Zeppelin Kommt! Children play a Zeppelin raid on London. Holding his bomb in the gondola is a doll of the airship's inventor, Count Zeppelin. The other children, playing the English, cower, and the British fleet — folded paper boats — remains in port. Prewar postcards celebrated the imposing airships and the excitement they generated with the same expression, 'Zeppelin Kommt!'. Postcard by P.O. Engelhard (P.O.E.). The message on the reverse is dated May 28, 1915.
P.O.E.? EnglandLondonZeppelin Kommt!Reverse:Message dated May 28, 1915Stamped: Geprüft und zu befördern (Approved and forwarded) 9 Komp. Bay. L.I.N. 5
"An already bad end to 1916 got even worse when the Naval Airship Division lost three more airships on 28 December. First, SL.12, although damaged, survived a bad landing at the Ahlhorn base, but strong overnight winds destroyed her. Then, at Tondern an equipment failure caused the ground crew to lose control of L.24 as she came in to land, whereupon she smashed against the shed and burst into flames, which also engulfed the neighboring L.17."
Beside the three airships in our quotation, Germany lost six Zeppelins in raids on England from September to December, 1916: one the night of September 2–3, two the night of September 23–24, one the night of October 1–2, and two the night of November 27–28. Most of the losses were Zeppelins, but SL.12 was a Schütte-Lanz with a wooden frame, rather than the Zeppelin's metal inner structure.
The First Blitz: Bombing London in the First World War by Ian Castle, pp. 91–92, copyright © 2015 Osprey Publishing Ltd., publisher: Osprey Publishing, publication date: 2015
1916-12-28, 1916, December, Zeppelin, Schütte-Lanz, Schutte-Lanz
