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[Varche]

In another thread I posted about a German Zeppelin over Scarborough.

Following your comment about my dad needing to be over a hundred (he is actually only nearly 92) to have seen one I did some googling and drew a blank. A real blank.

Anyway I talk with my dad each Sunday and brought the subject up. These are his recollections and I have no doubt whatsover that they are true and accurate.

It wasn't a recycled WW1 Zeppelin but a brand new shiny one. It was "Jet White" in colour with black lettering G Z and a black swastika on the tail. He was walking down the main street and it appeared over St Nicholas St.   Scarborough is on quite a steep hill. There were three people in the cabin (not a gondola), One taking photos. My dad waved but was disappointed that they didn't wave back. He watched it over the harbour before it went around the castle head and into the North Bay. It was flying at castle head height so quite low.

Now the best bit is the date. It was the first Monday after Easter the next day, Tuesday he had to go back to school. Year 1939. About four months before war broke out.

His supposition has always been that they were mapping the coast and radio defences. The radio defences fits in with my research yesterday but that apparently was only the South Coast using ww1 zeppelins perhaps.

In a separate story he also tells about a visiting schoolboy football team from Germany (same year) that came to Scarborough. They were totally humourless and their only mission was to beat ze English which they did never smiling once.   

[Bigron]

Interesting. How hostile would we have been towards the germans at that time? Clearly they were allowed into our air space, even if they didn't wave back!

Ron.

[Shackeng]

May be a pic in this archive?
http://www.hitlersukpictures.co.uk/index.php?page=default-extensions

[Varche]

Interesting article Shackeng

[Lizzie Zoom]

In another thread I posted about a German Zeppelin over Scarborough.

Following your comment about my dad needing to be over a hundred (he is actually only nearly 92) to have seen one I did some googling and drew a blank. A real blank.

Anyway I talk with my dad each Sunday and brought the subject up. These are his recollections and I have no doubt whatsover that they are true and accurate.

It wasn't a recycled WW1 Zeppelin but a brand new shiny one. It was "Jet White" in colour with black lettering G Z and a black swastika on the tail. He was walking down the main street and it appeared over St Nicholas St.   Scarborough is on quite a steep hill. There were three people in the cabin (not a gondola), One taking photos. My dad waved but was disappointed that they didn't wave back. He watched it over the harbour before it went around the castle head and into the North Bay. It was flying at castle head height so quite low.

Now the best bit is the date. It was the first Monday after Easter the next day, Tuesday he had to go back to school. Year 1939. About four months before war broke out.

His supposition has always been that they were mapping the coast and radio defences. The radio defences fits in with my research yesterday but that apparently was only the South Coast using ww1 zeppelins perhaps.

In a separate story he also tells about a visiting schoolboy football team from Germany (same year) that came to Scarborough. They were totally humourless and their only mission was to beat ze English which they did never smiling once.

Ah, that is very interesting Varche.

Yes the Nazis used Zeppelins, that is those manufactured by the German Zeppelin company such as the Hindenburg, for propaganda purposes.   They indeed had large Swastika "flags" painted on their tail fins to promote the worth of the new Germany under Hitler, predicting that the airship was still a future mode of transport.  The LZ129 Hindenburg disaster in 1937 put an end to that hope, and quickly the airships were decommissioned.  This included the decommissioning of the equally famous LZ127 Graf Zeppelin.  They were scrapped in 1940 as it became all very clear that they had no future in the military or civilian role. The Zeppelin your father saw in 1939 must have been one of the last to fly over Britain, as in the September the RAF would have made short work of any still in the air! I do believe though that the German registration number your dad saw was not "GZ", but "LZ" as all the Zeppelins displayed this;)

A wonderful primary eye witness account by your father, which all historians love! He should ensure his account is written down:-*

PS, My late father also used to recall seeing the ZZ129 Hindenburg over Kent in about 1936 and said it was a wonderful sight

[Viral_Jim]

It's interesting how the Germans just won't seem to let the idea of zeppelins go. Some 60years post-WW2 my father worked on the CargoLifter project, based 60km outside Berlin, the project was for long distance, heavy air transport.

Their "small" initial offering was the CL160, 260m long it was designed for a 160tonne payload and 10,000km range. Also designed to land and take off in weather conditions where a regular aircraft could not. Sadly the project went insolvent before one ever made it to production. Their later planned model was well in excess of 400m in length  .

Some info here for interest.
http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/cargolifter/

Sadly, the enormous hanger where they were to be built is now a water park 
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/twistedsifter.com/2015/06/giant-waterpark-inside-an-old-german-airship-hangar/amp/

[Varche]

My dad has been a regular contributor over the years to the Scarborough Evening News paper over various subjects. When we discussed this earlier he suggested he document the event and submit it. That normally gets other people contributing. Wont be many to contibute to that story but you never know.

