Terror From Above

I've been re-reading an old paperback about the German Zeppelin bombing campaign against the UK during World War One.  Nowadays, if remembered at all, it is remembered as being something of a failure, with airships being at the mercy of the weather, which often prevented them from reaching their targets, the accuracy of their bombing was also poor and the damage inflicted minimal.  But at the time, they certainly weren't viewed in such terms.  Much of their significance lay in the fact that these raids represented the first time that the UK had suffered attack from the skies - and it was the whole UK under threat.  Despite the modern perception that the raids were only on London, the Zeppelins targeted cities and installations across the whole country.  Adding to public anxiety was the fact that, at the outset of the war, there was no credible defence against these raids -armed heavier-than-air craft were in their infancy and specialised anti-aircraft artillery didn't exist. Indeed, the whole concept of providing the UK with a co-ordinated air defence system stemmed from the Zeppelin threat.  Of course, Zeppelins weren't just deployed against the UK.  Germany built up significant numbers of these airships, in two separate forces, that of the Navy and that of the Army, with the former often being employed for long-range naval reconnaissance and the latter frequently used on the Eastern Front, against targets in Poland.  Belgian and Dutch cities also found themselves under attack from Zeppelins at various times.  At least one Zeppelin was even deployed to Africa in an attempt to re-supply German forces in East Africa.

All of which makes it surprising how little the Zeppelin campaign against the UK has featured on film.  In fact, the only feature film I can think of on the subject is the 1971 Micheal York starring Zeppelin. Although even here, the portrayal of the raids is peripheral to the main plot, which features a new zeppelin being sent to the UK on a secret mission, with York's double agent among the crew.  Unfortunately, while the special effects depicting the airship are quite impressive, the film offers a poor portrayal of Zeppelin operations.  The Julie Andrews/Rock Hudson semi-musical Darling Lili, as I recall, includes an air raid, but without any portrayal of Zeppelins.  One of the World War One episodes of Upstairs Downstairs does feature a Zeppelin raid and the destruction of one of the airships over London, (in reality, while several Zeppelins were shot down over the UK, I don't think any were brought down over London itself - one came down in the Thames Estuary, several in Essex and another near Cheshunt).  Portrayals of Zeppelins often turn up in films (the awful Gunbus, for instance), but never in the context of the raids against the UK (or anywhere else, for that matter).  Which is curious, as the Zeppelin bombing campaign represented a crucial turning point in the history of military aviation, proving the potential vulnerability from the air of civilian targets and creating the concept of 'terror raids' designed primarily to destroy the morale of enemy civilian populations. (A doctrine expanded upon by both sides in World War Two).  The exploits of the crews involved, on both sides, were also quite remarkable and full of dramatic potential, making their absence from cinema screens all the more mysterious.