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Remembered Today:

British airship crash in Eemnes, Holland


Anzac16

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And C26 in person

post-9885-0-91349800-1304289539.jpg

BTW this type is not a non rigid airship but an autorigid airship as it has internal bracing and the trefoil section provides against bending

Hi there

Are you sure that is C26 - the numerals look like C25 to me.

Aspern

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Hi there

Are you sure that is C26 - the numerals look like C25 to me.

Aspern

Now you mention it it looks like it yes.

well not that bad its a good photo from a same sort of airship

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Today i went to the house where the C26 came down on.

img2612y.jpg

img2613l.jpg

This is the front of the building.

The C26 came down on the back of the building and the C26 came from the right side of the picture.

img2614gv.jpg

The back of the house where against the wall the gondola hang.

Where the window is now there was in the time a door

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The owner of the house did tell me that the neighbor, when he saw the blimp, wanted to shoot it with his rifle.

img2615r.jpg

The roof on the back of the building here de blimp got stuck on.

img2617fc.jpg

I have tried to make a then an now picture with this photo

3018265231aa3a38ce96o.jpg

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Thank you

I will try to find out what happend with the C26 after it was transported to Soeterberg

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Is ther some one here who can tell me what would happend with the crew after they where caught?

I know there was a camp in Groningen but is it confirmt that they where send ther and did they returend to England after the war?

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  • Admin

Great thread Merlijn and all who have contributed.

Michelle

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Is ther some one here who can tell me what would happend with the crew after they where caught?

I know there was a camp in Groningen but is it confirmt that they where send ther and did they returend to England after the war?

They would certainly be interned, where and how depends upon whether or not they were prepared to give their parole not to escape. Some of those British soldiers, sailors and airmen who did not were indeed interned near Groningen but those who did could wander around freely, rent cottage or houses etc if they could afford it and even take a job if they could find one. Baring illness or accident etc (one Briton is reported to have been murdered by German internees) they would almost certainly survive to be repatriated in 1919.

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Thank you Micelle.

Just a other thing.

In this PDF http://landewers.net/luchtschepenNL1914-1918-deel2.pdf they say that the engines where 12 cilinder Daimler.

But here on this site http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/coastal/index.html they tell that it where two 150 hp water-cooled Sunbeams. Later, after Sunbeam replaced by 220 hp Renault.

Does any one can confirm that it where Daimler or Sunbeam.

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I have found some "new" photo's in some old Dutch news papers from the time

scannen0004t.jpg

scannen0007l.jpg

scann from De Prins from 22 december 1917.

scannen0005y.jpg

Scann from Panorama 19 december 1917.

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Great pictures! Very well-done!

The British report in "Flight " on 20 December 1917:

Two British Airships Lost.

THE Secretary of the Admiralty made the following

announcement on December 15th :—

" A British airship of non-rigid type, with a crew of five,

which proceeded on patrol on December 11t h from an East

Coast base, has not returned, and from information available

it is believed that she has been destroyed by a hostile seaplane

in the southern part of the North Sea.

" A second airship of similar type was forced to descend in

.Holland through engine failure on December 12th." _•

According to unofficial information, the British airship

No. 26 fell on some houses at Eemes (Utrecht), at 6.30 a.m.

on December 13th. The engines—12 and 14-cylinder Daimlers

—were still working, but no one was in the car. Four of the

occupants had jumped out in an effort to anchor the airship,

but a gust of wind carried it away. The remaining occupant,

William Wasman, the wireless operator, was found near

Dordrecht, having apparently fallen out of the car. He stated

that the airship, owing to engine trouble, drifted out to sea

and lost her bearings in a thick mist.

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Did you get all names of the crew?

I could find Lt. Cdr. H. Dobell, Flt. Lt. G. C.C. Kilburn, Flt. Lt. H.E.C. Plowden (taken from The Aerodrome) and now wirelsee operator William Wasman. No 5 is "missing".

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Thank i only had the comanders name

KILBURN, Gray C. C. BRITAIN (1895?1970) (GB)

See APPENDIX-AS. Military Aeronaut.

Middle names Campbell-Corning.

Officer in the British RNAS, Balloon & Airship Pilot.

