen bombs, it is believed, were dropped in the district. Some dwelling houses were more or less shattered. One house entirely collapsed, leaving a hole in the ground, while another fell like a pack of cards about the ears of the occupants, a man and his wife, who were killed.

“The death totals nine, and approximately 40 people have been injured. Three of the bombs fell in a field, leaving great cavities in the ground.

“Two or three minutes after the airship had gone out of sight sounds were heard as of the dropping of six bombs a good distance away.”