First night flights by airships

[Moonraker]

In February 1913 the Manchester Guardian reported that "there is now a strong body of evidence to make it reasonably certain that in the course of the last two months an airship has been seen travelling at night … It seems important to observe that the directions in which the "mystery" vessel is moving and the places at which it was seen would point even more cogently to experimentation conducted from Salisbury Plain. It must be added that, though a private experimenter would be a lunatic, there might be a very different purpose in keeping quiet by day if the experimenter were a Government department."

It wasn't long before Zeppelins were bombing England at night, so night flights can't have been that great a challenge. When was the first made by an airship? And presumably they navigated by the stars and by the lights of large towns and cities?

The Guardian might be forgiven for wondering about flights at night at a time when Britain's airships were having trouble in daylight. The National Archives AIR 1/625/17/10 file describes the trip of Gamma on August 12, 1912, including sketch maps of its flight near Shipton Bellinger and St Mary Bourne; when it had to land, its crew had difficulty securing a grapnel in trees and had to get the crowd of onlookers to catch a trail rope.

The Gamma had more bad luck in September, when one of its engines was damaged after a collision with a tree. Its captain, Major Maitland, ordered that the balloon be deflated and landed, but its landing skids contacted a hayrick. Gamma overturned, the crew jumping out without injury. A motor-lorry from Lark Hill took the wreck away.

Moonraker

[Stephen Nulty]

I recall reading a local history magazine from Wigan, which reported on the Zeppelin raids on that town in (I think) 1918.

Apparently, when the captain of the ship completed his log, he reported that he had bombed Sheffield.

[centurion]

German airships also used radio signals. Bearings could be taken on a number of known radio transmitters which could be used to establish positions. Signals from both German and Allied stations were used. If you can identify the station and take a bearing then you only need two to fix your position. The Germans has a wireless map of Britain, France and Germany showing the position of identifiable transmitters and attempted to keep this secret. However the Allies picked up knowledge of this and carried out wireless spoofs so that one station would appear to be transmitting signals identifiable as another. This was carried out to best effect in October 1917 when the French succeeded in "moving" Paris by about a hundred miles by switching signals associated with the Eifel Tower transmitter to another. As a result on German raid was completely disrupted and Zeppelins sent way off course. 4 were destroyed as a result. The night of the raid was very windy in any case and the Allies kept quiet about the spoof so the bad weather (probably a contributary to the disaster) got all the blame.

[NigelS]

Can't remember where, but I seem to recall reading that a man would be lowered in a basket to assist with navigation - is there any truth in this? whatever methods that were being used it wasn't always accurate

and once blackouts were intoduced - presumeably after the first raids? - navigation using ground features would have become even more difficult. I would guess that raids were never carried out by moonlight just a tad too risky!

[centurion]

NigelS said:

Can't remember where, but I seem to recall reading that a man would be lowered in a basket to assist with navigation - is there any truth in this? whatever methods that were being used it wasn't always accurateand once blackouts were intoduced - presumeably after the first raids? - navigation using ground features would have become even more difficult. I would guess that raids were never carried out by moonlight just a tad too risky!

Quite true about the man in the cloud car (not a basket). However this was a bomb aiming rather than a navigational aid. See below for extract from an unpublished book of mine

One answer was the ‘cloud car’, this was a small streamlined one man pod that could be lowered down through the clouds on the end of a very long steel wire cable.

The observer in the cloud car could was often able to see features on the ground that were hidden to the airship above the clouds. Communicating by telephone he could guide the attack and act as bomb aimer. The small pod was invisible from the ground.

Cloud cars were used with some success over both French and British targets. There was a risk to the observer if the airship was attacked and had to offload ballast and other weight to escape by climbing very rapidly. The airship commander could effectively jettison the car and observer in order to save the Zeppelin and the rest of the crew. Whether or not this was ever done is unknown but it was a real risk. The observer faced another hazard; the cable was long and the winch could (and sometimes did) jam leaving the hapless occupant of the pod marooned dangling far below. This drag could affect the airship’s speed and climbing ability and the Commander was within his authorisation to hit the quick release switch. Again it is not known if this was ever done. In one instance a Zeppelin risked the long flight home with the observer dangling below. In another the airship was brought slowly down until the cloud car touched the ground and then the quick release was thrown. The observer was fated to captivity as a POW but this was better than the alternative.

[NigelS]

Thanks for the clarification Centurion - the aerial equivalent of a tethered deepsea diving vessel and every bit as dangerous to the crewman.

[centurion]

One further clarification - I believe that the cloud car was principally used by German Army airships. The German Navy decided it was just too dangerous

[NigelS]

One further clarification - I believe that the cloud car was principally used by German Army airships. The German Navy decided it was just too dangerous

That's interesting, it indicates that, the German army commanders had far less regard for the lives of its men than those of its navy, still I guess it's not really surprising considering the casualty rates that the armies of both sides were prepared to tolerate in the ground fighting.

[Adrian Roberts]

That's interesting, it indicates that, the German army commanders had far less regard for the lives of its men than those of its navy,

I wouldn't be too sure about that - the German Army stopped using Zeppelins for bombing missions in late 1916 because of the casualty rates, but the Navy continued with virtually suicidal raids with them until almost the end of the war. As Centurion says, so far as is known no obsever was killed using the cloud car, but some must have got pretty airsick.

As to navigation - radio methods developed later, but at the beginning of the war it really was a question of following the moonlight shining on rivers, coastline and railways. This is why the premise of the film "Zeppelin", of a raid on a fort in Scotland, is ridiculous - in reality it was all they could do to find London, let alone a single fort.

As to the "cloud car" - there is one in the Imperial War Museum said to have been jettisoned by LZ90 when "the winch ran out of control". Surely if the winch was out of control the observer would have been in it otherwise why use the winch? But there is no record of a dead observer being found that I know of. Was he the POW that Centurion mentions? Does anyone have any more info on this incident?

Adrian

[centurion]

As to the "cloud car" - there is one in the Imperial War Museum said to have been jettisoned by LZ90 when "the winch ran out of control". Surely if the winch was out of control the observer would have been in it otherwise why use the winch? But there is no record of a dead observer being found that I know of. Was he the POW that Centurion mentions? Does anyone have any more info on this incident?

I'll have to dig the details out but from memory thats the one. The winch jammed rather than went out of control. The observer made a fair attempt at exading capture and, I think, made it nearly to the coast where he had some intention of stealing a boat and trying to make it to the Belgian coast.

[per ardua per mare per terram]

... beginning of the war it really was a question of following the moonlight shining on rivers, coastline and railways. This method continued even in WW2 and a lot of tricks were cooked up to camuflage rivers etc. Visual Flight Rules are still practiced at times.

The navies have long established repect for navigating by day and night!

[Tom Morgan]

I have read that the job of sitting in the cloud car was popular with smokers, who were willing to forgo the dangers in return for the opportunity to indulge!

Tom

[21459]

I was about to make my first post the comment about smoking in the cloud cars. But got pipped to the post.

The degree of navigational accuracy expected can be gauged by the fact that the Airship Captains were given three basic targets. England north, England Middle and England South. Also I think I remember reading somewhere that the Imperial Navy had toyed with the idea of fitting a machine gun in the cloud car to ward off fighters.

[per ardua per mare per terram]

The degree of navigational accuracy can be gauged by the fact that the Airship Captains reached Britain in the first place. The German raids were terror bombing, their targets were less important.