Shropshire Routes to Roots

3. Zeppelin defences

Initial defence problems

The British defences against the Zeppelin airships were haphazard and had little effect upon them. The Zeppelin ships flew too high for most planes, but even when intercepted by British aircraft the ammunition had little effect on them. This was all to change in the year of 1916.

Defence improvement

Due to the failure of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) to defend Britain from the Zeppelin, the responsibility of the home defence was handed over to the Royal Flying Corps. By mid-1916, British aircraft were armed with explosive and incendiary bullets. The explosive bullets were able to pierce the tough outer skin of the Zeppelin ships which caused leaks on the inner gas bags. Then the incendiary bullets set alight the leaking gas and caused the airship to crash and burn.

With the construction of home-based airfields, improved aircraft and ammunition, better tactics and the use of searchlights the British began to slow down the bombing campaign and shot down many more Zeppelin aircraft.

German response

The Zeppelins were under the command of Korvettenkapitan Peter Strasser. At first Strasser's confidence in the Zeppelin airships remained unshaken, since the first Zeppelin airship to be shot down in 1916 was an old Schutte-Lanz with a wooden frame. His confidence was to be lost three weeks later when two out of the twelve naval airships were shot down during a raid on Britain. There were no comforting explanations this time, as the airships were the most up to date Zeppelins available. In 1916 the Zeppelin airships flew four times as many raids than in 1915, and dropped five times as many bombs, but they only caused about two thirds as much damage as in 1915.

This resulted in the German military becoming disillusioned with the Zeppelins and moving over to using Gotha and Giant bombers instead. Strasser confidence remained and he tried to sort the problems by getting the airships to fly higher than the defending airships. This solution though only created different problems. The extreme cold and thin oxygen affected both the engines and the crew ability to function properly. It also made it harder for them to bomb actually and navigate. This tactic did bring little success as on the night of October 19th 1917 a fleet of Height-climbers were able to cross the English coast without being heard resulting in the raid being a total surprise. There success was short lived as on there return journey almost half the airships were shot down by either British or French aircraft as they descended towards landing.

The end of the Zeppelins

The situation for the airships did not improve, as in 1918 there were a series of unexplained explosions at the air base in Ahlhorn which resulted in five airships and four sheds being destroyed. Then on the 5th August 1918 Strasser led the last airship raid on Britain. He was flying the most advanced airship built, but by now the British had aircraft that could reach heights of 20,000 feet. The airship was shot down by Robert Leckie and Egbert Cadbury (a member of the famous chocolate manufacturing family). KK Peter Strasser died during this raid and the Zeppelin air raids had finally come to an end.

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