Peter Strasser with Gen.-Lieut. Ferdinand Count von Zeppelin (centre) and Hugo Eckener (left).
Created in 1912 to exploit a new weapon: the rigid airship. The brainchild of Ferdinand von Zeppelin, these giant lighter-than-air craft served two purposes. The more valuable, though less colorful, task performed by airships was fleet reconnaissance. The long endurance of airships provided an uninterrupted aerial platform and a third dimension to naval operations, lengthening the range of view to unprecedented distances.
The other mission was the bombing of England. This campaign, the obsession of Commander Peter Strasser, counts as history’s first attempt at strategic bombing. Results achieved were less than impressive, a final accounting documenting slightly more than £1.5 million in damage and minimal loss of life. The losses incurred and the expense of the Zeppelins led to their being abandoned as a primary weapon and replaced by large bombing aircraft. Zeppelins conducted almost 1,000 reconnaissance missions over the North Sea in support of the Imperial German Navy.
A vital lesson that was not learned from the failure of the bombing—by both Zeppelins and aircraft—was that civilian morale rises to the occasion rather than breaking under attack. This hard lesson was learned a second time in the 1940 Battle of Britain.
References Raleigh, Sir Walter, and H. A. Jones. The War in the Air: Being the Story of the Part Played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922–1937. Robinson, Douglas. The Zeppelin in Combat. London: G. T. Foulis, 1962.
