two other Zeppelins forestalled a British air raid by discovering, to the north of Terschelling, an approaching flotilla of three Royal Navy seaplane tenders, an apparent British attempt to repeat their successful Cuxhaven Raid. The British were surprised while lowering their seaplanes into the sea. Final raid Commanded by Kapitänleutnant Odo Löwe, L 19 left her Danish base at Tondern at noon on 31 January 1916, one of nine navy Zeppelins to raid England that night. This was part of a new, more aggressive strategy that had been brought to the German Navy with the recent appointment of Reinhard Scheer as its commander-in-chief. The head of German naval airships, Fregattenkapitän Peter Strasser, was on board L 11, leading the attack personally. He had orders to bomb targets of opportunity in central and southern England, reaching Liverpool if possible. The Zeppelins encountered thick fog in the North Sea, followed by rain clouds and snow off the English coast, and the attacking force became dispersed; the nine airships crossed the English coast between 17:50 and 19:20. L 19 was the very last, crossing the coast near Sheringham. At 22:45, she reached Burton on Trent, becoming the third raider to attack the town that night. She then proceeded south, dropping the remainder of her bomb load on several towns on the outskirts of Birmingham. At 00:20, a pub in Tipton was destroyed; buildings were also damaged in nearby Walsall and Birchills. She caused no casualties aside from some farm animals, although bombs dropped three hours earlier by her sister-ship, the , killed 35 people in the area, including the wife of the mayor of Walsall; a total of 61 people were reported killed and 101 injured by the raid. Due to the extreme difficulties of navigating with primitive equipment at night over a darkened countryside, the captain of L 21 believed he had bombed Liverpool, in fact around away. L 19 made a slow, erratic return journey, doubling back several times; this was almost certainly due to engine trouble. The Zeppelin force had been newly fitted with Maybach HSLu engines. While lighter and more powerful than those they replaced, the new engines were proving unreliable – five of the nine airships had suffered engine failures during the raid. L 19 sent several signals, asking for a position fix by radio-triangulation and reporting the results of her bombing. The last signal was heard from