This “record” of a 1915 Zeppelin raid on London is a fabrication, put together by an enterprising photographer looking to sell commemorative postcards to a British public understandably preoccupied by the airships’ attacks. Cameras of the time would have had difficulty capturing a Zeppelin in the night sky, especially since the ships had to fly at high altitude to escape anti-aircraft fire.Rico says that drones will take on the same role in the next war...
The first German Zeppelin raid on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, in January of 1915, was followed by a series of such raids. Laura Massey of Alembic Rare Books writes that this photograph was probably composed by A.C. Cooper, a London photographer who reprinted and resold the same image after several Zeppelin attacks, redating it accordingly.
Cooper’s composite photograph shows one of the defenses the British mounted against the airships: searchlights that combed the night sky, looking for incoming ships and enabling targeting for gunners on the ground. While few anti-aircraft shells ever exploded, writes Military History Monthly, “once enemy raiders were spotted, they were liable, on a clear night, be held in a pyramid of light-rays and targeted by numerous three-inch quick-firing anti-aircraft guns.” British home-defense aircraft then attacked, eventually successfully bringing some of the hydrogen-filled ships down using explosive and incendiary bullets.
05 January 2015
Zeppelin raids in WWI
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