- 1 day ago
Britain develops defenses against German zeppelins that drop bombs on London during World War I. The massive airships relied on highly flammable hydrogen gas housed in gas bags constructed from animal intestine membranes, over the course of the raids, more than 500 people were killed and over 1,000 injured in Britain. Rather than causing panic, the attacks largely hardened public defiance and boosted national resolve...
一战期间德国齐柏林飞艇（Zeppelin）对英法等国实施战略空袭的统称，因当时飞艇夜间轰炸造成巨大心理恐慌，被媒体称为“恐怖武器”. 到1916年，英军通过部署探照灯、高射炮以及性能更佳的战斗机，调整了防御手段。随着战机开始使用一种由爆炸弹和燃烧弹组成的致命弹药组合——既能撕裂外层蒙皮又能引燃氢气——这一威胁终被化解。
一战期间德国齐柏林飞艇（Zeppelin）对英法等国实施战略空袭的统称，因当时飞艇夜间轰炸造成巨大心理恐慌，被媒体称为“恐怖武器”. 到1916年，英军通过部署探照灯、高射炮以及性能更佳的战斗机，调整了防御手段。随着战机开始使用一种由爆炸弹和燃烧弹组成的致命弹药组合——既能撕裂外层蒙皮又能引燃氢气——这一威胁终被化解。
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00:0118 months into World War I, the Germans devastate British cities with enormous airship bombers called Zeppelins.
00:12It's an entirely new kind of terror campaign.
00:16There was a policeman running down the road shouting,
00:18They're here! They're here! The Germans are here!
00:22In a game-changing strategy,
00:26the Germans ruthlessly bomb ordinary civilians from the air.
00:31It's the beginning of modern warfare, red in tooth and claw.
00:34But exactly how these mighty machines worked has been lost to history.
00:40Now, engineer Hugh Hunt will investigate the incredible technology behind these gas-filled monsters.
00:51It's an explosive tale of bombs and bullets with a mystery at its core.
00:58A big bag full of hydrogen. Why couldn't we shoot them down? They were just there, surely.
01:03Hugh will discover an unexpected personal connection to the events.
01:08What we have here is the bullet your uncle designed.
01:12And he will unravel an amazing story of ingenuity and courage.
01:17Good on you, Uncle Jim.
01:18Zeppelin terror attack, right now on NOVA.
01:47As the city of London sleeps, German commanders 500 miles away are planning a deadly attack.
02:01It's 1915, and World War I battles are raging in the trenches of Northern Europe.
02:10But at 11 p.m., May 31st, the Germans open a new battlefront.
02:19They strike at the enemy in their own backyard.
02:23For the first time in history, London is under attack from the air.
02:29But these bombs aren't being dropped from planes.
02:33The Germans have deployed a terrifying new weapon of mass destruction, the Zeppelin.
02:41For the next two and a half years, these mighty airships rained down death on British streets,
02:48claiming the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians.
02:52They're the biggest flying vessels ever built,
02:55able to travel higher and further than any airplanes of the day.
03:01How did the Germans construct these colossal machines?
03:05What was the secret of their lethal success?
03:09And why were they so difficult to destroy?
03:28The Zeppelin NT airship is the last word in sleek aeronautical engineering.
03:37It is the latest in a long line of airships going back 100 years,
03:42that have carried passengers on scenic pleasure cruises.
03:49Taking his seat in the gondola is Cambridge University engineer Dr. Hugh Hunt.
03:56But today, he is taking a trip into the past to discover how the Germans built the Zeppelin bombers of
04:03World War I,
04:04and how the British strove to bring them down.
04:09Just like that.
04:14They've just taken off, and I'm just amazed at how quick that was.
04:19Hugh was expecting the airship to be slow and cumbersome,
04:23but this one is full of surprises.
04:27The Zeppelin's noted to talk about maneuverability, or is it generally airships are maneuverable?
04:33Definitely. The new Zeppelin is definitely very maneuverable,
04:36and far more maneuverable than a lot of the others because...
04:38Whoa!
04:40Yes, as you can see.
04:42Whoa!
04:44So yes, it turned very rapid.
04:46That is remarkable.
04:53This machine can reach a top speed of 78 miles per hour,
04:58and stay in the air for 24 hours.
05:01And its predecessors of a century ago were almost as fast,
05:06just as far-ranging, and over twice as big.
05:15On July 2nd, 1900, three years before the first airplane flew,
05:22a retired German soldier called Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
05:27unveiled his own revolutionary flying machine.
05:35He produced a fleet of these airships,
05:38and fitted them out like luxury liners.
05:42They carried well-heeled passengers on grand excursions over the Alps.
05:50To an enthusiastic German public,
05:52Zeppelins were shining beacons of the superiority of their nation's engineering.
06:00But with Germany on the brink of war with Britain,
06:03the military had other plans for the airships.
06:11They would make perfect long-range bombers to strike at the enemy in their own backyard.
