Zeppelins - the German tool for the Slaughter and Terrorising of Women and Children
In World War One, the Germans in their determination to rule Europe, proved once again they would stop at nothing in pursuit of that aim, when they introduced giantairships called Zeppelins, to bomb innocent civilians up and down the legth of Britain.
As Prime Minister, David Cameron, meets with the German Chancellor Merkel, this weekend; the entire nation would do well to recall just the history of the past one hundred years and the clear message of Margaret Thatcher whose funeral will be next week, the means of her disposal and the nature of those who performed that act and the interests in which they may have been working ALL given the present appalling situation across Europe and the deliberate suffering being imposed, again largely on women and children, to meet German demands in Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Ireland and no doubt very soon elsewhere!
My grandfather was a Flight Lieutenant in flying boats based at Felixtowe, charged with mainly destroying submarines but also these Zeppelins if they could be found. The following extract from the book "The Spider's Web The Romance of a Flying Boat Flight in the First World War" (pdf format file linked here) descibes the destruction of one such by two of his Canadian Co-Pilots:
The quarry these two pilots were crossing the North Sea to hunt was a Zeppelin, an airship over six hundred feet long. It carried a crew of captain, second in command, a warrant officer who did the navigation, a warrant officer engineer, two engineer ratings for each of the five engines, a petrol man, and six other hands, of which two worked the elevators, two steered, one attended to the wireless and signalling, and one repaired the fabric.
All these men had received a highly specialised training at Nordholz, the course lasting not less than six months. Also the deck-ratings and the engine - room mechanics were trained in aerialgunnery, and when at action stations the men not on watch were employed as machine-gunners.
Throughout this month there had been great Zeppehn activity over the North Sea, for early in the year the German military craft had been handed over to the German navy, and the best airships of the tw^o services had been concentrated near the German coast at Nordholz, Wittmundshaven, Ahlhorn, and Tondern. Until May 1916 the Zeppelins had carried out their patrols at a height of a thousand feet, looking for our minefields and scouting for our naval forces, but in this month L-7 was destroyed by gun-fire from a naval unit, and they were now, excepting on rare occasions, carrying out their work at a great altitude.......
Dickey suddenly saw a Zeppelin.
It was five miles on the starboard beam, at a height of only fifteen hundred feet.
Billiken swung the bow of '11 towards the airship.
He opened out his engines. He climbed straight for the Zeppelin.
Dickey was at the bow gun, the wireless operator was at the midships gun, and the engineer was at the stern guns. The Zeppelin was barely moving. Her propellers were merely ticking over.
They were now at two thousand feet, a thousand yards away from the airship, and above her. Now the look - out on the Zeppelin saw the flyingboat.
The propellers vanished as the engines were speeded up. She moved forward. She swung away on a new course. Two men raced to the gun on the tail and the gun amidships on top.
Billiken dived on the Zeppelin's tail at a screaming hundred and forty miles an hour. He passed diagonally across her from starboard to port.
When one hundred feet above and two hundred feet away Dickey got in two bursts from his machine-gun.
He used only fifteen cartridges.
As he cleared the Zeppelin, Billiken made a sharp right-hand turn, and found himself slightly
below and heading straight for the enemy. He read her number, L 43. Her immense size staggered him.
Then he saw that she was on fire.
Little spurts of flame stabbed out where the explosive bullets had torn the fabric, and the
incendiary bullets had set alight the escaping hydrogen.
Pulling back his controls, he lifted the boat over the airship, and just in time. With a tremendous burst of flame—a flame so hot that all on board the flying-boat felt the heat—the millions of cubic feet of hydrogen were set off. She broke in half
Each part, burning furiously, fell towards the water.
The top gunner rolled into the flames and vanished.
Three men fell out of the gondolas. Turning over and over they struck the water in advance of the wreckage.
The remnants of the Zeppelin fell into the sea, and a heavy pillar of black smoke reared itself to the sky.
Just what does the present leader of the Conservative Party think he is playing at in disregarding all the plain warnings of Margaret Thatcher, his more experienced and longer serving predecessor, especially those made since she was ousted by their party, and even more so given the clear and obvious results of EMU all across Europe now underway?
