A rather belated mystery airship report appears in today’s Aberdeen Daily Journal (p. 4): It was reported a few days ago that on the evening of the 9th April [1913] an airship, steering north-west, was seen from the island of Stronsay, Orkney. Doubt was felt at the time as to the reliability of the report, […]
The Economist follows up last week’s third leading article about the airship scare with the fourth leading article today (an extract from which also appears in the Manchester Guardian). This time around the subject is ‘THE “DAILY MAIL’S” MANSION HOUSE MEETING FOR AIRSHIPS’ (925), which is planned for 5 May and will feature speeches by
The Manchester Guardian reports today on Germany’s naval aviation plans, as revealed in an official memorandum recently released to the public, which it judges to be ‘important as marking the first step from tentative experiments to a period of ordered growth’ (9). An ‘explanatory statement’ is likened to ‘the famous Introduction to the Navy Bill
The third leading article in today’s Economist is entitled ‘Airship fiascos and preliminary puffs’ (p. 868). It begins by casting back to ‘A FEW weeks ago, just before and after the Army and Navy Estimates were introduced’, when ‘a section of the Press was filled with lurid accounts of the danger in which Great Britain
A prominent headline on the front page of the Daily Express today rather startlingly refers to the ‘BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON’, a ‘NIGHT VISIT FROM A DIRIGIBLE’, and a ‘WAR LESSON’ (p. 1). It turns out that the capital has not been destroyed by a sudden Zeppelin raid; rather, Londoners are promised that tomorrow night an
[Cross-posted at Society for Military History Blog.] I learned something new from an article in the March 2013 issue of History Today: Exactly half a century ago, in the spring of 1963, Israel was suddenly gripped by a curious mass panic. Sensational newspaper reports and radio announcements claimed that the country was threatened by enemy
It’s been a while, but after three previous visits the mystery airship has returned to Cardiff. From the Manchester Guardian (p. 9; above): Our Cardiff correspondent sends a report that again last night [8 April 1913] an aircraft was seen at Cardiff, where one was reported to have been seen frequently at the beginning of
Z4 had only a brief stay in Lunéville. It has already flown back to Metz, though not before being searched by the authorities for any evidence that the Zeppelin had been photographing French defences. They didn’t find any, but did impose a £300 customs duty anyway (which will be refunded). Except in the frontier provinces,
There’s some sensational airship-related news today. Many newspapers report that yesterday an airship was forced down at Lunéville after first getting lost and then had mechanical problems. The reason why this is sensational is because Lunéville is in France and because the airship is German: the very latest Zeppelin, Z4, which has been undertaking proving
An unusual phantom airship reference today. The Dundee Courier reports on the ‘successful debut’ of ‘Mr William J. Wallace’s talented company of entertainers’, who ‘made their bow before Dundee [sic] public on Saturday night’ at St Mary Magdalene’s Hall (p. 4). One ‘descriptive sketch’ in particular, entitled ‘Coach Ride from Newport to Balmurnie via Pickletullem
