Editing Airship (section)

===World War I===
{{Main|German strategic bombing during World War I}}
[[File:Dirigeable militaire ital z603qz55s 0 5m60qs94p.tiff|thumb|right|Italian military airship, 1908]]
[[File:German airship bombing Warsaw.JPG|thumb|German airship [[List of Schütte-Lanz airships#SL2|Schütte Lanz SL2]] [[Aerial bombing of cities|bombing]] [[Warsaw]] in 1914]]

The prospect of airships as bombers had been recognized in Europe well before the airships were up to the task. [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[The War in the Air]]'' (1908) described the obliteration of entire fleets and cities by airship attack. The Italian forces became the first to use dirigibles for a military purpose during the [[Italo–Turkish War]], the first bombing mission being flown on 10 March 1912.<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1912/1912%20-%200298.html With the Dirigibles at Tripoli][[Flight International|''Flight'']] 30 March 1912</ref> [[World War I]] marked the airship's real debut as a weapon. The Germans, French, and Italians all used airships for scouting and tactical bombing roles early in the war, and all learned that the airship was too vulnerable for operations over the front. The decision to end operations in direct support of armies was made by all in 1917.<ref>Ventry & Koesnik (1982), p. 85.</ref><ref>Robinson (1973), pp. 126–127.</ref>

Many in the German military believed they had found the ideal weapon with which to counteract British naval superiority and strike at Britain itself, while more realistic airship advocates believed the zeppelin's value was as a long range scout/attack craft for naval operations. Raids on England began in January 1915 and peaked in 1916: following losses to the British defenses only a few raids were made in 1917–18, the last in August 1918.<ref>Robinson 1994, p. 360.</ref> Zeppelins proved to be terrifying but inaccurate weapons. Navigation, target selection and bomb-aiming proved to be difficult under the best of conditions, and the cloud cover that was frequently encountered by the airships reduced accuracy even further. The physical damage done by airships over the course of the war was insignificant, and the deaths that they caused amounted to a few hundred.<ref>Cole, Christopher and Cheesman, E. F. ''The Air Defence of Great Britain 1914–1918''. London: Putnam, 1984. {{ISBN|0-370-30538-8}}. p. 449</ref> Nevertheless, the raid caused a significant diversion of British resources to defense efforts. The airships were initially immune to attack by aircraft and anti-aircraft guns: as the pressure in their envelopes was only just higher than ambient air, holes had little effect. But following the introduction of a combination of [[Incendiary ammunition|incendiary]] and [[High-explosive incendiary|explosive]] ammunition in 1916, their flammable hydrogen lifting gas made them vulnerable to the defending aeroplanes. Several were shot down in flames by British defenders, and many others destroyed in accidents. New designs capable of reaching greater altitude were developed, but although this made them immune from attack it made their bombing accuracy even worse.

Countermeasures by the British included sound detection equipment, searchlights and anti-aircraft artillery, followed by night fighters in 1915. One tactic used early in the war, when their limited range meant the airships had to fly from forward bases and the only zeppelin production facilities were in [[Friedrichshafen]], was the bombing of airship sheds by the British [[Royal Naval Air Service]]. Later in the war, the development of the [[aircraft carrier]] led to the first successful carrier-based air strike in history: on the morning of 19 July 1918, seven [[Sopwith Camel|Sopwith 2F.1 Camels]] were launched from {{HMS|Furious|47|6}} and [[Tondern raid|struck the airship base at Tønder]], destroying zeppelins L&nbsp;54 and L&nbsp;60.<ref>Robinson (1994), pp. 340–341.</ref>

[[File:1918 view from French dirigible.jpg|thumb|left|View from a French dirigible approaching a ship in 1918]]
[[File:Zeppelin_wreck_23_sept_1916.JPG|thumb|right|Wreckage of Zeppelin [[Zeppelin LZ 72|L31]] or [[Zeppelin LZ 74|L32]] shot down over England, 23 September 1916]]

The British Army had abandoned airship development in favour of aeroplanes before the start of the war, but the Royal Navy had recognized the need for small airships to counteract the submarine and mine threat in coastal waters.<ref>Higham (1961), p. 111.</ref> Beginning in February 1915, they began to develop the [[SS class blimp|SS]] (Sea Scout) class of blimp. These had a small envelope of {{convert|1,699|-|1,982|m3|cuft|abbr=on}} and at first used aircraft [[fuselage]]s without the wing and tail surfaces as control cars. Later, more advanced blimps with purpose-built gondolas were used. The [[NS class blimp|NS class]] (North Sea) were the largest and most effective non-rigid airships in British service, with a gas capacity of {{convert|10200|m3|cuft|abbr=on}}, a crew of 10 and an endurance of 24 hours. Six {{convert|230|lb|adj=on|abbr=on}} bombs were carried, as well as three to five machine guns. British blimps were used for scouting, mine clearance, and [[convoy]] patrol duties. During the war, the British operated over 200 non-rigid airships.<ref>Mowthorpe, Ces, ''Battlebags'', Stroud, Gloucs, Allan Sutton Publishing, 1995, p. xxiii.</ref> Several were sold to Russia, France, the United States, and Italy. The large number of trained crews, low attrition rate and constant experimentation in handling techniques meant that at the war's end Britain was the world leader in non-rigid airship technology.

The Royal Navy continued development of rigid airships until the end of the war. Eight rigid airships had been completed by the armistice, ([[No. 9r]], four [[23 class airship|23 Class]], two [[R23X class airship|R23X Class]] and one [[R31 class airship|R31 Class]]), although several more were in an advanced state of completion by the war's end.<ref>Patrick Abbott and Nick Walmsley, British Airships in Pictures: An Illustrated History, House of Lochar 1998, {{ISBN|1-899863-48-6}} (pp. 59–69)</ref> Both France and Italy continued to use airships throughout the war. France preferred the non-rigid type, whereas Italy flew 49 semi-rigid airships in both the scouting and bombing roles.<ref>Ventry & Koesnik (1982), p. 97.</ref>

Aeroplanes had almost entirely replaced airships as bombers by the end of the war, and Germany's remaining zeppelins were destroyed by their crews, scrapped or handed over to the Allied powers as war reparations. The British rigid airship program, which had mainly been a reaction to the potential threat of the German airships, was wound down.