World War 1 - 15th December 1914 Battle of Lodz ends Belgrade occupied by Serbian forces End of Second Austrian invasion of Serbia German airship sighted off East Coast of England (first appearance of hostile aircraft in vicinity of British Isles. The German airships were operated by the Army and Navy as two entirely separate organizations. When World War I broke out, the Army took over the three remaining DELAG ships. By this time, it had already decommissioned three older Zeppelins, including Z I. During the war the Navy Zeppelins were mainly used in reconnaissance missions . Bombing missions, especially those targeting London, captured the German publics imagination, but had little significant material success, although the Zeppelin raids, together with the later bombing raids carried out by aeroplanes, did cause the diversion of men and equipment from the Western Front and fear of the raids had some effect on industrial production. Early offensive operations by Army airships revealed that they were extremely vulnerable to ground fire unless flown at high altitude, and several were lost. No bombs had been developed, and the early raids dropped artillery shells instead. On 5 August 1914 Z VI bombed Liège. Flying at a relatively low altitude because of cloud cover, the airship was damaged by small-arms fire and was destroyed in a forced landing near Bonn. On 21 August Z VII and Z VIII were damaged by ground fire while supporting German army operations in Alsace, and Z VIII was lost.[35] On the night of 24/25 August Z IX bombed Antwerp, dropping bombs near the royal palace and killing five people. A second, less effective raid was made on the night of 1–2 September and a third on 7 October, but on 8 October Z IX was destroyed in its hangar at Düsseldorf by Flt Lt. Reginald Marix, RNAS. On the eastern front, Z V was brought down by ground fire on 28 August during the Battle of Tannenberg; most of the crew were captured. Z IV bombed Warsaw on 24 September and was also used to support German army operations in East Prussia. By the end of 1914 the Armys airship strength was reduced to four. Western Front Fighting limited to artillery duels and local skirmishes. Eastern Front East Prussia: Russians defeated at Soldau. Poland: Russians in retreat towards Lovich. Galicia: Austro-German offensive from Cracow. Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres Armenia: Turkish offensive compels Russians to retreat. Naval and Overseas Operations Libau on Baltic shelled by German squadron. Goeben and Breslau engaged by a Russian squadron in Black Sea: the Goeben damaged. Photo: German Airship over England
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 07:28:15 +0000
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