The rigid airship, pioneered by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was the chief weapon employed against Britain until mid-1917. Before the war the bombing capabilities of airships were hardly considered; they were intended for use as reconnaissance vehicles. In fact, the German Naval Airship Division which carried out most of the raids on Britain was not even supplied with bombs until October 1914. It wasn't until January 1915 that the Kaiser approved the aerial bombing of military targets around London and along the English coast. The first raid, carried out on January 19/20, 1915, was heralded with great enthusiasm by the German press.

The most successful zeppelin raid on London in the entire war took place on September 8, 1915. This raid caused more than £.5 million in damage, almost all of it attributed to one zeppelin, the L13, which managed to bomb central London. This raid alone was responsible for more than half the material damage caused by all the raids against Britain. It would eventually account for nearly two thirds of all zeppelin damage inflicted on Britain in 1915 during the airship campaign.

The L13 was commanded by the legendary Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Mathy — the most experienced and audacious raider — who, by October 1916 had taken part in more raids than any other member of the naval airship service. Over the course of 14 combat flights he had dropped upwards of 34,000 kg of bombs.

The year 1915 was a good one for the German Naval Airship Division with not a single zeppelin raider being lost to enemy fire. Several were lost due to mishaps and the highly explosive nature of the hydrogen that kept them aloft but the rigid airship's ability to cruise at high altitudes (10,000 feet), kept them safely out of range of enemy fighters and ground-based artillery.

By 1916, there were two generations of German airships employed in combat. The L13 through L24 were older ships and made up the majority of any attack force. The newest ships were the five L30s; L30 through L34. The Germans had high expectations for these latest vessels. Far larger than the previous generation of zeppelin, with a hydrogen capacity of 1,589,000 cubic feet, they had a much greater bomb payload.

In the summer of 1916, three new types of British machine gun ammunition, which had been under development for years, became available for general use. The Pomeroy and Brock, were explosive bullets while the third, the Buckingham, was a phosphorus incendiary bullet. When used in conjunction, they formed a lethal combination. Although these newer ships could fly higher, the explosive rounds blew holes in the zeppelin's gas cells, allowing the hydrogen to escape and combine with the oxygen outside which formed an explosive mixture. The incendiary bullets then ignited the mixed gases. This new "mixed ammo" sequence was to become Britain's wonder weapon against airships.

It was Mathy who had made the most successful single raid on Britain with zeppelin L13, when he attacked London. On the night of October 1, 1916, Mathy again headed for London, this time in one of the new larger super zeppelins, the three-month-old L31. He approached London from the northeast, finally throttling his engines down in an attempt to float silently over the searchlight operators on the ground. But by 12:30 a.m. at least four defense planes were in the air when Mathy fired up his engines and L31 was caught in the searchlight beams.

As the guns on the ground opened fire, Mathy dropped his entire bomb-load and turned west. Now several tons lighter, L31 rocketed skyward and almost escaped. She had cleared the anti-aircraft defenses when Second Lieutenant W.J. Tempest flew his plane under the airship, firing a drum of Brock-Pomeroy ammunition into the ship's keel. Suddenly, the zeppelin turned a bright red inside, and a burst of red flames shot out of her nose. L-31 plummeted to the ground, nearly taking Tempest and his plane with her. Local villagers running into the field found a man lying on his back partially imbedded in the ground. Although he was alive and unburned he died soon after as a result of his injuries. His identity disc was marked: Kaptlt. Mathy. L31. British aircraft had finally succeeded in shooting down airships.

The L48 was an example of the new “height climber” zeppelins. Everything possible had been stripped back to increase operational altitude — including most or all of the armament. The size was immense with a total capacity volume of 55,800 square metres and an overall length of 196.5 metres.

The first operational sortie of the L48 was at 2.30 a.m. on June 17, 1917. Approaching the English coast at a height of 13,000 feet, she was part of a force of four airships sent to attack London. With KorvettenKapitan Schutze, Commodore of the North Sea Airship Division on board that night, L48 drifted over Orford Ness. From here she rounded Wickham Market. Bombs were dropped around Harwich with one being dropped over Martlesham. Once the bombs had been released the ship turned eastward heading for home.

However the compass had frozen and was giving an incorrect reading. The L48 was actually heading north along the coast. At this point anti-aircraft guns opened up on coastal emplacements and on several on ships at sea. The searchlights blazed on and played across the sky, finally honing in on L48. Once held in the beams of the searchlights, she was attacked by three British home defense pilots. Plummetting in flames on Holly Tree Farm, Theberton, Suffolk, only three of her crew survived. Residents of a nearby village witnessed the dramatic destruction of a German zeppelin. For weeks afterwards, thousands visited the burnt-out wreck of the airship and many came away with fragments taken as souvenirs.

The halfway point of the war was also the turning point — the Buckingham, Brock and Pomeroy incendiary bullets were truly instrumental in reducing the German naval airship fleet. The Germans had believed the aerial bombing would destroy Britain's industrial base; they believed the zeppelins could not fail. But the serious losses of airships along with top ranking officers had a negative effect on the morale of the crewmembers. The zeppelins no longer ruled the skies.

On August 8, 1918 the Germans launched their last zeppelin raid on England. Just after sundown a British lightship reported several airships crossing overhead at extremely high altitudes. A British fighter scrambled and caught the three behemoths cruising in the dark at about 17,500 feet. Straining the aircraft's ceiling the pilot attacked the lead ship, lacing her three-hundred-foot bow with two drums of tracers. Within seconds fire engulfed the airship and the heavy metal superstructure crashed through the clouds in a trail of hydrogen-fed flames. The zeppelin blown out of the sky that night was the L70. The other two ships, L53 and L6 immediately dropped ballast, increased their altitude by several thousand feet and escaped.

The L70 was a "height climber" but it was also the most advanced of a special breed of long range zeppelins capable of travelling great distances. The next mission was to have been an attack on New York. The L70 was to lead L53 and L65 across the Atlantic, bomb New York City, and then return without stopping. The British pilot and his twin Vickers altered the flow of history that night, with all of its attendant ramifications and potential outcomes. The L53 was shot down six days later on August 11, 1918.

The terms of the Treaty of Versailles stated that all intact airships were to be turned over to the Allies. On June 23, 1919 German crewmembers destroyed as many of the remaining craft they could get their hands on. One of the ships destroyed, the L65, was the last of the triad of airships intended for the raid on New York.