06:19Bombing London would cause panic in the civilian population,
06:23and force the British government to pull out of the war.
06:31The brains behind the Zeppelin bombing campaign was Navy Commander Peter Strasser.
06:38A confirmed bachelor married only to his job.
06:42He was an inspirational leader who didn't mince his words.
06:46Your holy duty is the destruction of London.
06:50You are ready to bring the highest punishment for your fatherland,
06:54the crowned sword for every humble son of Germany.
06:59In a corner of Commander Strasser's war room,
07:02Hugh has assembled a Zeppelin think tank.
07:06Among the experts is military historian Professor Eric Grove.
07:12Strasser was one of that group of officers of the armed forces
07:16who actually came into airships and caught the bug.
07:21He suddenly became a convert.
07:23He rode to Damascus conversion.
07:25And this new technology was going to win the war.
07:32War had broken out on August 4th, 1914.
07:38The forces of Austria and Germany lined up against those of Russia, France and Britain.
07:47Initially, World War I looked like it might be over by Christmas.
07:55But it degenerated into a long, bloody war of attrition
07:59that would claim the lives of over 16 million people.
08:08Strasser believed he could bring a swift end to the carnage on the battlefield
08:12by bombing civilian targets like London into submission.
08:18The weapon that would deliver victory was the new Zeppelin bomber.
08:23The Zeppelin raids demonstrate what 20th century war was going to be all about,
08:29where the war is carried into the heart of the enemy territory.
08:32And you rationalize it by saying the more frightful you are,
08:35the sooner the war will end, the sooner the enemy will give in.
08:41The technology Strasser pinned his faith on employed the latest lightweight materials.
08:47Unlike a blimp, which relies on the pressure of the gas inside to keep its shape,
08:51the Zeppelin had a rigid aluminum alloy skeleton.
08:58This strong lattice structure meant the engineers could make Strasser's new airship enormous.
09:05At 650 feet, it was more than twice as long as a jumbo jet.
09:14Beneath its canvas skin, it contained 19 bags filled with hydrogen gas.
09:27Hydrogen is lighter than air and provided lift to the airship.
09:35But molecules of hydrogen are so small that they pass easily through the weave of most fabrics.
09:43Stopping the gas from leaking was one of the major challenges facing the Zeppelin engineers.
09:54Leaking hydrogen gas was blamed for the notorious Hindenburg disaster of 1937,
10:00when the highly flammable gas caught fire and destroyed the giant airship at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
10:09Of the 97 people on board, 35 perished.
10:18So this is eight tons, which I can...
10:25God, I'm lifting an airship.
10:28Today, it's non-flammable helium, rather than hydrogen, that makes the modern Zeppelin lighter than air.
10:52The helium is held in an envelope made of laminated plastic.
10:58But stopping the gas from leaking is still a problem.
11:01Gas will escape.
11:04We average somewhere 10 to 15 cubic metres a day of natural loss.
11:13Is it through sort of pinprick holes in the thing, or is it just through the fabric?
11:19Most of the helium could be pinprick holes that occur over a period of time.
11:24Very, very difficult to completely seal it.
11:27You've got a good seal when there's not so much pressure.
11:29When there's pressure, and it's stretching, you've got a little bit of a leak.
11:32But here we are in 2012, and we've got pretty fancy materials, and the bloody thing still leaks.
11:40What about in the early days?
11:42To make the leak-proof bags that held the hydrogen, the airship pioneers needed a material that was light and
11:49strong and in plentiful supply.
11:53They found it in an unlikely place, inside a cow.
12:03One of the things that I found so fascinating is the story of what these bags are made of.
12:08And they were made of this stuff, which, well, you look at this and you kind of think, well, is
12:16it paper? What is it?
12:18It's the intestinal lining of a cow.
12:21That's extraordinary, isn't it? I've never actually seen this stuff before.
12:25No, I haven't. I haven't read about it.
12:26And it's, it's tough.
12:30At this processing plant in Middlesborough, England, animal intestines arrive by the barrel load from the slaughterhouse.
12:40Incredibly, this stuff was the raw material for zeppelins.
12:47Hugh investigates, reluctantly.
12:50I'm not sure I should have had a cooked breakfast this morning.
12:54These intestines are used to make sausage skins just as they were in Germany during the First World War.
13:01Today, the guts are processed on an industrial scale, as factory owner John Veschenfelder explains.
13:08First machine's taking grass out.
13:10The second machine?
13:11Grass.
13:12What grass?
13:13.
13:14Go to the second machine.
13:16Yeah.
13:16The second machine's taking mucus out.
13:19All right.
13:20The final machine is what we call the finishing machine.
13:24Hugh wants to find out how narrow tubes can be turned into enormous balloons.
13:34And then, you probably make balloons out of it.
13:42Sensibly, the zeppelin builders started with the biggest piece of cowgut they could find.
13:49This is the appendix.
