German 'Giant' Over London: The Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, 1917-18

[Music] Ferdinand come from Zeppelin was not only interested in the development of lighter-than-air machines such as the airship series that bore his name but also in heavier-than-air craft the Zeppelin's Tarkin r6 was the ultimate German bomber of World War one in fact it was not surpassed in size until the end of World War two the concept was named Louise influx Ike or giant aircraft commonly known as the our bomber program the engineers came from the famous German company Bosch various early designs into German service from 1913 onwards getting steadily bigger the r6 was the culmination of this design evolution the prototype was completed in 1916 the biplane aircraft was truly colossal twenty-two point one meters or 72 foot six inches long with a wingspan of 42 point two meters or just over a hundred and 38 feet it's gross weight was eleven thousand eight hundred and forty eight kilos or just over 26,000 pounds and it had a range of 800 kilometers or nearly 500 miles and an endurance of between seven and ten hours his service ceiling was four thousand three hundred and twenty meters or fourteen thousand 170 feet it had four direct drive engines in a tandem push-pull arrangement a fully enclosed cockpit at a complex 18 wheeled undercarriage each aircraft costs five hundred and fifty-seven thousand marks to manufacture which was pretty expensive for the time here we see film of a modified r6 known as the r14 which had an extra engine fitted in the nose and required an astounding 50 man ground crew to handle little wonder that compared with the more numerous to engined gutter g4 bomber only thirteen Zeppelin's darken our sixes saw service before the 1918 armistice the Goethe g4 had been bombing England since May 1917 with some success though improved British ante craft and fighter defenses had forced the Germans to switch from day to night rates reducing the gotas navigational and bombing accuracy the Zeppelin's Tarkin r6 could carry a much increased bomb load over the gutter up to 2,000 kilos or 4,300 pounds that is four times the gotas capacity the Gerta had a crew of three whereas the Zeppelin's Tarkin had an astounding crew of ten divided into an aircraft commander two pilots two co-pilots two radio operators and a fuel attendant and one mechanic in each engine nestled some of the crew doubled up his Gunners the plane being armed with four 7.92 millimetre parabellum mg 14 machine guns the first are sixes entered front-line service in June 1917 the unit sent against England was reason flubs oeq up ty long 501 based at Ghent in Belgium with the Ford airfield at st. Denis vestrum at any one time RFA 501 had five of these gigantic aircraft available for raids on England often made alongside the more mundane gota bombers the Zeppelin's Tarkin r6 and our fourteen bombers proved very difficult to combat as they repeatedly stood off fighter attacks after being intercepted over England on the 28th of January 1918 an r6 flew across Essex and was intercepted by a Bristol fighter piloted by Lieutenant John gujiya Goodyear was driven off with a German machine gun bullet in his planes engine and his fuel tanks riddle the r6 then ran into part of the protective barrage balloon apron around London for the cables did not apparently damage it and the plane carried on flying it carried on and bombed Adams print works in London killing 37 people the next night to r6 has reached London one was attacked by fighters and turned back near Tottenham the other one was intercepted by Captain Arthur Dennis of number 3 7 squadron based at gold hangar near Malden and Essex flying a B II 12 he hacked one of the our sixes at 12,000 feet that was driven off by the Germans for machine guns his fighter riddled with bullets pr6 turned at Hartford and made for brenford it dropped its bombs in Richmond Deer Park brenford cube ridge road and on Chyzyk then left Britain via hive on the Kent coast it had killed 10 people a third r6 was driven off by anti-aircraft fire at Villa Ricky in Essex the our sixes and our four teens raided England 11 times between late September 1917 and the Armistice in 1918 dropping 27 tons of bombs they attacked alone flying to their targets on moonlit nights and following directional bearings received from base by radio once airborne they were then follow the River Thames to London he thought he was a 550 kilometre or 340 mile round trip that lasted seven hours the first blitz the combined German aerial bombing campaign against Britain between 1915 and 1918 using Zeppelin airships Gotha bombers and the enormous Zeppelin stockin aircraft killed 1394 people and injured 3349 with the greatest number of casualties in London material damage was significant and war production did decrease as the raids disrupted work the requirement to defend London and South East England from such attacks diverted large numbers of Fighters anti-aircraft guns and personnel from the Western Front for example sixteen squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps were kept at home but it did lead to the development of an integrated home defense system that served Britain well when the German air force returned to wreak destruction in 1940 thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also support my channel at PayPal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,422,228

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, Gotha G.IV, Giant Aircraft, History of London

Id: fNLquGrDQNY

Length: 6min 43sec (403 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2019