Early flight training at Wormwood-Scrubbs; Balloon & Airship licenses issued 13 Dec.1915. ***Epic flight 12 Dec.1917 from Pulham in airship C26. Flight was to search for his downed comrades in C27; Gray's ship ran out of fuel and he drifted across the North Sea to Holland where he was interned until the end of the war.

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Interesting thread. The Times reports the incident giving much the same information as given in Flight; In an early report from Amsterdam by 'our special correspondent' in the December 14th edition (datelined 13th) it gives: '...the British Dirigible No. 26, flying the French colours descended near Eemnes. There was no crew in it, but maps and coats were found in the gondola, and it is presumed that the crew was British.' after reporting damage to trees, telephone wires and chimneys, the piece concludes with: 'A Dordrecht telegram says that an airman was discovered this morning near Sliedrecht. It is supposed that he had fallen from the airship. He has been taken to Dordrecht for internment.'

NigelS

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Thank you Micelle.

Just a other thing.

In this PDF http://landewers.net/luchtschepenNL1914-1918-deel2.pdf they say that the engines where 12 cilinder Daimler.

But here on this site http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/coastal/index.html they tell that it where two 150 hp water-cooled Sunbeams. Later, after Sunbeam replaced by 220 hp Renault.

Does any one can confirm that it where Daimler or Sunbeam.

Not a 100% accurate - only the very early Coastals had two 150 Hp Sunbeams, these were later upgraded to 2 160 hp Sunbeams but later ships (such as the one in question) had one 220 Renault in the rear and either one 150 hp Sunbeam in front or a 100hp Berlier or 100hp Green. I suspect that C26 had a Renault and a Sunbeam

BTW the photo I posted is of C26 and not of C25. C25 had a modified car with an enclosed cabin and the style of the '5' used is different.

Jasta - where does the info re the seaplane come from? When after the war confirmation of C25s fate was sought from German records this did not surface. The last wireless signals from her suggested that she may have been hit by the deck gun of a U boat she was attacking. As the U boat never returned C25 may well have scored a pyrrhic victory

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Jasta - where does the info re the seaplane come from? When after the war confirmation of C25s fate was sought from German records this did not surface. The last wireless signals from her suggested that she may have been hit by the deck gun of a U boat she was attacking. As the U boat never returned C25 may well have scored a pyrrhic victory

Centurion,

I was refering to C27´s loss on 11th December 1917 and I did not say anything about C25!

The loss of C27 on 11 December 1917 was reported already in contemporary German papers, by Wolff and other agencies with the following original text of the German Navy:

"Das englische Luftschiff "C27" durch Fliegerangriff vernichtet.

Berlin, 12. Dezember. (Amtlich.) Eines unserer Marineflugzeuge, Führer Oberleutnant zur See Christiansen, hat bei einem Aufklärungsflug in den Hoofden am 11. Dezember vormittags das englische Luftschiff "C27" vernichtet. Das Luftschiff stürzte brennend in die See.

Der Chef des Admiralsstabes der Marine (W.T.B.)"

There are some arguments today if the crew Friedrich Christiansen / Bernhard Wladicka did really get credit or one of the other involved German seaplanes but I see no reason for doubts. As well I think I remember the downfall of the burning airship was fotographed by the victoirs.

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Hi Nigel do you have this news paper?

No, 'fraid not, but it's available at the The Times online archive Details here ; not sure what the access situation from Holland might be though.

NigelS

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centurion where did you got that photo from?

And can i use it?

It was in my e files but I'll have to do some back tracking to find where it originally came from but I suspect that its public domain by now

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There are some arguments today if the crew Friedrich Christiansen / Bernhard Wladicka did really get credit or one of the other involved German seaplanes but I see no reason for doubts. As well I think I remember the downfall of the burning airship was fotographed by the victoirs.

Is there a There's still a chance that this photo stil exists?

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Is there a There's still a chance that this photo stil exists?

Yes, photos of C.27shot down exist - I used one in my book 'British Airships 1905-30' published by Osprey in 2009. In fact the photo is one of a sequence, I have seen three photos: one is marked III, another IV and one is unmarked. It would seem logical to assume there are others in the sequence.

Ian

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