They had more space than in many modern aeroplanes and could stroll about admiring the view. Passengers travelled in considerable comfort in gondolas slung underneath the huge 190 metre-long hydrogen-filled rugby ball-shaped balloon. From then, civilian airships developed rapidly before the First World War. Count von Zeppelin was impressed by their potential and built his first successful airship in 1900. Lighter than air flying machines were successfully developed before aeroplanes. Use the sources in this lesson to find out how the people of Hull responded to the Zeppelin raids on their city. The first raid was on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in January 1915. With military deadlock on the Western Front, they decided to use them against towns and cities in Britain. When the war started in 1914, the German armed forces had several Zeppelins, each capable of travelling at about 85 m.p.h. They were lighter than air, filled with hydrogen, with a steel framework. Historians have described it as a ‘total war’, a global war which involved both civilians and the armed services on a massive scale.Ĭount von Zeppelin, a retired German army officer, flew his first airship in 1900. The First World War was to change all that. Previous overseas wars rarely touched British shores. Before the 20th century, civilians in Britain had been largely unaffected by war.
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