Zeppelin LZ 55

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Wreckage of LZ 55 on the marshes near mouth of the Varder River during the Salonika Campaign Zeppelin brought down on the marches near mouth of the Varder River during the Salonika Campaign.jpg
Wreckage of LZ 55 on the marshes near mouth of the Varder River during the Salonika Campaign

Zeppelin LZ 55 (Army tactical number LZ 85) was a P-class Zeppelin of the Imperial German Army in World War I. It was shot down by the old British pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Agamemnon in 1916 during the Salonika campaign

Contents

Reconstructed wreckage of LZ 55, next to the White Tower Wreckage of LZ 85 next to the White Tower of Thessaloniki.jpg
Reconstructed wreckage of LZ 55, next to the White Tower

History

Searchlight crew on HMS Agamemnonre-enacting spotting the Zeppelin HMS Agamemnon searchlight crew Salonika 1916 IWM Q 31980.jpg
Searchlight crew on HMS Agamemnonre-enacting spotting the Zeppelin

On 5 May 1916 LZ55 made another attack on Thessaloniki (Salonika) harbour. Part way through the attack it was caught in spotlights. [2] and all the ships in the area opened fire with their anti-aircraft guns. [3] LZ55 continued its attack but HMS Agamemnon's 12-pounder anti-aircraft gun hit LZ 55; breaking it in half according to one of the crew. The airship crashed in the swamps at the mouth of the Vardar River west of Thessaloniki and its crew were captured. [4] [5] The crash site soon became a tourist attraction, with a report that "a dozen Canadian nurses. They had come up ... and waded through to it. What a sight they did look, skirts up round their waists wading through mud and slime up to their knees." [2]

The metal structure of the Zeppelin was dragged by Allied soldiers from the swamps to the White Tower of Thessaloniki. [2] There it was reconstructed so that Allied engineers could study how the Germans built airships.[ citation needed ]

Specifications (LZ55 / P-class zeppelin)

Data from Zeppelin : rigid airships, 1893-1940 [6]

General characteristics

(initially with 4x 157 kW (210 hp) Maybach C-X engines)

Performance

Armament
machine guns in hull-top positions and gondolas with provision for bombs

See also

References

  1. Ariel Varges (1916). "Q 31980". The Macedonian Campaign, 1915-1918. Imperial War Museum . Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Moody & Wakefield 2011.
  3. Buxton 2008.
  4. Burt 1988, p. 298.
  5. Tennyson 2013, p. 478.
  6. Brooks, Peter W. (1992). Zeppelin : rigid airships, 1893-1940. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 91–95. ISBN   1560982284.

Bibliography