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.
Image text: 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
French infantry charge near Fort Vaux, one of the bastions of Verdun. In March 1916, the village of Vaux changed hands 13 times. The fort fell to German forces the morning of June 7.Illustration by Léon Taa. . . ., 1916.
Image text: La Bataille sous Verdun, 1916Charge d'infanterie, prise du Fort de VauxThe Battle around Verdun, 1916Infantry charge near Vaux FortLogo: ELDVisé ParisReverse:Imp. E Le Deley, Paris
View across No Man's Land between Ypres and Messines in 1917 by Lance Corporal Hugh F. Ward, 97th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps. Ward painted this while he was in the sector before, during, and after the June, 1917 Battle of Messines Ridge. Initialed 'H.W.'.
Image text: Initialed 'H.W.'.
Edito Card of an Hanriot HD.1. Introduced in late summer, 1916, the French Hanriot HD.1 was primarily flown by the Belgian and Italian air services. This plane is in the colors of the Belgian Air Corps. The white thistle on the fuselage was the symbol of the squadron of Willy Coppens, Belgium's leading ace of the war. The sawtooth pattern on the tail identified an individual pilot. Each patrol of three planes had an identifying cowling color. Coppens, as the leading ace, insisted on an all-blue plane.
Image text: Hanriot HD.1FighterFrance
"On arriving at Dixmude at 1:05 A.M. I observed a Zeppelin apparently over Ostend and proceeded in chase of the same. I arrived at close quarters a few miles past Bruges at 1:50 A.M. and the Airship opened heavy maxim fire, so I retreated to gain height and the Airship turned and followed me.At 2:15 he seemed to stop firing and at 2:25 A.M. I came behind, but well above the Zeppelin; height then 11,000 feet, and switched off my engine to descend on top of him. When close above him, at 7000 feet I dropped my bombs, and, whilst releasing the last, there was an explosion which lifted my machine and turned it over. The aeroplane was out of control for a short period, but went into a nose dive, and the control was gained." ((1), more)
"'We do not hear your artillery. We are being attacked with gas and liquid fire. We are in desperate straits.'Then this one, at nightfall on June 5th:'I must be set free this evening, and must have supplies of water immediately. I am coming to the end of my strength. The troops, enlisted men and officers, have done their duty to the last, in every case.'On the 6th came only these few words"'. . . you will intervene before we are completely exhausted. Vive la France!'And finally, on June 7th, at half past three in the morning, these last words, whose meaning we could not make out:'. . . must go on.'" ((2), more)
"Each of the eleven firing teams had its own ecstatic story of success to tell as 933,200 pounds of the strongest known explosive erupted in the heart of Messines Ridge. All nineteen mines had fired in a drawn-out tumult of sound that carried hundreds of miles. Prime Minister Lloyd George heard it at home. So did Norton Griffiths, the man who had started the whole 'big idea' (with a thumbnail sketch that had angered the Engineer in Chief, twenty-five months before). And so did a student, Ormsby-Scott, lying awake in Dublin, 500 miles from the scene.Closely after the mines, the artillery opened fire with every gun that could be used and nine divisions of infantry, their heads surely singing with the noise, advanced through billowing smoke. The Battle of Messines had begun." ((3), more)
"On the 7th, another Mention, this time for having: 'shot down an aeroplane and four balloons in less than a month,' brought me the Order of Leopold. . . .On June 5, 9, and 10, I brought off my sixth, seventh, and eighth victories, over, respectively, Houthulst, Zonnebeke, and near Armentières, to the south of Ypres in the British zone. This zone, like that of the coast, was very strongly defended by the enemy, and I came back with three bullet-holes and three splinter-tears in my main planes." ((4), more)
(1) Excerpt from the report of Sub-lieutenant Reggie Warneford of Royal Navy Air Squadron Number 1. At 1:00 AM the morning of June 7, 1915, Warneford took off from Dunkirk on his first night flight, flying a Morane Parasol monoplane, a two-seater modified as single-seat scout. British Intelligence had identified Zeppelin sheds at Evere, Belgium, and the British Admiralty had just notified the Squadron that three Zeppelins were returning to their base from Britain. Two Henri Farman planes took off to bomb the Zeppelin sheds, and destroyed one shed and L.38 (Luftschiff — Airship — 38). Warneford took off to intercept the returning Zeppelins, his plane armed with six 20-pound bombs. His opponent — L.37 — had a crew of 28 and was well-defended by four side-mounted machine guns that kept Warneford at a distance. The Zeppelin could fly at a higher altitude, and it was not until it started to descend for landing that Warneford could get above it to drop his bombs. The airship had no defenses on its upper surface.Warneford flew over the massive machine, and had dropped five of his six bombs when L.37 burst open in flames with a force that flipped over the plane. The pilot dove to get away from burning debris and to regain control, his engine struggling. The Zeppelin's hulk landed on convent outside of Ghent, killing a man on the ground, and all but one of its crew. Warneford's engine died, and he glided to a landing in a field well behind German lines. His fuel line had been cut, but he was able to patch it with a cigarette holder and handkerchief. He was awarded the Victoria Cross and the French Cross of the Legion of Honor. Returning from Paris on June 17 after the ceremony for the latter, he was ordered to bring a new Farman biplane back to base. Eager for Warneford's story, American reporter Henry Needham joined him. The plane, perhaps too hastily assembled, crashed immediately after takeoff, throwing the men from the plane, killing them both.
The Zeppelin Fighters by Arch Whitehouse, pp, 84, 85, copyright © 1966 by Arch Whitehouse, publisher: New English Library, publication date: 1978
(2) Last messages from the Major Raynal and the garrison of Fort Vaux which fell on June 7, 1916 in the Battle of Verdun.
Verdun by Henri Philippe Pétain, page 168, copyright © 1930, publisher: The Dial Press, publication date: 1930
(3) Messines Ridge had been captured by German troops from the British during the 1914 First Battle of Ypres. It was briefly taken by the French, but lost again in December of that year. John Norton Griffiths was a Conservative Member of Parliament who started the British tunneling (and mining) units. Germans, French, and British mined on the Western Front, setting off mines beneath enemy trenches and attacking what were usually dazed survivors. The 19 mines at Messines and Wystchaete were the largest of the war, and created craters as much as 430 feet across along a front of nine miles. British, Irish, Australian, and New Zealand troops took the ridges and what remained of Messines and Wystchaete, walking unopposed across the ruins. Ten thousand German soldiers were missing and 7,354 were taken prisoner.; as many as 20,000 may have died.
War Underground by Alexander Barrie by Alexander Barrie, page 235, copyright © 1961 by Alexander Barrie, publisher: Ballantine Books, publication date: 1961
(4) Excerpts from the memoir of Willy Coppens, Belgium's greatest ace in World War I with 37 victories, all but two of them observation balloons. After repeated attempts to bring down a balloon, Coppens was finally successful when he was provided with 20 French incendiary bullets, which he used sparingly. Balloons were heavily defended with anti-aircraft guns and fighter planes.
Flying in Flanders by Willy Coppens, pp. 177, 179, publisher: Ace Books, publication date: 1971