13:51Right.
13:51I see.
13:52It's called the blind end of the stomach.
13:55So that's a cow's appendix.
13:58The thin membrane that lines the cow's appendix is made of collagen, the same stuff that forms skin and bones.
14:06It has some very special properties.
14:09See its texture.
14:10Look at that.
14:11It's like a balloon.
14:12It's strong.
14:14If we get some warm water and just dip it in the warm water now.
14:17Somehow, the German zeppelin builders stumbled across the technique for joining the membranes together using nothing more than water.
14:24Like this.
14:25Yeah.
14:26If we get it over the edges, it'll actually hold on the edges.
14:29All right.
14:31If I get another one, just overlap it.
14:34Using this magical process, the Germans were able to piece together their gigantic gas bags from small strips of cowgut.
14:42All we need to do now is leave that to dry.
14:44So we did one, and after two hours, this is what we found.
14:49You see the way it's joined there, it's just melted, blended together, and it's absolutely perfect.
14:56That won't come apart?
14:56Just the moisture has bonded it together.
14:59But I want to understand why.
15:06To find out, Hugh takes the sample back to Cambridge University and asks his colleague, collagen expert Michelle Oya.
15:16They take a close look at the overlapping joint under a scanning electron microscope.
15:23Oh, wow.
15:25Golly.
15:27We've got all of these tiny, tiny, tiny little fibrils going across the interface here.
15:34All the fibers.
15:36All the fibers.
15:37But if this is the interface, what's extraordinary is just how much intertangling and intertwining has happened.
15:44This doesn't look like just two sheets of anything.
15:46It looks like something really quite...
15:49Structurally complicated.
15:50Structurally complicated.
15:52The entwined fibers bind the two sheets of collagen together.
15:59When the collagen is wet, the fibers at the interface slide across one another without sticking.
16:05But as they dry out, they become tacky and adhere to one another.
16:13Our ancestors were very crafty and the fact that they figured out how to use this natural polymer for other
16:20uses doesn't surprise me at all.
16:25The cow gut was a zeppelin's secret weapon.
16:39The cow gut was a zeppelin's secret weapon.
16:43They discovered that for a time, sausage making in Germany was verboten.
16:51By January 1915, the Germans had assembled a fleet of 13 zeppelin bombers.
16:58At last, Commander Strasse had the firepower to launch his terror campaign.
17:07He chose targets within easy reach of Germany.
17:11One was the seaside resort of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.
17:17Here is where German bombs first fell on Britain.
17:22And this street is where the first civilians died.
17:44The next morning, sleepy towns along the coast awoke to find the war on their doorstep and bodies among the
17:53rubble.
17:55For the Germans, this was just the start.
17:59Strasse couldn't resist tweaking the lion's tail as well as by bombarding coastal towns, also bombarding British cities.
18:07And he thought that they could inflict so much damage that British morale would crack.
18:14The city Strasse prized above all others was London.
18:22For the next four months, the Germans launched raid after raid, feeling their way towards the capital.
18:33Then, finally, on May 31, 1915, a lone zeppelin made it.
18:44Zeppelin LZ-38 bombed the suburbs of North London before heading south, leaving a trail of destruction.
18:56In 20 minutes, it had dropped 28 bombs and a further 91 incendiary bombs that were designed to set London
19:06ablaze.
19:09The shot was incredible. There are huge burning fires in the streets, explosions going off.
19:15People are throwing up their windows to look out and see what's going on.
19:18And one man reported that there was a policeman running down the road shouting,
19:21They're here! They're here! The Germans are here!
19:29Two firebombs fell on a house in Hackney.
19:37This couple, Mr. and Mrs. Good, were in their bedroom and they couldn't get out.
19:41And they found Mr. and Mrs. Good, you know, burnt, but kneeling by the side of the bed.
19:46And the husband had his arm around his wife and it was almost like they were praying.
19:51The effectiveness of these German incendiary bombs was brutally obvious.
19:57One bomb identical to those that devastated London that night has survived intact.
20:04We have here an original incendiary bomb.
20:09It's a direct descendant of the projectiles used in earlier wars, which consisted of burning rags, rope and things like
20:17that,
20:17that were loaded into a cage and fired at the enemy positions to set fire.
20:20Didn't the Romans do that sort of stuff?
20:21Yes, they did. And it hasn't changed. It went right the way through the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War.
20:27And I think this is a direct successor.
20:30John Starling wants to find out what makes this bomb tick.
20:35So he takes it to an army colleague.
20:39Explosives expert Major Peter Norton.
20:41John's got the bomb here for us.
20:45They x-rayed the bomb to see what's inside.
20:49Excellent.
20:50This allows them to figure out how it worked.
20:56When the bomb hit its target, the impact would have triggered the fuse and set fire to a substance called
21:03thermite,
21:04a mixture of iron oxide and aluminum that burns with a fierce heat.
