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Remembered Today:

Zeppelins at Nieppe Forest 1918


Frank Rabbets

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I have two HE shells and their cases designed to shoot down Zeppelins from an aircraft mounted Vickers 1 Prd Mk 3 gun. They are unused and are inscribed "Nieppe Forest May-June 1918". Were Zeppelins there at that time and what role did they play?

Thanks

Frank

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No Zeppelins were in this area at this time. They only operated over the North Sea and did or tried to bomb England a few times in 1918.

Not true at all. The first Zeppelin raid on the UK was in January 1915 and there was only one in 1918 in April. The bulk of the 1918 raids were by Gotha and Giant bombers, not airships.

The German army airship service gave up Zeppelin raids on England in 1916 although the naval service continued. Zeppelins operated in other theatres also, including the Russian front.

Zeppelins returning from raids on England were frequently blown over France, sometimes quite far south. Whilst I have no idea whether one was over the Nieppe Forest in 1918 it is perfectly possible one was blown there whilst trying to return to base and fired on.

Regards

TonyE

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No Zeppelins were in this area at this time. They only operated over the North Sea and did or tried to bomb England a few times in 1918.

There are reports of night time Zeppelin raids on Paris in 1918

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Such shells would have also been useful for ground attack (and of course used in training).

BTW unless you are claiming that some Zeppelins were equipped for time travel you need to edit the thread title.

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Yeah, they could have held on to one for 1066.

I also posted under "arms" and was told the type 131 fuse with which the shells are fitted was used solely in aircraft and designed to explode on hitting Zeppelin skins. This makes sense as their noses have recessed aluminium membranes. I've had the shells since 1971 and always wondered, more than anything else about them, why their noses were constructed in such a way.

Thanks

Frank

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Ground attack is carried out solely from aircraft! The gun was used from FE2b s over the Western front for ground attack The type 131 fuze was intended for Home Defence ie over Britain but could have been used by ground attack aircraft especially when they carried out things such as train busting.

Edit Only a very few FE2bs so armed were actually used over Britain and most were used by 100 and 102 squadrons for ground attack so it would seem likely that they took over any type 131 fuzed shells.

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Not true at all. The first Zeppelin raid on the UK was in January 1915 and there was only one in 1918 in April.

Without wishing to hijack this thread, a raid upon the UK was attempted by five Zeppelins on the night of 12 March 1918 (only a few bombs fell on land, near Hull and south-east of Leeds); another raid by three Zeppelins was launched the following night (two airships were recalled but L42 bombed West Hartlepool); five Zeppelins set out on the night of 12/13 April but only three reached probed inland and bombs fell near Birmingham, Coventry, Hallgreen, Shirley and Wigan. The next (and final) raid was attempted on 5/6 June 1918, during which L70 was shot down by Cadbury and Leckie in DH4 A8032 and resulted in the death of Führer der Luftschiffe Peter Strasser.

Graeme

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Coincidently (or perhaps it isn't a coincidence) both 100 and 102 squadrons have an association with foret de Nieppe from May - June 1944 when they carried out attacks on V1 launching sites there!

Back in 1918 the Vickers 1 pdr Mk III came with armour piercing and HE shells - the latter having the 131 fuze, If they wanted to use HE for ground attack that's what they would have had to use.

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The next (and final) raid was attempted on 5/6 June 1918, during which L70 was shot down by Cadbury and Leckie in DH4 A8032 and resulted in the death of Führer der Luftschiffe Peter Strasser.

5/6 august. :)

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I have two HE shells and their cases designed to shoot down Zeppelins from an aircraft mounted Vickers 1 Prd Mk 3 gun. They are unused and are inscribed "Nieppe Forest May-June 1918". Were Zeppelins there at that time and what role did they play?

Thanks

Frank

Apparently a German kite balloon was destroyed near the Nieppe forest. I'll copy the relevant paragraph from Volume 6 of 'War in the Air' (p.417) but you'd need to read pp.414-418 to understand the various operations by 102 Squadron, 205 Squadron of the RAF and No.3 Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps. This may be were any confusion has arisen?

On the night before the attack selected enemy billeting

areas had been bombed by No. loi Squadron (nine 1 12-lb.

and three hundred and fifty 25-lb. bombs), and on the day

of the action dumps and bivouac areas were bombed by

No. 205 Squadron. The fighter squadrons flew low over

the enemy lines as soon as the assault had begun, and the

pilots made many attacks on infantry, guns, and transport,

often from a height of about 200 feet. German

aeroplanes did not appear over the battle front until

about 9.30 a.m., when, and subsequently, they made

desultory attempts to interfere with the work of the Royal

Air Force : five British aeroplanes did not return to their

aerodromes, and five German fighters and one balloon

were destroyed.

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I must've have been asleep on the job: a reference to the Australian Flying Corps should've let me to look at the published material re their activity in that location at that period. A quick glance at the material for 11 May 1918 gives plenty of references to German balloon activity and the consequent air patrols to thwart these.

Here's an extract from p.280 of Volume VII of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918:

pilots killed through bad landings in the same fog.

The Germans had been thwarted for many days in the work

of registering their batteries. They now began bringing

balloons into action to assist their artillery aeroplanes. Their

reconnaissance for artillery work was so persistent that the

British Second Army on this front instituted a special airpatrol,

the

"

stand-by patrol," over the region between Ypres

and Nieppe Forest. The squadrons in the army wing were

detailed in daily turns to stand by for wireless signals, and to

be prepared to chase any German machines reported as

working in this sector in co-operation with the German

artillery.

This patrol was controlled from R.A.F. brigade headquarters.

The sector was divided into three, with a wireless

swinging arm (known technically as a

"

loop antenna ")

7 in the

centre of each division. These wireless stations were in direct

communication with one another by telephone, and also with

R.A.F. brigade headquarters. The sole duty of the stations

was to

"

listen in."

"

Listening in

" meant that the operator

sat with his ear-pieces on, picking out the different aerial

sounds of wireless sent by the German aeroplanes to the

batteries for which they were spotting. Any one of these

stations, or perhaps all three, on picking up a wireless call

from a German machine would swing the aerial arm round

until the sound on the instrument was loudest, when the arm

would be pointing in the direction of the enemy machine

sending. The wireless operator would then ring up a

neighbouring station and obtain the direction of its aerial

arm. Thus the triangle would be marked on a map. This

operation would take only about five minutes. The stations

promptly informed the squadron

"

standing by

"

for the day,

and two pilots, waiting for the call, would be allowed seven

minutes to leave the ground. Flying over the station which

had sent the message, they would find there a white arrow on

the ground pointing in the direction of the enemy machine

heard working. This arrow would, if possible, be marked

off by black lines in thousands of feet to indicate the estimated

height of the German. The pilots would then proceed to stalk

him; their main object was to keep out of sight until they could

descend behind him and cut off his retreat. Keeping out of

sight was difficult, as the enemy anti-aircraft batteries would

warn their machine by firing a smoke-shell as close to it as

possible and salvos of shrapnel and high explosive at the

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However German Kite balloons would have been close to Ypres and not in the area between there and the Nieppe Forest and much of what is described are patrols against incursions by German aeroplanes (probably Halberstadt C Vs which proved a particular nuisance at this time) The 1pounder Mk III was only fitted to FE2s which were a bit slow to go chasing such aircraft and at this stage were employed on night time interdiction flights attacking ground targets.

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