As Prime Minister, David Cameron, meets with the German Chancellor Merkel, this weekend; the entire nation would do well to recall just the history of the past one hundred years and the clear message of Margaret Thatcher whose funeral will be next week, the means of her disposal and the nature of those who performed that act and the interests in which they may have been working ALL given the present appalling situation across Europe and the deliberate suffering being imposed, again largely on women and children, to meet German demands in Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Ireland and no doubt very soon elsewhere!
My grandfather was a Flight Lieutenant in flying boats based at Felixtowe, charged with mainly destroying submarines but also these Zeppelins if they could be found. The following extract from the book "The Spider's Web The Romance of a Flying Boat Flight in the First World War" (pdf format file linked here) descibes the destruction of one such by two of his Canadian Co-Pilots:
The quarry these two pilots were crossing the North Sea to hunt was a Zeppelin, an airship over six hundred feet long. It carried a crew of captain, second in command, a warrant officer who did the navigation, a warrant officer engineer, two engineer ratings for each of the five engines, a petrol man, and six other hands, of which two worked the elevators, two steered, one attended to the wireless and signalling, and one repaired the fabric.
All these men had received a highly specialised training at Nordholz, the course lasting not less than six months. Also the deck-ratings and the engine - room mechanics were trained in aerialgunnery, and when at action stations the men not on watch were employed as machine-gunners.
Throughout this month there had been great Zeppehn activity over the North Sea, for early in the year the German military craft had been handed over to the German navy, and the best airships of the tw^o services had been concentrated near the German coast at Nordholz, Wittmundshaven, Ahlhorn, and Tondern. Until May 1916 the Zeppelins had carried out their patrols at a height of a thousand feet, looking for our minefields and scouting for our naval forces, but in this month L-7 was destroyed by gun-fire from a naval unit, and they were now, excepting on rare occasions, carrying out their work at a great altitude.......
Dickey suddenly saw a Zeppelin.
It was five miles on the starboard beam, at a height of only fifteen hundred feet.
Billiken swung the bow of '11 towards the airship.
He opened out his engines. He climbed straight for the Zeppelin.
Dickey was at the bow gun, the wireless operator was at the midships gun, and the engineer was at the stern guns. The Zeppelin was barely moving. Her propellers were merely ticking over.
They were now at two thousand feet, a thousand yards away from the airship, and above her. Now the look - out on the Zeppelin saw the flyingboat.
The propellers vanished as the engines were speeded up. She moved forward. She swung away on a new course. Two men raced to the gun on the tail and the gun amidships on top.
Billiken dived on the Zeppelin's tail at a screaming hundred and forty miles an hour. He passed diagonally across her from starboard to port.
When one hundred feet above and two hundred feet away Dickey got in two bursts from his machine-gun.
He used only fifteen cartridges.
As he cleared the Zeppelin, Billiken made a sharp right-hand turn, and found himself slightly
below and heading straight for the enemy. He read her number, L 43. Her immense size staggered him.
Then he saw that she was on fire.
Little spurts of flame stabbed out where the explosive bullets had torn the fabric, and the
incendiary bullets had set alight the escaping hydrogen.
Pulling back his controls, he lifted the boat over the airship, and just in time. With a tremendous burst of flame—a flame so hot that all on board the flying-boat felt the heat—the millions of cubic feet of hydrogen were set off. She broke in half
Each part, burning furiously, fell towards the water.
The top gunner rolled into the flames and vanished.
Three men fell out of the gondolas. Turning over and over they struck the water in advance of the wreckage.
The remnants of the Zeppelin fell into the sea, and a heavy pillar of black smoke reared itself to the sky.
Just what does the present leader of the Conservative Party think he is playing at in disregarding all the plain warnings of Margaret Thatcher, his more experienced and longer serving predecessor, especially those made since she was ousted by their party, and even more so given the clear and obvious results of EMU all across Europe now underway?
posted by Martin at 8:29 AM
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