21:10This, in turn, would cause a tank of benzene, a form of gasoline, to explode.
21:17Peter wants to show John how the fire bomb worked.
21:20We certainly never made a World War I Zeppelin incendiary before.
21:27So it'll be very interesting to see what sort of target effect we get.
21:36While John and Peter build the bomb, Hugh Hunt prepares the target, a typical 1915 bedroom.
21:46One mystery they hope to solve is why the bomb is bound in rope coated in tar.
21:53And another is how the Germans managed to get the tar on in the first place.
22:05With the tar coating applied, the bomb is ready to be loaded with explosives.
22:11Fill this with thermite, that would make a good bedside lab.
22:14Well, you'd certainly be able to read a book for a short period of time.
22:19We're going to fill this with thermite.
22:21It gives off massive amounts of heat.
22:23So, as I say, typically for fish, you'd expect to see two to two and a half thousand degrees centigrade.
22:27We're going to put some benzene in there as well, and then initiate that electrically.
22:32Perfect.
22:33We hope we're going to get a fairly violent conflagration.
22:37Intense localized heat, which will spread, creating secondary fires.
22:42Three, two, one.
22:48As Peter predicted, the raging thermite immediately causes the benzene to explode in a fireball.
23:03But what's surprising is that the bomb is still burning 15 minutes later, thanks to the tarred rope.
23:11We thought the rope would add a burning effect, but it's quite surprising how much time it'll just continue to
23:18burn away and use up the fuel that's provided by the tar.
23:22That rope is actually a critical component to the bomb.
23:25You want to actually sustain the temperature to set fire to wood, the buildings, etc.
23:31If you drop enough of them, you'll overload the emergency services and things like that.
23:36So, incendiary is actually far worse in some ways than high explosives.
23:40You see things burning. It's more of a terror weapon.
23:45The Zeppelin commanders were already planning how to take full advantage of their new terror weapon.
23:52Some questioned the morality of firebombing civilians.
23:57But Strasser was steadfast. He had God on his side.
24:02My men are humble and gracious. Their duty is holy.
24:07So how can they sinify if they only suffer their sins?
24:12If that's what we're doing is terrible, then may the fear be the solution of Germany.
24:20As the war ground to a stalemate on the Western Front, Strasser wanted to ramp up his attacks on the
24:27British capital.
24:29But just getting an airship there was an almighty challenge.
24:35At high altitudes, the crew had to contend with unpredictable weather.
24:40Heavy rain soaking into the Zeppelin's canvas outer skin would weigh the airship down.
24:46And high winds could blow it miles off course.
24:51But there was a new problem that hadn't been anticipated.
24:55No one had flown so high before.
24:58And the crews began to suffer from the debilitating effects of altitude sickness.
25:07Hugh wants the full Zeppelin experience, altitude sickness and all.
25:12So he visits aeronautics engineer Andy Elson, the first man to pilot a hot air balloon over Everest.
25:19The old Zeppelins used to fly at 21,000 feet.
25:22So what we wanted to do is to experience what they would have suffered.
25:27And I won't tell you what the symptoms were, we're just going to see afterwards.
25:30Andy will take Hugh up to 21,000 feet, as high as a Zeppelin could go, without them having to
25:37leave the ground.
25:40By pumping out the air of his sealed chamber, Andy can simulate the thin atmosphere and low pressure of high
25:47altitudes.
25:49Usually, he tests the performance of airplane engines inside his chamber.
25:54Today, he's testing Hugh.
25:57We're 12,300 feet.
26:04To avoid the risk of Hugh passing out during the ascent, he will breathe oxygen until they reach Zeppelin altitude.
26:1221,600 feet.
26:15Andy to Pete, stop pumping.
26:18Now, Hugh will have to quickly adjust to the same thin air as the Zeppelin crews and pass a test
26:26designed for toddlers.
26:29Are you ready?
26:37He starts confidently.
26:43Certainly cold.
26:44Yeah, definitely cold.
26:47So name, address, dates of birth, and style sign.
26:53After a few minutes, Hugh struggles to spell the word Capricorn.
27:04I feel as if my eyebrows are falling off. My eyebrows are falling off.
27:09Hugh's brain is being starved of oxygen, and it's beginning to show.
27:14I feel as if I'm very heavy.
27:15Be careful.
27:15Whoa!
27:18Whoa!
27:21That's heavy.
27:23So, do I feel heavy because I'm lightheaded, or...?
27:28You haven't got enough oxygen in your muscles to make them work properly.
27:33So it's not because I've lost buoyancy?
27:35No, no.
27:37Wow, that's...
27:39Ah!
27:42A few puffs of oxygen brings Hugh back to normal.
27:48The Zeppelin crews realized the restorative effects of oxygen, too,
27:52and began carrying cylinders of the gas on high-altitude flights.
28:01But they hit another problem.
28:03Seeing where they were going when clouds obscured the ground.
28:12One solution seems remarkable today.
