Photo: archive

HISTORY

Sopwith Camel is being loaded on the take-off towing platform.

fuselage. The whole aircraft fuselage was in

this case sealed to float on the water surface

and replaced the huge floats installed on the

standard aircraft. The concept of the “flying

boats” came to existence in the United States

in the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company

workshops owned by Glenn Curtiss. In 1913,

for its time very advanced Curtiss Model H

was designed, a hydroplane with a boat-like

fuselage intended for long-haul flights. The

British Navy immediately showed the interest

in both purchasing several airframes as well

as the license to build them as Felixtowe F.1. On

May 14, 1917, Flight Commander Robert Leckie

flying Curtiss H12 shot down Zeppelin L22 (LZ

64 class Q). The future Air Marshall was born in

Glasgow, Scotland, however in 1909 his family

left for Canada where he joined the army. In

1915 he paid 600 Canadian dollars for the pilot

training it the Curtiss Flying School, however

he only logged three hours on Curtiss Model

F flying boat at Hanlan’s Point until the school

was forced to close for winter. Robert Leckie

managed to take part in shooting down L70

(LZ 112 class X) with Fregattenkapitän Peter

Strasser, a German aviation icon, on board.

Leckie manned the gun while DH.4 aircraft was

piloted by Major Egbert Cadbury.

Photo: archive

First attacks against airship bases

On August 11, 1918, FSL Stuart D. Culley successfully took off from the H5 platform towed by the HMS Redoubt

destroyer and shot down a Zeppelin L-53.

and other duties but at the same time caused

a series of problems. The landing deck, built

above the bow complicated the gun fire and

the hydroplanes’ recovery (Short S.27 was

designed as a floatplane) presented a risk

once performed in the rough waters. The Royal

Navy continued to develop the concept of a

hydroplane ship.

A problem’ name was Zeppelin

And then the war broke out and soon it was

apparent how big problem the existence of the

German airships represented. What looked like

a clumsy Leviathan full of highly flammable

gas, slowly moving through the sky, started to

transform into Zeppelin-phobia once the bombs

started to fall out of these giants. It cannot

be said that the British did not address the

Zeppelin threat. Right from the start the First

16

INFO Eduard

Lord of Admiralty, Winston Churchill, played

his role. Thanks to his initiative the air defense

of the British Isles was transferred from the

Royal Flying Corps (RFC), who anyway were

busy in the expedition corps in France, to the

Navy air component, Royal Naval Air Service

(RNAS). Soon it was clear that the performance

of the available British aircraft is not sufficient

to oppose Zeppelins and the solution had to

be found how to attack them. In addition, the

Germans switched to the night attacks. The

Admiralty arrived at the conclusion that if the

attacks from the air were not possible it was

necessary to attack the airships while they

were still in the hangars at their bases.

Flying boats

Another way to use the airplanes by the

navy were the hydroplanes with the boat-like

On September 22, 1914, the British attempted

to attack the airship base for the first time. The

raid on the base near Dusseldorf, where the

airship Z.IX operated from, failed, however. On

the second attempt Lt. Reginald Marix flying the

Sopwith Tabloid serial number 168, destroyed

the army Zeppelin Z.IX (LZ 25, army class)

from the altitude of 200 meters. After landing

in Antwerp, he had to flee the German Army

which was just advancing through Belgium.

Encouraged by the success the RNAS wanted

to attack the Friedrichshafen base. The mission

was flown by single-seat Avro 504C airplanes

taking off from the French fort of Belfort. Their

bombs did not cause any damage due to the

fierce AA fire and the airship L7 (LZ 32 class M)

escaped undamaged.

First airship kills by a ground

and carrier-born aircraft

The first destruction of the airship in the air is

credited to RNAS pilot, FSL Reginald Warneford.

On June 7, 1915, he dropped six 20 lb bombs

(9 kilos) from his Morane-Saulnier L high wing

airplane (serial number 3252) on LZ37 airship

(class M) near Gent. The airship exploded in an

enormous blast which also damaged Warneford

aircraft and due to the engine failure, he had to

perform an emergency landing on the enemy

territory. While on the ground he managed to

repair the engine and after half an hour could

fly back to friendly lines. On August 21, 1917,

Flight Sub-Lieutenant Bernard Arthur Smart

July 2023