How often were blimps actually used over France?

I know that they were a reall problem for the UK, which is why most of the Snipes were kept back for home defense, but I've rarely read about attacks where they had to cross the front or attacked Paris.

There were some day and night attacks on paris which ended up with destroyed zeppelin in the early days of the war, the reason they stopped was because even if they got there in one piece, the damage and morale effect on Paris was abysmal because they were already being bombed by Gotha`s, Big artillery pieces, etc.

Dart,

Zeps (rigid, had a steel frame, internal catwalks) and blimps (not rigid, no frame, basically a big balloon) ain't the same thing.

I know you like to thumb your nose at history but....

HT

Actually, Tom, I used the word blimp because I couldn't remember how to spell zeppelin!

But you knew what I meant...

[edit]

So the Goodyear Blimp doesn't have an internal structure?

Hello,

edit: sorry, Hot Tom was quicker Yes, the GoodYear blimps have no internal structure, but are just blown-up bubbles - if with ballonetts, to control volume changes of the gas due to temperature changes, and keep the hull under pressure, because it would otherwise lose its shape and become uncontrollable.

@Dart: blimps were foremost used by british and french forces, meaning a non-rigid manoeuverable airship, and England used them to full extent, and with a lot of effect, as marine scouts. Italy also had some of these, but they would not see the Flanders frontlines (mediterranean theatre).

Rigid airships were foremost used by Germany, being the Schuette-Lanz (SL) airships (basically a "Zeppelin" with wooden ribs, and framework, but small other changed details) and the Zeppelins (LZ, or L), frame made of Duralumin.

There were also german Parseval and other airships, more related to blimps with their non-rigid hulls and ballonetts, but they did not play a major role on the western front (reconnaissance towards Russia etc.).


There were a lot of german rigid type airships over France, first for reconnaissance missions (bad idea, the surviving rest was soon withdrawn), then for bombing trenches, and Paris, but it was soon considered as useless - the far-firing giant railroad guns were much more "effective" in a gruesome way. Foremost army Zeppelins (LZ) were used for missions against France (and Russia), while the naval airships (L) attacked England to bind forces, and patrolling the North, and baltic sea. Sometimes both "branches" partook in the same missions of a multi-airship attack, but it was more an exception.

Lots of Zeppelins were blown south by the foremost northerly winds, from England, so if they somehow lost their position there was no other possibility than to go down and see were they were, sometimes with bad results. There are numerous stories of Zeppelins following railroads in thick fog, to finally read the names of railyards, and get a grpip on their position.
At one time there were three Zeppelins over France, all thinking they had already reached Germany, again with "bad results". One blew up by ground fire (archie), one was captured almost intact, and became the prototype of the later british R34 and others, and the third one was blown further south unto the french provence, where it made an emergency landing.

oops like that last Zeppelin, seems i got carried away, sorry

Greetings,
Catfish

Are there any books on Zeps and Blimps in WWI? Out of all my knowledge of WWI this where I have the least knowledge.

Jason

Hello Jason,

there are some about Zeppelins, but very few about blimps - as far as i know. Two Zeppelin books would be "The Zeppelin in Combat: A History of the German Naval Airship Division, 1912-1918"
by Douglas H. Robinson, another one is Wilbur Cross's "Zeppelins of World War I". The latter is not correct in a few details, but a good read. None of them is really cheap, and then there are some few books with plans, in small editions and even more expensive.
There may be some publications about the L59 and its voyage to Africa in english (?), but then i do not know of it - yet .

The books from Schiller and others, writing about their Zeppelin flights with the "Graf Zeppelin" and "Hindenburg" after WW1 often refer to the war, to make clear what had been changed in the new passenger ships, and why. We have a thorough list of books and magazines, but most are in german - i do not know of much british publications about blimps, but would be really interested if there was anything.

Let me know if you want to know something, i will at least try to answer ..

Greetings,
Catfish

Are they more expensive than the $225 I spent on a WWII aircraft cockpits book? Ouch.

Jason

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I love flight sims!

Before IL-2, my knowledge of the Soviet front was restricted to "hoards and hoards of guys with red stars on their hats."

From RB3D I learned there were more than Camels, DR1's, N17's, and Fokker DVII's.

With RoF I learned the difference between zeppelins and blimps!

Btw, ask the average Joe the difference between a blimp and a zeppelin and the reply will be "one is German and burned up in that newsreel and the other lurks over NASCAR events," or "size."

Hi

No it doesn't. It's a big air bag.
I have seen one of them, but don't recall which one it was. It was at airshows in Miami a number of times. I never rode in it, but was all around it before.