Zeppelin raids

Lighter than air flying machines were successfully developed before aeroplanes. Count von Zeppelin was impressed by their potential and built his first successful airship in 1900. From then, civilian airships developed rapidly before the First World War. Passengers travelled in considerable comfort in gondolas slung underneath the huge 190 metre-long hydrogen-filled rugby ball-shaped balloon. They had more space than in many modern aeroplanes and could stroll about admiring the view.

The German Army and Navy both saw the potential that airships had for reconnaissance. They were used almost from the opening of the war for getting information by flying over enemy lines far above gunnery range. As it became clear that the war would be long and drawn out, Zeppelins were sent to bomb British cities. Their route was over the North Sea from their bases on the north west German coast. The early raids caused lots of damage and many civilian casualties.

At first, as these documents show, British defences were totally inadequate to deal with the Zeppelin threat. However, by 1916 a range of anti-airship defence measures were introduced. Many more guns were deployed, and searchlights. Fighter aircraft were also sent against them. British defences learnt to pick up their radio messages, so had warning of their approach, and a central communications headquarters was set up. It was realised that Zeppelins were extremely vulnerable to explosive shells, which set light to the hydrogen, often in spectacular fashion. Zeppelin raids were called off in 1917, by which time 77 out of the 115 German Zeppelins had been shot down or totally disabled. Raids by heavier than air bombers continued, however. By the end of the war over 1500 British citizens had been killed in air raids.

The vulnerability of Zeppelins to explosive shells, and their relatively slow speed, led to rapid development of heavier-than-air machines. By 1918 both sides were using large numbers of aeroplanes, not just for reconnaissance, but as fighter air support and as bombers. Air war, and the threat it brought to the lives of civilians, had become part of 20th century warfare. After the war both Britain and Germany continued to develop airships for passenger services, offering a much more roomy, comfortable service than early aeroplanes could provide. However, the spectacular crash and fire of the R101 in 1930 discredited this form of air flight in Britain.

This lesson shows that the first air attacks on civilians during the First World War were serious. To start with, students explore extracts from a report of the raid by Major General Ferrier, Commander of the Humber Defences. In the second source they examine a chronology of events taken from a report by Major Robert Hall, Fire Commander of Humber Defences which reveals how machine guns were used to fire at the zeppelins. There are quite a lot of technical terms in this source which are defined in a glossary with the transcript. By way of contrast, students then look at a photographic source of the raid on Hull and are asked to consider the value of this source in the light of the other two.

The lesson itself can be used to open up discussions on the nature of ‘total war’ as the First World War has often been referred to as the first ‘total war’. From the comfortable security of an island, with war taking place elsewhere, the British people were thrown into the front line starting with the first Zeppelin raids. It meant there was no longer a distinction between soldier and civilian. However, it was not just the use of these industrial weapons of war which impacted peoples’ lives, but their other experiences as civilians on the home front. Nations waging ‘total war’ for example, affected their people through the introduction of conscription, rationing, controls over factories, railways and farms.

Finally, this lesson could also be used as part of a thematic study on the changing technology of warfare showing how new inventions completely change the way in which war was waged.

Sources

Illustration : AIR 11/241

Sources 1 – 3 : AIR 1/569/15/16/142