THE CONSTRUCTION of the new giant Zeppelin has renewed in some quarters the discussions regarding the value of the airship in war, and it may be of some interest to recall how some of her predecessors fared in the World War.
The only belligerent nation to possess airships of proved performance was Germany. Although their possibilities were recognized by her opponents, no Allied nation was at first in a position to combat them effectually.
England, which was to bear the brunt of the air offense, did not lose much time in devising schemes to meet the menace. Acting on the maxim that offense is the best means of defense, a number of airplane raids were made on German airship stations. The first of these was carried out as early as October 8, 1914, when Squadron Commander S. Grey and Flight Lieutenant R. G. L. Marix flew from Antwerp to Cologne and Düsseldorf, respectively. Grey was unsuccessful, but Marix caused considerable damage at Düsseldorf, and to the Z-9 which was housed there.
As a preliminary effort this was fairly satisfactory and led to the launching of the much more ambitious project to raid Friedrichshafen. This raid was carried out on November 21, 1914. Owing to the distance covered (some 250 miles) and the excellence of the staff work, it is considered one of the finest air exploits of the war. Three machines starting from Belfort carried out the raid. One was shot down but the other two planes returned safely inflicting much damage on the Zeppelin works and to an airship under construction.
The first Zeppelin, however, to be completely destroyed was the LZ-37 on June 7, 1915. Returning from a raid on England, the airship was attacked near Bruges by Flight Sub-Lieutenant R. A. J. Warneford, who dropped six bombs on it. The resultant explosion completely destroyed the ship and at the same time fractured a petrol pipe in Warneford’s machine, which caused him to make a forced landing in enemy country. The pilot made the necessary repairs, started up his engine single- handed, and took off again in little more than 30 minutes. For this action Warne- ford was awarded the Victoria Cross, but was accidentally killed ten days later.
Later on that same day a second airship, the LZ-38, was destroyed while in a shed at Evere near Brussels, being bombed from the air by R.N.A.S. pilots.
On August 9, 1915, the first large-scale raid on England was attempted by five airships. The raid was a failure and one of the raiders, the L-12, was damaged by shell fire. She succeeded in landing at Ostend, where she was bombed by relays of British airmen and completely wrecked.
Several Zeppelins met their ends at the hands of the anti-aircraft gunners. They were the L-15 which fell in the sea off the Thames on March 31, 1916, the L-7 destroyed by the guns of H.M. cruisers Galatea and Phaeton in the Bight of Helgoland on May 4, and the LZ-85 shot down by the ships in Salonica Harbor.
On September 24; 1916, the L-33 was brought down by a combination of shell fire and incendiary bullets from an airplane. She landed in Essex and being almost intact proved a valuable capture.
The first airship to fall to defending airplanes and also the first to fall on British soil was the SL-11 on September 2, 1916. She was one of 14 engaged in this particular raid but fell a victim to the gun of Lieutenant W. Leefe Robinson. Her flaming descent was seen by thousands, the writer witnessing the tragedy from a place in Kent nearly 30 miles distant.
Robinson was awarded the Victoria Cross for this exploit. A few months later he was himself shot down by the Richthofen Circus and made a prisoner; he died from influenza a few days after being repatriated.
Other airships destroyed by defense pilots were the L-32 on September 24, 1916, the L-31 on October 1, 1916, the L-34 and L-21 on the night of November 27-28, 1916, the L-48 on June 17, 1917, and finally the L-70 on August 5, 1918.
The destruction of the L-31 and the L-70 was a particularly heavy loss to the German Airship Service for with the former perished Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Mathy, the most persistent, courageous, and successful Zeppelin commander; while Fregattenkapitän Peter Strassen, the brains of the service, died in the L-70.
By 1918, the airship arm had, because of its failure, lost its popularity with the German authorities and perhaps Strassen deliberately chose this end rather than see the weapon on which he had lavished so much labor crumble in pieces, a discredited failure. Certainly none knew better than he that the end was almost inevitable.
Not content with destroying raiders, the British sought the airships on their own side of the North Sea, where they kept observation on the ships of the British Navy. The most successful method of attack was by means of large American flying boats. These craft, on receipt of information that a Zeppelin was aloft, would leave their bases on the English coast for their long flight across the North Sea, and were responsible for the destruction of the L-22 on May 14, 1917, the L-43 on June 14, 1917, and the L-62 on May 10, 1918.
On August 21, 1917, yet another method was tried and proved effective. This was the launching of a small airplane from a specially fitted platform on the forward deck of the light cruiser Yarmouth. The Yarmouth was one of a number of vessels sent on a routine sweep off the Danish coast and, as expected, the usual airship turned up to watch. The ships steamed on and the unsuspecting airship followed, until at length the airplane was sent off and in a few minutes had climbed well above the airship. Diving down, the pilot opened fire and sent his huge target a flaming wreck down to the sea. She was the L-23. One man of her crew was saved.
On July 19, 1918, a raid was made on the Tondern airship station. Seven airplanes were flown off the aircraft-carrier Furious; six of these reached their objective but only three regained the ship, the others coming down in Denmark. The seventh pilot was lost at sea. The raid was, however, successful, for the L-54 and L-60 were destroyed in their sheds.
The last Zeppelin to meet its end at the hands of the British was the L-53 on August 11, 1918. On this occasion a somewhat novel means was adopted. A destroyer, operating with the Harwich Force, towed a lighter on which was a small airplane. When the expected Zeppelin appeared, a smoke screen was put up and the destroyer with her tow steamed at full speed into the wind to obtain sufficient air speed to enable the airplane to rise. The operation was perfectly successful for, unseen by the airship, the airplane took off and with its quarry was quickly hidden by clouds. For nearly an hour the watchers in the ships waited; then suddenly through the clouds fell the blazing wreck of a Zeppelin. It was the end of the L-53, brought down by the airplane, which two hours later came down in safety.
So finished one form of the World War of 1914-18, a form that we are not likely to see repeated, but one which in England resulted in 556 deaths and 1,248 injuries. The monetary loss amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The loss to Germany was equally great, for no fewer than 79 of the Zeppelin-type airships came to sudden ends during the war and in most cases their crews were lost with them.