One hundred years after the bombing of Chatham Drill Hall a service of remembrance and parade was held to remember the men who lost their lives. It was attended by The Lord Lieutenant of Kent, Viscount De L’Isle, Rear Admiral John Kingwell CB, OBE, the Mayor of Medway and senior representatives from the Royal Navy and other armed services organisations. Music was provided by the band of the Royal Marines, while the parade featured RN Reservists, Naval veterans and Sea and RM Cadets.
There was also wreath laying and the planting of crosses, including a cross to remember 19 year old Welling boy Arthur Haxell laid by Trust Chairman Nigel Betts. Throughout the ceremony the names of those killed were read out.
On 3rd September 1917, the Chatham Drill Hall, – a glass roofed building – was being used as a temporary overflow dormitory for sailors and there were 698 men asleep or resting in their hammocks in the Drill Hall. The Drill Hall formed part of the Royal Navy’s HMS Pembroke barracks at Chatham.
At 9.30pm that fateful night, five Gotha G.V bombers left their air base at Gontrode in Belgium. British anti-aircraft defences had forced the German air force to switch to night-time raids over Britain; this was to be the first of such raids. One aircraft had to return following engine problems. However, by 11pm the other aircraft found the River Medway and headed towards Chatham. Their target was the Naval Base H.M.S Pembroke. The unsuspecting British were not prepared for the attack; all of Chatham was illuminated and anti-aircraft defences were not prepared. When the aircraft were spotted many people ignored the warning as they believed it was a practice drill.
Tragically, one bomb fell and hit H.M.S. Pembroke’s Drill Hall building. The clock above the Drill Hall stopped at exactly 11.12pm giving us the exact time it exploded. The men that were asleep were either injured from the explosion or killed by glass falling from the roof. Rescuers subsequently spent 17 hours looking through the rubble. By the end of the raid the total number of dead stood at 98, yet with the later inclusion of injured men in hospital this raised to 136.
An eyewitness, Mr Gideon Gardner, recorded: “Some had never woken up; apparently the shock appeared to have stopped their hearts. They were stretched out, white, gaunt, drawn faces, with eyes nearly bolting out of their heads. Others were greatly cut up, mangled, bleeding and some were blown limb from limb”
Mr E. Cronk recalled: “In the morning, to show that the officials could tell who was who, they had a general Pipe asking all the sailors of different messes if they could identify any of the lost; it was impossible in most cases. It was one of the most terrible nights I have ever known, the crying and the moaning of dying men who had ten minutes before been fast asleep”
The raid, which later became known as the Chatham Air Raid, lead to the destruction of the Drill Hall and two ships. This was part of Operation “Turkenkreuz”; a strategy designed to bomb London and South East England into submission. However, this was too late in the war to have a significant effect. After the air raid the 98 sailors who died at the scene were buried on the 6th September 1917 at Woodlands Cemetery in Gillingham. Their coffins were draped with the Union Jack and given full military honors. Thousands of people lined the streets to pay their respects. Arthur Haxell was one of the individuals laid to rest here.
Today the building is known as the Drill Hall Library, a state-of-the-art learning resource centre and one of the showpiece buildings of the Universities at Medway campus, serving the students of Greenwich, Kent and Canterbury Christ Church universities.
