Monthly Archives: February 2013

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Luftkriegsbeute

While searching for images to illustrate my Wartime article, I came across this German propaganda poster from 1918. It ultimately didn't make the cut but I think it's very interesting. The seaplane soaring into the top left of the poster is a Friedrichshafen FF.33; in fact it is the very one which scouted for the raider Wolf during its voyage into Australasian waters in 1917, Wölfchen ('Little wolf' or rather 'Wolf's cub'). But what about the two people in the lower right, cowering in fear before the swooping aeroplane? They appear to be stereotypical and somewhat racist images of Africans, or possibly Papuans. I suspect the latter. The Wolf came close to Africa twice, near the Cape of Good Hope on both its outbound and inbound legs, but it also sailed past Rabaul after preying on Allied shipping in the South Pacific. Rabaul would have had more resonance for Germans than South Africa, because it had been the capital of German New Guinea until 1914, when the Australians occupied the colony. So perhaps this poster should be seen as suggesting to the German public that Wolf's visit was a token of Germany's continuing claims in New Guinea and would soon return to reclaim its imperial possessions. And that it had reminded the natives who their real masters were.

But the poster had a more overt purpose, indicated by the text at the bottom: to advertise the Deutsche Luftkriegsbeute Ausstellung, or 'German air war booty exhibition', held in Munich sometime in 1918 (after February, when Wolf returned to Germany, and before November, presumably) along with associated military concerts. Presumably these were primarily propaganda exercises to rally the home front, but they may also have been used to raise funds for the war effort. However, I haven't been able to find much information about the exhibition, other than this poster and the rather striking ones below. (Apparently a pocket guide is still extant.)
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Manchester Guardian, 4 February 1913, 5

The Manchester Guardian has a summary (p. 5, above) of the weekend's airship sightings in South Wales (which is also published in the Derby Daily Telegraph, p. 3). The Guardian repeats the suggestion, made in the Standard and the Globe yesterday, that 'the craft belongs to someone in Devonshire or Somersetshire, and that experimental flights are being made' (p. 5). The admittedly brief notice of where the airships were seen is somewhat at variance with previous reports, however: it says it was seen at Cardiff, when it was seen several miles to the north, and that it was seen at Neath, when people there told to look out for an airship failed to actually see one.

The Guardian's mention of Mumbles is also new, but it would seem to be explained by the report in The Times that the 'constable at Aberavon' who 'observed, at 7.30pm on Sunday night [2 February 1913], an airship going over Swansea Bay and the Mumbles' (p. 6) -- so it's not a new report. However, it also says that 'Several other people declare they observed the outline of an airship carrying a light', presumably at Aberavon. This is confirmed by the Daily Express's report that an airship 'was seen at Port Talbot, near Swansea, about 6.30 p.m. on Sunday by a policeman and several other people' (p. 1). Aberavon is actually the old part of Port Talbot, which is about four miles from Neath, so that may account for the Guardian's confusion. The discrepancies in the time given for the sighting, an hour apart, may be explained by the fact that Constable Church watched the airship for an hour, according to yesterday's Globe.

The Express suggests that the Aberavon airship is 'presumably the same one' seen the following night [2 February 1913] at Greenmeadow (here Tongwynlais)

by two menservants of Colonel Henry Lewis. They watched it for four or five minutes, and noticed a red light at the rear.

(The Times also mentions this sighting, but without providing any new details.) If so, this airship 'could not have reached reached Croydon by 8.45 p.m.' to account for the other airship seen on Sunday. But the Express has evidence of another airship out that night, because the witness wrote in directly to inform it:

Mr. R. Lawrance [sic] Thornton, of High Cross, Framfield, Uckfield, writes to the 'Express' that he saw an airship pass over his house -- which is about eight miles north-east of Lewes -- about 9.25 p.m. on Sunday [2 February 1913].

Which 'is no doubt the airship which [...] was seen over Croydon at 8.45 p.m.'

The Globe reports (p. 3) on more mystery aircraft seen overseas, on the frontier between Austria-Hungary and Russia:

According to the journal 'Slovo Palski' a Russian aeroplane, equipped with a searchlight, was seen manœuvring over Lemberg on Saturday evening [1 February 1913]. At Tarnopol (Galicia) likewise an aeroplane, making signals, was sighted over the town

The Daily Mail carries the same article (p. 5), identifying the source as Reuter. The 'searchlight'/'signals' sound similar to the British phantom airships, though such heavy and bulky equipment would be much harder to take aloft in an aeroplane than an airship.

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Daily Express, 3 February 1913, 7

No less than three new phantom airship reports in today's papers: two from South Wales, which is fast becoming scareship central, and one from Croydon in the south-east of England.

To take the last airship first, as the Daily Express says, 'This is the first time that it has been reported so near London' (p. 7, above). Even so, the Express did well to get an interview with one of the witnesses, given that it happened only last night:

'An airship passed over here at a quarter to nine [on 2 February 1913],' said Mr. Trubshawe, of Fairfield-road, East Croydon, to an 'Express' representative last night. 'It came from the south-east, and moved overhead, disappearing rapidly to the north-west.

'I could not make out the exact shape of the envelope, but it must have been an airship of great size. Rays of light issued from it to the right and left, and also downward. There was quite a considerable volume of light altogether.'

'Others' also saw the airship, which was said to be 'moving with the wind'. The Liverpool Echo relays the Express's article (p. 5), while the Globe just notes that 'a number of people' at Croydon saw an airship last night (p. 12).
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'The Passing Show', a regular political commentary in the Dublin Sunday Independent, today takes note of the airship mystery (p. 6). It begins in a somewhat lighthearted fashion:

The 'phantom airship' scare is again occupying the attention of the British public, and, as usual, giving the anti-German section of the said B.P. food for grave misgiving.