I will ask him about the initials tomorrow.

[Lizzie Zoom]

It's interesting how the Germans just won't seem to let the idea of zeppelins go. Some 60years post-WW2 my father worked on the CargoLifter project, based 60km outside Berlin, the project was for long distance, heavy air transport.

Their "small" initial offering was the CL160, 260m long it was designed for a 160tonne payload and 10,000km range. Also designed to land and take off in weather conditions where a regular aircraft could not. Sadly the project went insolvent before one ever made it to production. Their later planned model was well in excess of 400m in length  .

Some info here for interest.
http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/cargolifter/

Sadly, the enormous hanger where they were to be built is now a water park 
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/twistedsifter.com/2015/06/giant-waterpark-inside-an-old-german-airship-hangar/amp/

Yes, the main handicap for the rigid airship for purely commercial purposes is that they are slow and I have yet to see any detail about any of them that shows they could carry very heavy bulk loads(??)

Now for pleasure flights, or long distance luxury cruises, as indeed carried out by the likes of the Hidenburg and Graf Zeppelin, then perhaps there is a market aimed at the wealthy. They would have to be faster than the fore mentioned vessels that reached a maximum 84mph!

No, I think as romantic as they appear to be, especially to me after my fathers description, and my later research, they perhaps can only belong in the past, except the small ones used for advertising and camera work

[Varche]

Flight 10 LZ130?

[Lizzie Zoom]

Flight 10 LZ130?

LZ130 was called Graf Zeppelin II and was built for civilian purposes.  It had it's first flight on 14th September 1939.  Records show that she flew on 30 occasions, mainly on flight tests, but was also used (by the military) for electronic warfare and radio interception over the English coast and Polish/German border.  Her last flight was on the 20 August 1939, 11 days before the invasion of Poland and just two weeks before Britain and France declared war on Germany.  She was broken up in 1940  under the orders of Hermann Göring, who, like everyone in the military knew the airship was not going to be of any use in modern warfare.

This could well have been the Zeppelin your father saw Varche

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Flight 10 LZ130?

LZ130 was called Graf Zeppelin II and was built for civilian purposes.  It had it's first flight on 14th September 1939.  Records show that she flew on 30 occasions, mainly on flight tests, but was also used (by the military) for electronic warfare and radio interception over the English coast and Polish/German border. Her last flight was on the 20 August 1939, 11 days before the invasion of Poland and just two weeks before Britain and France declared war on Germany.  She was broken up in 1940  under the orders of Hermann Göring, who, like everyone in the military knew the airship was not going to be of any use in modern warfare.

This could well have been the Zeppelin your father saw Varche

Had the Germans cracked 'time travel' Lizzie?

Was LZ130 short for Lizzie Zoom 130?

[Lizzie Zoom]

Flight 10 LZ130?

LZ130 was called Graf Zeppelin II and was built for civilian purposes.  It had it's first flight on 14th September 1939.  Records show that she flew on 30 occasions, mainly on flight tests, but was also used (by the military) for electronic warfare and radio interception over the English coast and Polish/German border. Her last flight was on the 20 August 1939, 11 days before the invasion of Poland and just two weeks before Britain and France declared war on Germany.  She was broken up in 1940  under the orders of Hermann Göring, who, like everyone in the military knew the airship was not going to be of any use in modern warfare.

This could well have been the Zeppelin your father saw Varche

Had the Germans cracked 'time travel' Lizzie?

There is no proof of that Opti. But well spotted; I did mean 14th September 1938!!

Nor, as a point of interest, were they about to master the final act of making a viable nuclear weapon (according to Dr. Tom Hennessy at Canterbury Christ Church University) although I tried to argue that, but he was academically certain about it!

[Rods2]

Now Lizzie has perfected time travel using her Omega, she can pop back to WWII and check on Hitler's nuclear progress while the guards are distracted by the car from the future she is driving.

She could then go to 2002 and flog her Omega for more than 50p, but wouldn't then be able to gat back to 2017.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Now Lizzie has perfected time travel using her Omega, she can pop back to WWII and check on Hitler's nuclear progress while the guards are distracted by the car from the future she is driving.

She could then go to 2002 and flog her Omega for more than 50p, but wouldn't then be able to gat back to 2017.

    If I only could!!

[Bigron]

As Cher sang, "If I could turn back time"....
I'd love to go back to my teenage years, knowing what I now know about women (which ain't a lot, honestly gents!) and putting it to good advantage. 

Ron.