Text: Richard Plos

Illustration: Adam Tooby

Cat. No. 82173

A thick smoke pours from the huge building and the sounds coming from its burning insides resemble the roar of a wounded animal. Flames are rapidly consuming more than a four millions of cubic feet of hydrogen of the two airships inside, and the glare of the fire competes with the sun, which is just about to start climbing over the horizon to shine on another day of the war ...

The Zeppelin base in Tondern was a thorn in the side of Britons during the WWI. It had been under construction since September 1914 with the first two hangars completed during March 1915. From then on airships took off from there to raid Great Britain. The largest of the three hangars was completed on January 17, 1916, and named Toska, while its two smaller predecessors were named Toni and Tobias. All the names therefore began with the letters TO, as did Tondern. Toska was of directly gargantuan proportions. It measured 730 ft long, 220 ft wide and 130 ft high. The base was a tempting target, but it remained out of range of Britons. However, the development of naval aviation and the emergence of the aircraft carrier HMS Furious offered a new option: an attack from the sea.

The first suggestion for such action came from W/Cdr Richard Davis and after his plan was approved by the Royal Navy supreme, Admiral David R. Beatty, the airmen quickly set about preparing before the “old-school battlewagon commander” changed his mind. The operation, designated F.5, was scheduled for May, and the attack was to be carried out by two flights of Camels. Capt. William Jackson was to lead Capt. William Dickson and Lt. Norman Williams, while the second flight was to be led by Capt. Bernard A. Smart, Capt. Thomas Thyne, Lt. Samuel Dawson and Lt. Walter Yeulett. The standard bomb load of four 20 lb Cooper Mark II-A bombs, was replaced by two 49 lb Mark IIIs for this mission, and the pilots practiced attacks on targets, which were drawn on the ground.

At the end of May 1918, HMS Furious sailed with seven 2F.1 Camels on board, but shortly afterwards a German U-boat appeared, and so she returned to the port. She set sail again on June 18, but the fleet was spotted by a pair of German floatplanes. HMS Furious launched some Camels, which shot down one enemy, but the other escaped. As they were detected, another return was logical. HMS Furious than sailed for a third attempt on June 27. The code was changed to F.6 and rolling, but the weather was against. At midnight on June 28 a storm broke and there was no choice but to return for a third time. The fourth time attempt started at noon on July 17, 1918, and by midnight the HMS Furious was as close to the Danish coast as she could get. But before the F.7 operation could begin, the storm came again. Instead of returning, the command decided to cruise well away from the Danish coast, and at dusk, under overcast skies, HMS Furious set off again for the Danish coast. At 0315 the first of seven Camels took off. The target was some 80 miles away, so the return leg was at the limit of the Camel’s range. The backup plan was to land in Denmark and to get to internment. Thyne suffered an engine failure shortly after take-off and had to return, so six Camels continued to the target. An hour and twenty minutes after take-off, Jackson saw the silhouettes of the hangars ...

At the Tondern base, the sky was clear at the time. Kptlt. von Buttlar-Brandenfels was looking from the window of his house just a half a mile away from the base. In the Toska hangar, both his L 53 and the more modern L 60 of Kptlt. Hans Flemming were resting. Each of these airships was filled with approximately two millions of cubic feet of hydrogen and several tons of bombs were also prepared on trolleys in the hangar. The first flight hit Toska with at least three bombs and all hell broke loose inside. A frantic von Buttlar-Brandenfels rode his bicycle to the base after the first explosions. There, he could only watch the doom of his airship through the open giant doors (which were at either end of the hangar). The brave soldiers, despite the flames, got to the bomb carts and pulled them out before they could explode!

The second flight appeared on the scene ten minutes later and flying from the opposite direction, i.e., from the east. Smart hit Tobias with one bomb. A dirigible balloon inside burned up, while the second Smart’s bomb hit a wagon full of hydrogen cylinders but did not explode. In Adam Tooby’s painting for the new 1/48 scale Sopwith 2F.1 kit, Smart’s Camel just overflies the burning Toska seconds after he himself set the Tobias on fire.

Three of six pilots decided on plan B and headed for Denmark after the mission was accomplished, but three remaining, Smart, Dickson and Yeulett, set the course for return. Unfortunately, Yeulett ran out of fuel and his body was washed up on the Danish coast a few days later. He was the only casualty of the whole event on both sides. Yeulett was just 19 years old and due to his poor performance during practicing prior to L.6 operation, Davies cut him off the lineup. However, in the interim before operation L.7, young pilot improved and was taken in, which proved fatal. Only Smart and Dickson made it back. Both landed on the water and were lifted from the sea as were their Camels.

The raid marked the end of the base. It continued to serve only as an emergency landing strip, and when the borders changed after the war, Tondern became the Danish Tønder...