Zeppelin Terror Bombing mil doc on NOVA

[John Kettler]

Attention! All you WW I, military history, aviation buffs and more!

PBS just began airing a brand new NOVA covering the German Zeppelin bombing of London during WW I. Judging from the parts I saw, it's first rate, with very groggy details on Zeppelin armament, unexpected toughness under fire, bombing techniques, key German personnel, why the incendiary bombs it dropped were so odd (live fire test), British detection measures, antiZeppelin weaponry and its problems, Zeppelin killer and more. But don't take my word for it. Here's the preview link.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365136607/

Here's where you can watch the entire program online.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/zeppelin-terror-attack.html

Not only did some of what the British learned in defending against, first, the Zeppelin and, later, the Gotha and Staaken heavy bombers, shaped the whole British approach to strategic air defense, but it was also what got, first, Russian, then, later, Soviet strategic air defense going, too. We had a guy in my department who was doing a doctoral dissertation on that very subject for his Russian Area Studies Ph.D. at Georgetown.

[Stalins Organ]

Can't be brand spanking new - I saw it recently here in New Zealand and we never get stuff before anyone else!

But it is good - I especially enjoyed the story about how they developed incendiary ammo.

[Michael Emrys]

Can't be brand spanking new - I saw it recently here in New Zealand and we never get stuff before anyone else!

It aired last Wednesday night here. I watched it a day later on the web.

But it is good - I especially enjoyed the story about how they developed incendiary ammo.

Yeah. I learned something I never knew before. I wonder if they were still making them the same way 25 years later. And were tracer rounds made the same way?

Michael