The Terrifying Reality Of Zepplin Warfare During WW1

LZ 7 "Deutchland"

 Zepplins (not Led Zepplins), also known as Airships or dirigible ballons - are lighter-than-air craft that are filled with a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air, thus causing lift. Most of the time due to its ready availability, Hydrogen was used as the lifting gas. Being highly flammable, this made for a terrifying experience for the crew and on-lookers alike.

 

 

 

There was a major hurdle that the zepplins found themselves stuck behind during WW1. Being highly flammable, they were extremely vunerable to enemy aircraft aswell as anti-aircraft guns. Thus they had to fly much higher in order to avoid the death trap below. However being so high up in the sky meant that any bombing runs carried out by the zepplins were dreadfully ineffective, on some occasions bombs completely missed thier targets and caused little to no damage whatsover.

Given the airships lack of effectiveness as a bombing vehicle, they were mainly used for reconnaissance with over 1,000 missions flown over the North sea alone!

Sitting Ducks

After several succesful air-raids on the British mainland, the British implemented incendiary rounds into their aircraft, making the slow airship a massive container of hydrogen just waiting to be ignited.

The first naval attack on London took place on 4 June, an Army raid of three Zeppelins failed because of the weather, and as the airships returned to Brussels, they ran into a counter-raid by aircraft flying from Belgium. One airship was destroyed on the ground and another was intercepted in the air by R. A. J. Warneford, who dropped bombs on the airship, setting it on fire. All but one of the crew died. 

A plane under attack and damged can likely still glide to saftey and land. A giant ballon filled with flammable gas however, is much less likely to recover - and on most occasions, burnt up with the crew still on-board.

Death of the Airship

Planes could do everything an airship could and better. They were faster, more maneuvarable, much more effective bombers and easy to mass manufacture. Along with being much safer for the crew on-board, aircraft eventually took the place of zeppelins in warfare, with the final nail in its coffin being the infamous hindenburg disaster in 1937.