28:16They would dangle a tiny capsule called a sub-cloud car,
28:22thousands of feet below the airship,
28:24from where a crewman on a telephone would guide them in.
28:30The Zeppelin would be above the cloud,
28:32and the sub-cloud car would be below the cloud,
28:35and he could say left a bit, right a bit, forward a bit,
28:39and release the bombs from there.
28:40It's horrific, absolutely horrific.
28:43Given the difficulties,
28:44it's incredible that any Zeppelins made it to London.
28:51But on September 8th, 1915,
28:55Strasser launched a raid targeting the business and political centre
28:58of the British capital.
29:00And one Zeppelin got through.
29:03The airship that made the most impact that night
29:07was that captured by Heinrich Matty.
29:09And actually, he had been to London before as a tourist,
29:12so he actually knew what the landmarks were.
29:16Matty followed the chain of tourist sites right up to his primary target,
29:21the heart of the old city.
29:29This square mile of real estate was the financial hub of the British Empire.
29:36Matty's uncanny skills as a navigator would single him out
29:41as the most successful airship commander of the war.
29:45For his rendezvous with London,
29:47he packed a surprise package,
29:49weighing some 660 pounds.
29:53He's carrying on board the largest single bomb dropped
29:57from the air at that time in the war,
29:59and he called it his love gift,
30:01his gift of love to London.
30:06Matty delivered his gift,
30:08and much else besides.
30:12His firebombs left the textile warehouses
30:15around St. Paul's Cathedral burning out of control.
30:24His explosive bombs destroyed homes and shops,
30:29pubs and buses.
30:40In just 10 minutes, 22 civilians, including six children, were killed.
30:52Newspaper headlines reflected the anger felt by the British public,
30:56that Germany could indiscriminately target women and children.
31:02Peter Strasser saw things differently.接
31:27kalter blbeled to the
31:30There was no distinction between the front and the rear area.
31:34The munitions worker was just as much a target
31:37as the people firing the ammunition at the front.
31:41And therefore, if it killed children,
31:44and that had some terror effect, a morale effect, well and good.
31:47It's the beginning of modern warfare.
31:48It's the beginning of modern warfare, red in tooth and claw.
31:56By the end of 1915,
31:58Londoners had watched German airships rain death down on their city
32:02on five occasions with total impunity.
32:08Public outrage at the lack of civil defense
32:11forced the British government into action.
32:21To take out the Zeppelins,
32:23they brought in the latest anti-aircraft guns from France
32:26and positioned them around the capital.
32:32But the airships flew at night
32:34and were virtually impossible to see in the dark.
32:38Could they try to hear them coming?
32:44At Spurn Point on the Yorkshire coast,
32:47where the Zeppelins crossed the North Sea and entered England,
32:51a concrete structure called a sound mirror still stands.
33:00It was designed to detect the sound of the approaching airships.
33:06The sound mirror worked by amplifying the Zeppelin's engine noise.
33:12Sound waves hitting the concrete dish
33:15would be reflected and focused by the concave surface
33:18onto a single spot.
33:21This concentration of sound waves
33:24would increase the volume.
33:28Using a horn on the end of a pole to pick up the sound,
33:32an operator would wait patiently night after night
33:35with his ears peeled.
33:38Once he detected the distinctive drone of Zeppelin engines,
33:42he would move the horn around
33:44until the sound was at its loudest.
33:48By tracing back along the line of his pole,
33:51he could locate the invisible airship in the night sky.
33:56With the help of acoustics engineer Dr. David Sharp,
34:00Hugh hopes to find out how effective
34:03this early warning system was.
34:05With the stethoscopes on,
34:06the listener would listen out
34:08and if they found that the sound was loudest
34:11in about this region here,
34:13that would indicate that the aircraft was coming in
34:16in the direction that this is pointing effectively.
34:19Well, why don't we try an experiment?
34:21Yeah, why not?
34:23Hugh arranges for an aircraft
34:25to fly towards the concrete mirror.
34:36They set up two microphones.
34:39One picks up the ambient sound at the scene.
34:43The other, operated by Hugh,
34:45monitors the sound reflected by the mirror,
34:48just as the horn did during World War I.
34:52David monitors the output of each mic.
34:56Hugh's is in red.
34:58If the mirror works,
35:00Hugh's mic should pick up the plane first.
35:02So by Hugh moving the microphone around,
35:05you can see when the pole's actually pointing
35:08towards the sound source,
35:09that's when the sound's coming up
35:10as its loudest on the microphone.
35:13Although the plane is too far away to see,
35:16it's coming within range of the sound mirror.
35:23I'm hearing it directly behind me.
35:26Very clear peaks on the red.
35:30I can't hear it without the headphones.
35:33Hugh finds the area on the dish
35:36where the engine noise is loudest.
35:38His microphone pole points straight to a spot in the sky.
35:42Well, I reckon it's out there.
35:49That's incredible.
