Zeppelin LZ25 Z IX

First flight : 13 July 1914

Class : M

General information :

Used for reconnaissance missions and bombing in northern France; on 25 August 1914 nine bombs dropped on Antwerp killed or wounded 26 people and damaged a royal palace. The Belgian royal family were in residence and the attack was widely condemned. Destroyed in its hangar at Düsseldorf on 8 October 1914 by bombs dropped by Flt Lt. (later Air Vice Marshal) Reginald Marix, RNAS flying a Sopwith Tabloid.^[22]

Gas capacity : 22470 m3

Length : 158 m

Action radius : 2200 km

Engines : 3 x 220 hp

Speed : 80 km/u

Crew of Z IX in 1914

25 Augustus 1914

German army Zeppelin Z IX (construction number LZ-25), under the command of Hauptmann Alfred Horn returned from a raid on Antwerp yesterday that saw up to twenty-six inhabitants of the city killed or wounded. The Zeppelin dropped ten 21-cm mortar shells, weighing 120 kg each, with Belgian authorities reporting eight explosions. Buildings hit include the barracks of the 5th Regiement, the Sint Elisabethshospital, and the royal palace. Because the royal family was in residence at the palace at the time, the Belgian Government claims that the German raid was made with the intent of their assassination.

Destroyed house in Antwerp

Literature : They fought for the sky page 59