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Zeppelin LZ85 L 45
Many locals made a visit to see the wreck of the Zeppelin at the banks of river Buech
Class : R
First flight : 12 April 1917
LZ85 flying over the sheds Toni and Tobias at Tonder , location +-100m 54°57’53.15”N 8°51’18.46”E
12 reconnaissance missions around the North Sea; 3 attacks on England dropping 4,700 kg (10,400 lb) of bombs. Ran out of fuel on 20 October 1917 and destroyed in forced landing near Sisteron , France, the crew being taken captive.
Length 198m diam 23.9m 55200 m3 gas in 19 gas cells vmax : 103 km/u
Engines : 5 Maybach HS Lu 240 hp range : 7400 km ceiling : 4000m
Weight : 32908 kg
See also Zeppelin LZ80 for ceiling calculations and performance
L 45 sur le terrain Berlin-Staaken
23 May1917 first raid against GB along with 5 other Zeps. Took off from Ahlhorn. Due to clouds and high winds the bombs fell scattered over East Anglia
The LZ 85 conducted its last bombing raid on Britain on the night of 19 October and 20 October 1917. The ship took off from Tønder and joined 10 other naval airships. The raid took place at such a great height that no British fighters could reach high enough to shoot the attacking zeppelins down, giving the airships a huge advantage. The airships reached Britain undisturbed and dropped 274 bombs from a record height of well over 5 kilometres (3.1 mi).
LZ 85 continued southward, when at 11.30pm the ship bathed in light from serachlight batteries over northwest London . The commander took the opportunity and started bombing the city. The first bomb came down near Hendon Aerodrome , location : 51°36’06”N 0°14’34”W damaging the Grahame-White aircraft manufacturer . Another bomb just missed Cricklewood railway station (location : 51°33’31”N 0°12’46”W ). When LZ 85 reached the City of London, she dropped a 300 kg (660 lb) high explosive bomb on Piccadilly Circus , (loction 51°30’36”N 0°08’05”W ) which smashed the entire facade of the Swan & Edgar department store , killing five men and two women, and also wounding 18 others, that were mostly waiting for a bus. The bomb blew a hole 3 metres (9 ft 10 in) in diameter and 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in) in depth down to a cellar under the street between the department store and a tea shop Cabin.
Hither Green bomb damage after the raid
While continuing its flight over London, LZ 85 encountered a Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2c fighter, but escaped by turning southward and climbing to an extreme height. When the airship was in safety, it dropped another bomb in Southwark , South of the River Thames , where it destroyed 3 houses in Albany Road (location 51°29’04”N 0°05’03.7”W ) near Burgess Park , killing 10 to 12 people and wounding many others. The airship dropped another bomb on Hither Green (location : 51°27’ 03”N 0°00’18”W ) in the southeastern district of Lewisham and destroyed 26 small houses. In this attack, 15 people were killed including 12 children or teenagers and 8 others were wounded. Of the 12 children whom were killed, 8 were from the Kingston family and 4 from the Milgate family. Meanwhile, on the ground, British searchlight batteries tried to locate LZ 85 , but in the hazy weather high above London, the airship could not be found. LZ 85 tried to descend to a lower altitude, but was pursued by a Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2c flown by Lieutenant Pritchard. On gaining altitude LZ 85 encountered strong turbulence and frost, which caused a number of mechanical problems including steering problems, an engine failure and fuel leaks. On top of that, the crew began suffering from altitude sickness .
Forced landing in France
LZ 85 escaped Britain and flew over the English Channel towards Belgium and France . However, due to its long duration at an extreme height and the numerous mechanical problems, including fuel leaks, the ship was left to the mercy of the weather as the fuel ran out. The ship drifted over Amiens and Compiègne , heading toward neutral Switzerland . When passing by Lyon , at a height of 500 metres (1,640 ft 5 in), a fighter took of from Meyzieu east of the city, following the airship to the south of Saint-Marcellin , but had to give up the chase and return to Meyzieu due to lack of fuel.
The burned out wreck of LZ 85 location : +-100m 44°16’34”N 5°49’49”E
At 10.50am, commander Kölle decided to make an emergency landing on a reclaimed island near Laragne, on the banks of river Buech , north of Sisteron in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in south-eastern France as he knew he couldn't keep his ship in the air much longer. The commander steered his ship into the dry bed of a river, but the zeppelin bounced up again, losing one of her propellers on impact. The commander ordered the crew to jump from the ship before it crashed on the hillside next to the river, but not all the crew had abandoned LZ 85 before she crashed into the hillside. The ship came to rest on the hill almost undamaged and the commander and remaining crew abandoned LZ 85 and set the ship ablaze with a signal pistol before anyone could stop him, despite the efforts of Madame Dupont, a local farmer's wife. After burning the Zeppelin, the crew of 17 men along with the first officer and commander Kölle were taken into custody as prisoners of war .
Location of the crash site drawn in this picture
Aftermath
In the afternoon of 20 October 1917, 16 of the crew-members were taken to Laragne where they were interrogated by local gendarmes . Commander Waldemar Kölle was interrogated by the German department of the French intelligence service on 1 November 1917. The report of the commanders interrogation was later smuggled to Nordholz , where Peter Strasser received it on 25 April 1918. In the report it was revealed that the British Naval Intelligence Division had gotten hold of detailed and updated information on the German naval airships and all their commanders, including on Bockholt's top secret Africa mission. The discovery resulted in 3 people from Tønder and 2 from Nordholz coming under suspicion of spying and later being found guilty and executed by a firing squad . The circumstances are not clear as most archive material has been lost.
The captured crew of LZ 85
The crew of LZ 85 were held as Prisoners Of War until the end of the war, when they were all released, except Waldemar Kölle, who was accused under Versailles Treaty to have committed war crimes by killing civilians. Kölle remained jailed in Roanne until 1921.
Literature :
Warplanes WW1 page 131