35:50That's fantastic.
35:55We found that we were able to get an amplification
35:57of 20 decibels,
35:58maybe four times as loud as you would hear normally.
36:01But they were hearing aircraft as far as 15, 20 miles away.
36:05Getting that sort of advance warning,
36:06you could start to prepare for an imminent air attack.
36:13The alert would go out to makeshift airfields
36:16that had been set up around London.
36:19Young pilots were trained
36:21in the treacherous art of night flying.
36:24As soon as a Zeppelin was detected,
36:27they would leap into action.
36:29To save weight,
36:31they flew alone.
36:34Taking the place of the co-pilot,
36:36a Lewis machine gun,
36:38pointing straight up
36:40so the plane could attack from below.
36:48This is a replica of the BE-2C aircraft
36:51that fought the Zeppelins.
36:53Pilot Matt Boddington
36:55will take Hugh up for a spin.
36:58Did they have seatbelts in those days?
36:59They wouldn't have done in those days, no.
37:01They had no parachutes either
37:03and had to fly the plane
37:05from the back seat.
37:19Matt will give Hugh a taste
37:20of what it was like
37:21to take on a Zeppelin
37:23in a flimsy contraption
37:24made of wood and canvas.
37:39But once the pilot
37:41located a Zeppelin
37:42and needed to man the machine gun,
37:45the BE-2C
37:46really came into its own.
37:49There were actually
37:50those changes that,
37:51as you can see,
37:53I can quite have to take my hat off
37:54and continue on the shoulders.
37:56We're flying along quite happily.
37:58This, of course,
37:59made it a really good,
38:00stable gun platform
38:02to shoot in the Zeppelin.
38:03The airplane would almost fly itself.
38:17But with the Zeppelin
38:19in his gun sights,
38:20the pilot would soon discover
38:22the plane's crippling limitation.
38:24It lacked firepower.
38:28Its puny machine gun bullets
38:30would make such tiny holes
38:32in the envelope
38:33and the gas would leak out
38:35so slowly
38:36that the Zeppelin
38:37would be able to carry on flying.
38:39What the BE-2C needed now
38:42was an armament
38:43to enable it
38:44to tackle the Zeppelins.
38:45And that's where a lot of work
38:47was going on behind the scenes
38:48to try and develop
38:51a bullet
38:52that was going to be effective
38:53against Zeppelins.
38:56One scheme
38:58was to use
38:59a flaming bullet
39:00that was meant
39:01to set fire
39:02to the Zeppelin's hydrogen gas,
39:04which is highly flammable.
39:06The brains behind the idea
39:08was a car manufacturer
39:10named James Buckingham.
39:14In the course of investigating
39:16the Buckingham bullet,
39:18Hugh discovered
39:19he has an unexpected connection
39:21to the man.
39:23He's my great-uncle Jim.
39:27Here was I thinking
39:28that I was just going to be
39:30exploring Zeppelins
39:31and finding it out.
39:32But it's turned into a family.
39:34Part of the story.
39:35Just incredible.
39:37Hugh wants to find out
39:39how his great-uncle's
39:40incendiary bullets worked.
39:43Munitions collector
39:44Tony Edwards
39:45has some answers.
39:48What we have here
39:49is an original factory drawing
39:51of the bullet
39:52your uncle designed.
39:54Cartridge,
39:55small arm,
39:56incendiary,
39:57Buckingham,
39:57303-inch,
39:59Mark 7B.
40:00Because he had
40:00the Buckingham Motor Company?
40:02That's right,
40:02the Buckingham Motor Company
40:03of Coventry.
40:04And he was one
40:05of a number of engineers
40:07who,
40:07when war broke out,
40:08turned their creative mind
40:10to the problem
40:11of shooting down
40:12Zeppelins and balloons.
40:13But it's a bit of a leap,
40:14going from designing
40:15and building cars
40:16to going to bullets.
40:18Absolutely, I agree.
40:18You might have thought
40:19he would go into making
40:21tanks or engines,
40:22aircraft engines or something.
40:24And what you have
40:25is this here
40:27is filled with phosphorus.
40:28Phosphorus ignites
40:29when it meets the air.
40:31And if you look
40:31at this bullet here...
40:32That's one of them, is it?
40:33Yes, you can see there
40:35the hole that's filled
40:36with solder.
40:39When the Buckingham round
40:41is fired,
40:42it spins down the barrel
40:44and the friction
40:45generates heat.
40:47This melts the solder
40:49that plugs the hole.
40:54As the bullet
40:55exits the gun,
40:56the phosphorus ignites
40:58in the air
40:58and the spinning motion
41:00throws the burning chemical
41:02out through the hole.
41:11These bullets...
41:11I mean, these presumably
41:12don't work anymore, do they?
41:14Well, we're hoping
41:14that they're going to.
41:15This is not a spent bullet.
41:16No, this is not a spent bullet.
41:18This is an unfired...
