In 1898 H.G. Wells conjured up a nightmare vision of giant indestructible alien war machines attacking our country. In one memorable scene they cross the Dengie peninsula in pursuit of refugees fleeing from Maldon.

Less than twenty years later, huge armies were using machine guns, gas and high explosives in a titanic struggle on the Western Front. And Essex's skies saw giant war machines flying overhead, bound for London.

The story of Stow Maries and the giant Zeppelin airships is well known. Less well known is the role played by Goldhanger Aerodrome, and the giant German bombers which superseded the Zeppelins towards the end of the war.

37 Squadron was given the duty of defending London, and had detachments at Stow Maries, Rochford and Goldhanger. The airfield at Goldhanger has long disappeared, having had wooden buildings unlike Stow Maries. It has reverted to agricultural use as part of Gardener's Farm – a farm shop now sits on the airfield.

Nevertheless, according to the Goldhanger Past website, over 50% of bomber interceptions took place from the Goldhanger site. A flavour of these duties can be conveyed by one incident. On 29th January 1918 Captain Arthur Dennis took off at 9.38 p.m. in his BE12b fighter to intercept four German 'Giant' bombers.

Dennis exchanged fire with one of the bombers, using two drums of ammunition and hitting it but with no effect. The bomber damaged Dennis's plane and he was forced to make an emergency landing in a field next to the canal at Heybridge Basin – an event captured on camera, complete with a curious crowd.

This was truly a David and Goliath confrontation – Dennis's machine was tiny, and (a night fighter conversion from the BE2) obsolete. The Zeppelin Staaken, nicknamed 'Giant', was a huge four-engined bomber which was larger than a Lancaster and nearly as big as a World War II B29 Superfortress.

Indeed, Dennis's problems stemmed not so much from the German return fire as from the fact that his tiny plane was thrown out of control by being caught in the slipstream of the much larger bomber. The latter went on to drop bombs on South-West London, then Syon Park, then Brentford, where eight people were killed.

One interesting relic remains: St. George's Church in Heybridge Basin is the old Sergeants' Mess from Goldhanger Airfield. After the war, E.E. Bentall purchased it and donated it to the parish in memory of his son Ernest Hammond Bentall, who died in the war.

Neither side learned the lessons from this aerial conflict: the RAF was slow to develop proper night fighters, and the Germans abandoned heavy bomber development in favour of light and medium bombers designed to support the army. That was fortunate for us, because the World War 2 Blitz saw the deployment of hundreds of bombers, but never of the size that Arthur Dennis faced on that August night.