The Zeppelin at War

Along with Germany's involvement in The Great War came the zeppelin. A zeppelin is a type of airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von eppelin in the early !"th century. With this# the Count's dreams finally would be realized. $is mammoth ships would carry their deadly cargo from far behind the battles in France and bomb %ondon itself. &nitially# there was no defense to put against these raids. The zeppelins would leave Germany at dus' and arrive over (ngland by the cover of night. Cities could be easily spotted by their street lights and the bombs would be dropped. The eppelins would then turn for home and arrive before dawn. )*ight+ An early ,aval eppelin during the First World War. -ou can see the tube that allowed crew to move between the command car and the hull. -ou can also .ust ma'e out one of the propeller blades behind the command car./ 0ften (nglish pilots would pursue the zeppelins across the s'y but they had little chance of catching them. The zeppelins would be at a considerable altitude and the zeppelin's cruising speed was often comparable to that of the aeroplane chasing it. To ma'e matters worse# if a pilot did manage to catch up to the airship# the zeppelins were bristling with machine guns. )%eft+ A fleet of zeppelins viewed from another zeppelin slips over the ,orth 1ea to bomb (ngland./ 0nly later in the war did the tide turn against the zeppelins. ,ew planes with more powerful engines were built that could catch the midnight marauders. These new planes also carried a new weapon that would e2ploit the zeppelins Achilles' heel+ incendiary ammunition. 3ullets laced with phosphorus would burn with a hot flame that could easily set the massive volume of hydrogen aflame. When a zeppelin burned# eye witnesses said that it would light the night s'y. The Germans tried to counter this by ma'ing new high4flying# super light weight zeppelins called 5$eight Climbers5 and by painting the undersides blac'. The idea was that if a zeppelin could fly high enough# it could e2ceed the operational altitude of the 3ritish planes and its blac' underside would be less li'ely to be spotted against the night s'y. These were both good ideas# but by then# the time of the zeppelin as a military front4 line weapon was over. LZ-38 Statistics The % 467 was the first eppelin to bomb %ondon on 8ay 69# 9:9;
%ength ?iameter Gas @olume (ngines 8a2imum 1peed %ifting Gas Type ;6< feet = 9<6.6> meters <9 feet = 97.;: meters 9#9!<#""" cu. feet = 66#>7" cu. meters Four !9" hp 8aybach engines <" mph = :< 'm=h $ydrogen