41:19This is an unfired bullet
41:22still with the solder in,
41:23still with the phosphorus in.
41:25So if I pick away
41:26with my pen knife
41:26with those little holes...
41:27I wouldn't advise you.
41:28No, okay.
41:29What we're going to do,
41:30we're going to try these out,
41:31we're going to fire them
41:32and to see if they work.
41:34Oh, God.
41:35They'll fire the precious
41:36100-year-old Buckingham rounds
41:39remotely,
41:41just in case they explode
41:43in the rifle.
41:46Tony captures the flying bullet
41:48using a slow-motion camera.
41:51Look at that.
41:51And you can see it spinning.
41:53Good on you, Uncle Jim.
41:55As it's being thrown out,
41:57it's igniting in the air.
41:58When that hits,
41:59some of that phosphorus
42:00will start burning,
42:01which will, of course,
42:01ignite the hydrogen.
42:04Well, that's a theory.
42:06We should see.
42:09But for all their promise,
42:11when the British pilots
42:13fired the Buckingham bullets
42:15into a Zeppelin,
42:16nothing.
42:19Somehow,
42:20they passed straight through
42:22the gas bags
42:23without the burning phosphorus
42:25igniting the hydrogen.
42:30To try and understand why,
42:33Hugh revisits
42:34aeronautical engineer
42:35Andy Elson,
42:37who'd watched over Hugh
42:38in the low-pressure chamber.
42:40I see a cylinder
42:41which says hydrogen on it.
42:42Yeah.
42:43Andy is bubbling hydrogen
42:45through a bucket
42:46of soapy water
42:47to demonstrate to Hugh
42:49the flammability of the gas.
42:51We can ignite the bubbles
42:52and they'll burn on your hand
42:54without your skin burning.
42:55Uh-huh.
42:56Okay.
42:57Right here.
42:58Those hydrogen bubbles.
42:59Yeah.
42:59Okay.
42:59Cut that out of the way.
43:01If I grab hold of that,
43:07Bwah!
43:13Hey, look at that!
43:15Well, I knew I needed a shave
43:17but I didn't want...
43:18The thing that really gets me
43:20about this whole Zeppelin thing
43:22is that we all know
43:23that hydrogen's flammable
43:24and that was really easy
43:26to set fire to those bubbles.
43:29And why is it so bloody difficult
43:30that they set fire
43:31to a Zeppelin?
43:33Andy has come up
43:34with an experiment
43:35to try and solve the mystery.
43:37So we've got a polythene bag
43:39which we're going to fill
43:39with hydrogen
43:41and inside is
43:43an electric heating element
43:45which is going to glow red-hot
43:46just like the burning phosphorus
43:48from the incendiary bullet.
43:54In this experiment
43:55the heating element
43:57red-hot
43:58at over a thousand degrees Fahrenheit
44:00stands in
44:02for the flaming bullet.
44:03But surrounded
44:04by only hydrogen
44:06inside the bag
44:07and no oxygen
44:08it doesn't start a fire.
44:11So that's definitely full
44:12of hydrogen
44:13and I can feel
44:15the heat radiating
44:16from here.
44:17That heating element
44:18is glowing red-hot.
44:20If there was oxygen in there
44:21that would have exploded
44:22by now.
44:23Hydrogen
44:24like most things
44:25simply cannot burn
44:27in the absence of oxygen.
44:29So what will happen
44:30if some is allowed
44:31into the balloon?
44:33Andy will find out
44:34by blasting big holes in it
44:36to let the air in.
44:44Oh, here we go.
44:48This is a difficult process
44:51to try and light this hydrogen.
44:52That handful of bubbles
44:53easy.
44:54That was easy
44:55because the oxygen
44:56is close to the hydrogen
44:57everything's nice and easy.
44:59Here, lots of hydrogen
45:01no oxygen in sight
45:03except on the other side
45:04of this piece of plastic.
45:06Nothing was ever going to happen.
45:08You then put holes in
45:11and you've got to get
45:12the hydrogen and oxygen
45:13mixture right
45:14in the right place
45:15and you've got to get
45:15your ignition source
45:16in the right place.
45:22Fortunately for the British
45:24engineers were already
45:25working on another innovation
45:27an explosive bullet
45:29that would rip holes
45:30in the gas bag
45:31wide enough
45:32to allow plenty of oxygen
45:34to rush in.
45:38This bullet
45:39would contain nitroglycerin
45:41an explosive chemical
45:43sensitive to shock.
45:48When the bullet
45:49hit the canvas skin
45:50of the Zeppelin
45:51it would slow down
45:53but a steel ball
45:54inside
45:55would keep moving forward
45:57compressing the nitroglycerin
46:00until it exploded
46:01blowing a big hole
46:03in the gas bag.
46:05The air would rush in
46:07and the oxygen
46:08would mix with the hydrogen
46:10to create an explosive
46:11cocktail of gases.