This is followed by a very brief résumé of the major sightings of the past four weeks: Dover, Cardiff, Liverpool, Aberystwyth and Manchester. Nothing new here except in the last case: the Manchester airship is said to have 'been seen by reliable witnesses' and those witnesses are said to number 'Many'. Which may not be very much but the previous reports were not very forthcoming on the subject of who did the reporting. No conclusion is offered, but there is a noticeable tilt in one direction:

This is serious enough; but far worse is the fact that the officers of the Aero Club state that the vessel cannot possibly be of British origin. There is no English airship which could cover the distance in the time suggested by its appearances, whereas, as is well known, the German Zeppelins are quite capable of doing so, or of crossing from Germany and returning without landing.

It's interesting that the Sunday Independent doesn't see fit to mention, or else doesn't know of, the airship seen at Newport, Co. Mayo, three weeks ago, which might suggest that it's not just the British public which is prone to seeing German airships. On the other hand, that incident is the only one from Ireland to have been reported so far.

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Flight mentions the mystery airships in its editorial comment today, though only briefly and somewhat disparagingly. By the same token, it is quite happy to make use of them. The actual topic, inspired by the Daily Telegraph, is 'Our aerial fleet' (p. 107). It begins by claiming that in 'the matter of our aerial defences we have at all times endeavoured to steer clear of alarmist tendencies', and to assume that the government was following 'a considered policy of awaiting developments until such time as it was wise to make a great forward move' rather than accusing it of 'improper procrastination'.

But there comes a time when it is necessary to talk plainly and to say the things that come uppermost in the mind after a close and careful study of the relative strength of our own and other nations' air fleets. That time has come now. We have waited to see the awakening, and we have seen nothing but a continued policy of discouraging apathy, which has left this country hopelessly behind its rivals, without an air fleet worthy of the name, and almost entirely at the mercy of the first aerial power which cares to launch its air squadrons on a mission of destruction across the North Sea.

Britain's policy amounts to little more than watching and waiting:

We play about with small dirigibles which are but of minor count for the purposes of serious war, while Germany rapidly and certainly builds huge craft, capable of taking the North Sea in their stride and which, if report is to be trusted, have already paid us visits by night. Not that we are inclined to take these reports too seriously, but the fact remains that even if German aircraft have not visited these shores it is beyond all question that there is nothing in the wide world, least of all British aircraft, to prevent them so doing whenever those directing them are inclined.

Nor should France's 'enormously strong air fleet', soon to number 'not less than five hundred aeroplanes in effective service, to say nothing of a respectable number of large dirigibles', be neglected:

True, France at the moment is our very good friend and ally, but political friendships are notoriously unstable, and even so, when did Great Britain have to depend upon her friends to supply her own obvious deficiencies?

It is rumoured that the forthcoming Army Estimates will include a provision for £1 million for aviation, but what if the rumours are wrong?

Is there any hope that the Parliamentary 'Supers' who draw their £400 per annum for walking through the lobbies obedient to the crack of the Party whip will rise up in their places and insist that the safety of the country shall take precedence of schemes of so-called social reform, which no one wants and which are frankly designed to catch the votes of the unthinking populace? We fear not.

The only bright lights are 'Mr. Joynson-Hicks, an indefatigable champion in the cause of aviation and an Aerial Defence group in the House, which has done excellent work in calling attention to the parlous state of our air service' (pp. 107-8). But they are isolated and have little influence. Therefore 'It is with something more than pleasure that we note that the Daily Telegraph has taken up this most vital question' (p. 108). Flight fully concurs, and has previously argued, that as a consequence of 'the policy of inaction',

the British aviation industry is dying. Abroad, one improvement follows another with disconcerting rapidity owing in every case to the researches and experiments of private firms. But it cannot be hoped that with our factories idle, with our expert designers and craftsmen dismissed and forced into other careers to make their livelihood, we can ever keep pace with, much less outstrip, foreign activity and improvement.

By the time Britain reaches the same conclusion as every other country, i.e. that it is necessary to equip the 'army with war machines of a number of different types, even at great cost [...] the aviation industry will have ceased to exist'. If nothing is done.

We repeat we are not alarmists, but we cannot view the position without [sic] anything but the gravest misgiving for the future. The political outlook is darker than it has been for many years, and we have it on record that in the opinion of one of our most distinguished soldiers that it is impossible to make successful war without having command of the air. And if war should come suddenly, we most certainly shall not have command of the air -- but the lamp-posts of Whitehall may have unfamiliar ornaments. And well might it be under the circumstances.

Looks like there's a scare coming.

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Wartime 61

The current issue of Wartime, the official magazine of the Australian War Memorial, has an article by me on the Australian mystery aeroplane scare of 1918. I'm very pleased with how it's turned out -- it's beautifully illustrated and put together. The theme of the issue is 'air warfare', which I imagine may be of interest to readers of this blog. For example, there's Richard Overy on the legal and ethical status of Bomber Command's campaign against Germany, Richard Frank on whether the Japanese should be considered victims of the atomic bombs, Greg Gilbert on the aerial aspects of the Dardanelles (okay, Gallipoli) campaign, and a lot more. You can read Lachlan Grant's article on 460 Squadron RAAF's daylight raid on Berchtesgaden for free, but for the rest you'll need to buy a copy from the AWM or from any good newsagent, or a few indifferent ones for that matter. Recommended, and not just because I'm in it!