Zeppelins

The rigid airship, pioneered by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was the chief weapon employed against Britain until mid-1917. They were not employed against France or Italy. Before the war the bombing capabilities of airships was hardly considered, they were intended to be used as reconnaissance vehicles. The German Naval Airship Division, which carried out most of the raids on Britain, received no bombs until Oct. 1914. It wasn't until Jan. 1915 that the Kaiser allowed the aerial bombing of military targets around London and the English coast. The first raid was carried out Jan. 19/20, 1915 and was haralded with great enthusiasm by the German press. Thereafter, the royal scruples diminished considerably. At first, the German high command had considerable enthusiasm that zeppelins could accurately bomb whatever they wanted. However, consistent inaccuracy turned out to be the norm. Most of the attacks (57%) occurred around London from Harwich to just past Dover, and the area north of London centered around Greater Yarmouth naval station (20%. The west coast received most of the rest of the attacks (15%), although a few occurred north of Aberdeen, around Birmingham and even as far east as Liverpool. The German airships attacked from bases in northern Germany at Hage, Tondern, Fuhlsbuttel, Nordholz, Ahlhorn adn Wittmundhaven.

As English defences developed with AA guns, search lights, aircraft, and special ammunition (Buckingham tracer/incendiary bullets, Brock and Pomeroy explosive/incendiary bullets), and became more adept at finding and shooting down zeppelins, the Germans resorted to flying higher, out of range of both guns and planes. However, their bombing accuracy and navigation at high altitudes (20,000+ feet), were severely diminished. Zeppelins were eventually replaced, largely, by Gotha and Staaken bombers, but they continued to raid England into April, 1918.

Technical Details
German rigid airships came from both the Zeppelin and Schutte-Lanz works, the Schutte-Lanz airship using plywood rather than aluminum in its interior structure. Both are called zeppelins. Naval zeppelins were designated L (Luftschiff) and were numbered consecutively in order of receipt from the builder. Army zeppelins were designated LZ (Luftschiff Zeppelin); they were numbered adding 30 to the builder's number. Schutte-Lanz airships were designated SL plus the builders number by both services. The largest of the initial order of zeppelins was L9, with a trial speed of just over 50 mph and a useful lift of 25,000 lbs. The L10 was a modified version delivered in May 1915, it had a speed of 58 mph, a gas volume of 1.1 million cubic feet of H2, and a useful lift of 35,000 lbs. It was 536 feet long and had a ceiling of 11,000 feet. By May 1916 Zeppelins of the L30 class had a gas volume of nearly 2 million cubic feet, a speed of 62 mph, a useful lift of 60,000 lbs and a bomb capacity of 5 tons. Performance figures varied considerably with air temperature, wind speed and direction, and barometric pressure. The static lift of the hydrogen-filled cells was higher in cool air and in periods of high pressure because of the greater weight of air displaced. Airship raids, therefore, normally took place during colder months.

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