On 19 January 1915 the Zeppelin L3 attacked the town dropping around ten bombs on the St Peters Plain area. Martha Taylor and Samuel Smith were killed in separate explosions. A blue plaque on number 25 stands in their memory. On the same night the L4 attacked Kings Lynn killing two others.
At the start of the war there were few effective weapons to combat the Zeppelin threat. Conventional bullets would pass harmlessly through the aluminium frame. However the craft was very vulnerable to incendiary bombs and bullets. If the hydrogen cells were breached the gas then mixed with the oxygen in the air causing the ship to explode.