THE carnage that took place in the skies above Essex and London on May 19, 1918, signalled the last night of the German bombing raids against the capital during the First World War.

Twenty-nine bombs fell on London that night, killing 49 people and injuring 77.

But the cost to the enemy was high.

Between seven and 11 of the 30 to 40 long-range Gotha and Giant bombers failed to return to their German airfields in what reports described as a night of “extraordinary violence”.

The fighting lasted three hours.

Three of the lumbering bombers were brought down between London and the coast by British Sopwith Camel fighters and anti-aircraft fire.

Two more crashed into the sea. One Gotha crash-landed at Park Farm, on the outskirts of St Osyth, after being hit by ack-ack fire over Bradwell.

Clacton and Frinton Gazette:

  • A Gotha bomber on a German airfield

Villagers had a lucky escape.

The pilot jettisoned his bombs in a desperate attempt to shed weight and keep his plane airborne.

They landed harmlessly on the marshes ... but close enough to give the inhabitants of the old farmhouse at Cockett Wick, near Pump Hill, an enormous fright.

Grace Bruce was a young girl at the time, but 60 years on told late local historian Derek Johnson: “It seemed as if every tile on the house had lifted.”

Years later, Derek and son Karl had been lucky enough to acquire one of the seats from the downed Gotha.

“It was made out of plywood with a thick metal bar fixed underneath,” remembered Karl.

“People were always bringing things in for Dad. He was also promised a cloth badge from the aircraft, but the old boy never brought it in and it vanished.”

Clacton and Frinton Gazette:

  • A seat from a Gotha, similar to the one Derek Johnson once owned

The Gotha, which had a top speed of 87mph, but could fly at 15,000ft, had hit a tree when it crash-landed, killing pilot Lt H Rist and slightly injuring his two crewmen.

They were taken prisoner by a young soldier armed only with an unloaded Lee Enfield rife with an 18in bayonet attached.

The authorities removed the giant engines from the wreckage of the biplane, but the vast 78ft wings and fuselage would later be carted off unceremoniously by a farmer and made into part of a hedgerow.

Clacton and Frinton Gazette:

  • Aircrew loading deadly bombs before a raid

The dead pilot was buried at Great Clacton Cemetery on May 22, 1918, with a British guard of honour. The grave was marked “Unknown German Aviator”.

More than 40 years later, his remains were exhumed by the German War Graves Commission and reburied at the German Military Cemetery at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.

The Gotha seat remained in Derek’s shed for years before being sold at auction in about 1990.

“I wish we’d kept it now,” admitted Karl. “It was a rare find. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and I wish we could travel back in time.”