LZ 45

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Navy airship L 13

The Zeppelin LZ 45 was the 45th airship of Count Zeppelin and the thirteenth airship of the Imperial Navy .

history

The first run of LZ 45 took place on July 23, 1915. The navy took over the airship under the military ID L 13.

L 13 carried out many bombing raids on England and reconnaissance trips in the North Sea. The Zeppelin was also used to secure departing German submarines. Its main location was Hage .

A bomb attack by L 13 on the night of September 8th to 9th 1915 on the city center of London, the first air raid on the city center of London at all, resulted in serious damage. Textile stores north of Saint Paul's Cathedral caught fire and £ 530,000 in damage.

On September 13, 1915, L 13 launched the next attack on London, but dense cloud fields and heavy fog made the approach difficult. When the airship received an artillery hit in the passage between the gondolas, which hit the radio system, entered through the loss of gas and which also hit a gasoline line, the naval zeppelin had to turn around and finally dropped its bomb load over Dutch territory to reduce weight. 1.3 tons of fuel and inventory were also thrown overboard to keep the airship in the air. L 13 was able to reach its home port and was repaired after four days.

When the German deep sea fleet set out on August 18, 1916 to attempt a second major sea battle after the Skagerrak Battle of May 1916, L 13 was able to discover part of the British fleet and report the commander-in-chief of the German fleet, Admiral Reinhard Scheer , by radio . Due to a thunderstorm, L 13 lost contact with the British fleet and so Scheer broke off the pursuit of the English. L 13 carried out a total of 45 reconnaissance and 15 attack journeys and dropped 20,667 kg of bombs.

Whereabouts

When the airship was out of date, LZ 45 / L 13 was taken out of service on April 25, 1917 and the zeppelin was dismantled.

Technical specifications

  • Carrying gas volume: 31,900 m³ hydrogen
  • Length: 163.00 m
  • Diameter: 18.70 m
  • Payload: 16.2 t
  • Drive: four Maybach engines, each 210 PS (154 kW)
  • Speed: 26.7 m / s

See also

literature

  • Peter Meyer: Airships - The History of the German Zeppelins. Wehr & Wissen, Koblenz / Bonn 1980.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst A. Lehmann : On air patrol and world travel. Wegweiser-Verlag, Berlin 1936, page 125