Last Zepppelin raid on London

On the 19th October 1917 eleven Zeppelins set out to attack London. Caught in a violent storm, three were destroyed by the force of the wind, one was shot down by anti-aircraft fire when it dropped low for shelter, and a fifth was blown out to sea, never to be seen again.

Of the remaining six, all lost their way and either came down or crashed within allied territory.

After this disaster the Zeppelin force confined itself to hit and run raids or attacks on British Submarines in the North Sea.

During the course of the war the Germans made 208 Zeppelin flights during which 5907 bombs were dropped killing 522 people.

Source: Everett, Susanne-World War I, Hamlyn 1980

-posted by Hobilar, a member of our club

Flamethrower

In 1915 the French and British encountered a new and terrifying weapon being used by the Germans-The Flamethrower.

The Germans in fact used three different types of flamethrower, these being:

The Grossflammenwerfer-A defensive weapon built into the trench system which had a range of about 45 yards and could squirt flame for about a minute. Where the trench lines were quite close together it was just about possible to leap across no-mans-land.

The Kleinflammenwerfer-A backpack system used in the assault. The operators could expect a very short life expectancy, as they soon became the primary target for scores or rifles and machine guns.

The Wex- A lightweight version which differed from the others in being self ignited.

The British experimented with flamethrowers in 1916 but found them to be inefficient, and so abandoned their use, preferring to tunnel under the enemy trenches and there igniting containers of oil and cylinders of compressed air.

The Germans made some 653 attacks using flamethrowers, but whilst these could be very frightening to the defenders, relatively few casualties were caused.

Source:Laffin, John- The Western Front Illustrated 1914-1918 (1991)

-posted by Hobilar, a member of our club