Which aircraft brought down Peter Strasser?

Short answer

A British reconnaissance Airco D.H.4. On 5 August 1918, during a night raid against Boston, Norwich and the Humber estuary, Strasser's L 70 encountered that D.H.4; the pilot, Major Egbert Cadbury, and the gunner, Major Robert Leckie, shot it down north of Wells-next-the-Sea.

Published: November 1, 2026 · Updated: November 1, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

Which aircraft brought down Peter Strasser?

Airco De Havilland DH-4

The last airship raid on Britain

On 5 August 1918, during a night raid on Boston, Norwich and the Humber estuary, L 70, carrying Peter Strasser, encountered a British D.H.4 reconnaissance aircraft. The pilot, Major Egbert Cadbury, and the gunner, Major Robert Leckie, shot down L 70 just north of Wells-next-the-Sea, on the Norfolk coast. None of the 23 men on board survived, and it turned out to be the last airship raid on Britain.

The aircraft that shot it down

At the end of 1917, most front-line D.H.4s were powered by the 375 hp (280 kW) Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII. Their armament consisted of a fixed, forward-firing .303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine gun and one or two Lewis guns of the same calibre on a Scarff ring. One drawback of the design was the distance between pilot and observer, separated by the large main fuel tank, which made communication between the two crew members difficult, especially in combat with enemy fighters.

How many were built

By the end of production, 1,449 aircraft had been built in Britain, from orders for 1,700, for the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. American manufacturers were ordered to build 9,500 D.H.4s, of which 1,885 actually reached France during the war.