zeppelin raid

[TOOTH]

I read that there was a zeppelin raid against london on october 19 1917by eleven zeppelins.According to the book one dropped its bombs on london,four were blown off course,one was shot down over france,one crash landed,one was captured and one disappered without a trace over the mediterranean.Does anyone have any in formation regarding this raid or the zeppelin that was lost over the mediterranean?

Thanks

[centurion]

In October 1917 eleven German airships raided Britain, winds over the UK and France were sometimes exceeding 60 knots and four of the raiders were unable to return to Germany being blown over southern France. One was shot down by French anti aircraft fire, one forced down by French fighters and captured, one made a forced landing to avoid being blown out to sea (it was destroyed by its own crew) and the last attempting to touch down in the mistaken assumption that it was over German occupied France collided with trees tearing off the main gondolas (the body of the Zeppelin carrying some crew members was blown out over the Mediterranean and vanished for ever). Another Zeppelin managed to reach Germany but far from its base and crashed attempting to land. In return for the loss of five very expensive airships £56,346.00 of damage was caused and 36 people killed in the target areas. Looking at it in cold blood this was not an exchange in Germany’s favour. Reports from the survivors suggest that this poor performance may be partly explained by the debilitating effects of oxygen starvation and cold on the crews. In addition, unbeknown to the Germans, the British and French had cooperated in creating false radio signals to replace those that the Zeppelins used as a navigation aid (for example the Germans habitually took bearings from the radio station at the Eifel Tower and the French transfered its characteristic signal to a decoy transmitter over fifty miles to the south west) thus causing many of the airships to completely loose track of their position.