"Armament of "height climber" Zeppelins" Topic

I offered to post a question on TMP on behalf of a colleague of mine. He is trying to find out what armament the "height climber" Zeppelins had. In particular, Zeppelin L48, which was shot down on the night of 17th June 1917.

Any thoughts or references to books or websites will be gratefully received.

Malc

I have a book called "The Zeppelin in Combat; A History of the German Naval Airship Division 1912-1918" by Douglas H Robinson. It tells of the complete history of all of the Airships Germany had in service between 1912 and 1918. There is a chapter in the book dealing with the "Height Climbers" and it even has the technical readout for the L48 and a few good pictures of the airship.I quickly glanced thru the chapter but didn't see anything specific about arnament.From what I can ascertain all airships had a few machine guns at various positions and could carry a few thousand pounds of bombs,the height climbers just had modified engines to produce more lift to help the Zeppelins reach higher altitudes more quickly,most allied planes couldn't keep up.The height climbers depended more on altitude to escape their pursuers and where probably more lightly armed with machine guns and had a higher payload of bombs. I recommend this book to your friend, its full of great info and stories of the missions, and lots of period photographs.

just found this info in the height climber section outlining guidelines for the new height climber airships

(1) Substitution of the 2 engine gondola with one direct-drive propeller, for the 3 engine rear gondola with 1 rear and 2 side propellers.
(2) reduction of fuel tankage to a 30 hour instead of 36 hour supply
(2)removal of all machine guns of the forward and after gun platforms and the gun mounts in the gondola.
(4) Reduction of the bomb releases by half,leaving eight for 660 pound bombs,sixteen for 220 pound bombs, and 60 for incendiaries.
(5) lighten design of hull girders
(6) design of a newer smaller control car.
(7)Complete elimination of crews quarters and comforts

hope this helps a bit, I still say get the book Its a great read for anyone interested in Zeppelins.

This book looks interesting: you've piqued my interest -
link

Interesting article:
link
though I don't think it answers the question.

Here's a bit more info on the L48
Gas capacity 1,970,800 ft
Length 644.7 ft
Diameter 78.4 ft
Useful lift 85,800 lbs
Gas Cells 18
Crew 20
Engines 5 Maybach HSLu, of 240 h.p.
Propellers 4 Jaray L.Z.
Weight empty 56,900 lbs
Max speed 66 mph
Ceiling 20,000 ft
Full speed endurance 7600 miles

shot down by LT. LP Watkins of No.37 Squadron
Korvettenkaptan Schutze, Kapitanleutnant Eichler, and 12 men jumped out or where burned to death, 3 other crew members survived. Machinest Mate Wilhelm Uecker was badly injured and died on Armistice day 1918, Leutnant zur See Otto Mieth survived with two broken legs, and Machinists Mate Heinrich Ellerkamm survived with superficial burns

My understanding was the "height climbers" were stripped of armaments. The idea was to climb quickly above any enemy aircraft and to do that anything extra in weight was removed. They lightened the ship even to the point of removing bomb release toggles, so I doubt they had anything as heavy as a machine gun. Night and height were to be their defense.

Neat thread, I didn't realize zeppelins were used in this way.

Thanks guys, this is really helpful. I'll pass these responses on to my colleague.

By strange coincidence, I was just rereading The Zeppelin in Combat this week. Yesterday I got to the description of L62 wounding the pilot of an attacking fighter with machine gun fire (the only time a Zeppelin sucessfully defended itself this way). So it would seem that while the top platform macnine guns were eliminated from the height climbers, gondola guns were sometimes carried.

The book's glossary states (under "Armament") that "After 1917 only two [8mm Maxim machine guns] were carried in the control car, and sometimes none." I think it means after the beginning of 1917.

Not that it is proof of anything, but Sierra Madre's Luftschiff game gives the type v (L61) Zeppelins one machine gun counter in the control car. The player may opt to substitute an additional crew counter for it.