46:15If the flaming bullet
46:17entered the Zeppelin
46:18at this moment
46:19it would have a good chance
46:21of sparking a fire.
46:26The British airmen
46:28were told to alternate
46:29the bullets
46:30when they loaded
46:31their machine gun magazines.
46:32It would take both rounds
46:34to bring down a Zeppelin.
46:36They've now got
46:37the incendiary
46:38and the explosive bullet
46:40and the pilots
46:41were instructed
46:41to mix their rounds
46:44and fire them alternately
46:45and they'd alternate
46:47between incendiary
46:48and explosive.
46:50And the theory was
46:51if he fired enough of them
46:52into the aircraft
46:54eventually he'll start a fire.
46:56The first opportunity
46:58to try out
46:59the new ammunition
47:00was September 2nd,
47:021916
47:03when the Germans
47:04launched the biggest raid
47:06of the war.
47:10A fleet of 16 airships
47:13set a course for London.
47:17British fighters
47:18were scrambled
47:19at 11 p.m.
47:20The first pilot
47:22into the air
47:22was 21-year-old
47:24William Leif Robinson.
47:28At 2.15
47:30in the morning
47:30one of the airships
47:32was caught
47:32in searchlights
47:3312,000 feet
47:35above North London.
47:38Anti-aircraft guns
47:39opened fire.
47:41The noise
47:42had been so intense
47:43that people
47:45started coming out
47:45of their houses
47:46and up in the sky
47:47they see
47:48this glowing monster
47:50shells bursting
47:51all around it.
47:52They describe it
47:53as like stars
47:54twinkling in the sky.
47:55But it's
47:56the shrapnel shells
47:56exploding.
47:59Leif Robinson
48:00saw the cornered
48:01Zeppelin II
48:02and headed towards it.
48:05He had the airship
48:06at his mercy.
48:10He flew along
48:12the underside
48:12and fired a drum
48:14of his special bullets
48:15into it.
48:17To his dismay
48:18they had no effect.
48:25Undeterred,
48:26he reloaded
48:27and went back in
48:28but again
48:29to no effect.
48:32In desperation
48:33and with just
48:34one drum of ammo
48:35left
48:36he was forced
48:37to improvise.
48:39He concentrated
48:41his fire
48:41onto one spot
48:43emptying
48:44the whole drum
48:45of bullets
48:45into the stern.
48:47By clustering
48:49the rounds
48:49into one area
48:51the young pilot
48:52managed to open up
48:53a big enough hole
48:54for the oxygen
48:55to rush in.
48:59And the alternating
49:00bullets
49:01finally set the airship
49:03alight.
49:12When the airship
49:13goes up
49:14parents run in
49:15and drag their children
49:16from their beds.
49:17The cheers
49:18of the crowd
49:18were hard
49:19merciless cheers.
49:21This was relief.
49:23The people
49:23were enjoying
49:24this moment.
49:25We're fighting back.
49:29As it hit the ground
49:31railway engines
49:32were blowing
49:32into the hooters
49:33people started singing
49:34the national anthem.
49:35People were dancing
49:36and singing in the streets.
49:37The newspapers
49:37the next day
49:38described it
49:38as the greatest
49:39free show
49:40London has ever seen.
49:45On the day
49:46that came to be known
49:47as Zep Sunday
49:48tens of thousands
49:50of relieved Londoners
49:51picked over the wreckage
49:53for souvenirs.
49:57Overnight
49:57pilot William Leif Robinson
49:59became the most famous
50:00man in Britain.
50:03Babies, flowers
50:04and hats
50:05were named after him
50:06and he was mobbed
50:08wherever he went.
50:11Within a month
50:12the technique
50:13he perfected
50:14for taking out airships
50:15had brought down
50:16two more.
50:18It was the beginning
50:19of the end
50:20for the Zeppelin.
50:27Peter Strasser
50:29stubbornly refused
50:31to accept defeat.
50:34On August 5th
50:351918
50:36with the war
50:38effectively lost
50:39for Germany
50:40he sent his airships
50:42out on one last raid.
50:46This time
50:47he would lead
50:48the attack
51:00himself.
51:02Strasser didn't live
51:04to see England.
51:05A British fighter
51:07spotted his Zeppelin
51:08over the North Sea
51:09and Peter Strasser
51:12himself
51:13fell victim
51:14to the deadly
51:15alternating bullets.
51:17His master plan
51:19to break an enemy's
51:21morale
51:21by deliberately
51:22targeting civilians
51:24had failed.
51:34But the terror
51:35it inflicted
51:36on the people
51:36of Britain
51:37would find
51:37its full expression
51:39in the next war.
51:44The great airships
51:46would be overtaken
51:46by other technology
51:48as engineers
51:49would find
51:50more efficient ways
51:51to deliver
51:52death from the sky.
52:26To order, visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.
52:32Nova is also available for download on iTunes.
52:51To order, visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.
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