Zeppelin – Part Three

If you are up to speed on the Zeppelin story you can skip this bit. If you aren’t, my grandfather’s half-brother Courtenay Bellew, while serving in the Irish Guards as a 2nd Lt. in 1916, was sent to guard the wreckage of a Zeppelin that had been shot down in Essex. He stole two valves as a souvenir.

As he was killed in France less than a year later it is likely that his parents had the valves and decided to plate them in silver, mount them on black stands with an explanatory engraving, “LZ85 Exhaust 240 HP”, and use them as menu holders. Now the trail goes cold until 1980. My brother had recently retired from the Irish Guards after some fourteen years service as a Regular. I had left in 1973 after a gap year commission. It was my grandfather’s idea that I should present them to the regiment as a leaving present from Bru and me. Before doing so I thought I should try and find out a bit more about the Zeppelin and my grandfather set the wheels in motion. Our distinguished war-hero cousin, Pat Jameson, came to Barmeath in September 1980 on a visit from New Zealand and was tasked with finding out about Zeppelin LZ85. He was no historian so he put me in touch with the Air Historical Branch (RAF) who rose to the occasion in a letter dated 30th October 1980.

Dear Mr Bellew

Thank you for your letter of 26 October seeking information about Zeppelin airship LZ85, Exhaust 240 HP.

LZ85, captained by Oberleutnant Ernst Scherzer was active on the Macedonian front in early 1916.

This airship successfully attacked Salonica during the nights 31 Jan/ 1 Feb an 17 March, but her third attack on 5 May ended in disaster. At 0215 hours she was shot down by fire from the battleship Agamemnon and the torpedo boat TB18. She fell in marshland near the mouth of the Vardar and her crew was captured by French soldiers.

What complicates the matter is that the designation LZ85 was also the builder’s number for Zeppelin L45 which was commissioned 7 April 1917 and captained by Kapitonleutnant Kolle. This airship too came to grief on her third raid. On the night 23/24 May 1917 she dropped bombs over Suffolk and Norfolk and on 21 August warships off Withernsea were attacked. On 19/20 October her final raid was on London and bombs were dropped on Piccadilly Circus, damaging Messrs Swan & Edgar’s, Hendon, Hampstead, Camberwell, Lewisham and Hither Green. On the journey home, the airship ran into severe headwinds and had to force-land at Sisteron in France. The crew set fire to the ship and then surrendered to the French.

Both of these airships were multi-powered by engines developing 240 HP each.

In neither case can I find evidence that the airship wreckage was guarded by men of the Irish Guards, but perhaps your grandfather, Lord Bellew, may have some knowledge of this. …..

Yours sincerely,

EH Turner

Nothing fitted and I was stumped. However, I had set another sleuth on the trail, Capt. Sebastian Roberts, who was working in the Irish Guards Regimental Headquarters. He optimistically wrote to me in August 1980 saying “I have now finished my researches, as far as I can, and am ready to produce an article for the Guards Magazine or Irish Guards Journal”.  However, by January 1981 he realised that he had bitten off more than he could chew: “my own researches have been no more successful than yours – so I suggest you go ahead and contact my successor, Captain Ashe Windham at Regimental Headquarters to arrange a presentation date. I know that Colonel Dick Hume is delighted with the idea.”

It was not satisfactory but the best that could be done at the time. The difficulty is two-fold. First Zeppelins had a production number and a tactical number. Secondly, the engraving has the wrong tactical number. The valves are from LZ74, tactical number L32. However, the Irish Guards overlooked this inconsistency  and still display them at Regimental Headquarters where I took this picture last month. Finally the identity of Zeppelin L32 has been proved – unless it was L33.