Russian Zeppelin Movie

[Barrett]

Apparently from part of a much larger project. there's also Big Bertha and U-boat sequences.

YouTube - Russian detective - First World War - Zeppelin Episode

[rammjaeger]

Very niece, thank you for the link.

Made me search for other Zeppelin material with success (see another thread with title above).

[Rod_Filan]

Titzlinger's Law: An aerial attack on your pastoral gun battery will only happen when you're in the middle of shaving.

Nice clip. Thanks for posting Barrett.

I hate to bring it up...but why do these movies always portray Zeppelins that never existed? Is it because they need to make them appear "scarier" than they already would be? This one looks to have been researched well enough and contains elements of several--yet they still couldn't resist adding over-modified science-fiction doodads.

Cheers
Rod

[Gregvan]

Hey Rod,

If you think the Zeppelin in this mini-series has been over-modified with science-fiction doodads, just take a look at the "U-Boat" in the submarine sequence!!

The Zepp is a model of historical accracy in comparison, methinks.

Greg

[shonokin]

So is this a fantasy drama or what? And what is the actual name of the show. The youtube poster didn't happen to mention it.

[Romani]

The mystery of the cattle mutilations solved! The UFO was a zeppelin!

[Catfish]

Hi,
it surely is a test for the History channel - in terms how far you can go in showing concocted history without being shot at

As someone already said in the Flander fields forum there were more casualties in that short film episode than ever was inflicted by Zeppelins through the whole war - certainly apart from the airship casualties itself.

Hundreds of inconsistencies, only a few mentioned: This Zepp looked like a batmobile from its rear vertical rudders, there was no fighter escort with Zeppelins, they were mostly flying much too high, so this one was flying much too low, and ... err, Zeppelin attacks at the russian front ?! Germany won the war at the russian front, so which fall of what empire does that russian detective series refer to ? Rise of the Bolsheviks, fall of the zaristic empire, or the german, or the austro-hungarian ?
If they make such a series why always this concocted history ?!! Gawwwd. Are people really happy to hear the lies that are now a hundred years old ?
And Stalin was a great man and a hero, sure.

Nice film though lol.

Greetings,
Catfish

[rammjaeger]

At least the Russians are correct in one important point:

German Zeppelins operated on the Eastern Front. They made reconnaissance and bombing missions. However, they flew mostly at night. And nobody should think they were completely harmless or completely useless.

Some early Examples:
Z.IV dropped 600 kg bombs on troop camps on 26./27. August 1914.

The bombing attack of Z.VI on 28./29. August 1914 killed 60 to 70 Russians and 100 horses of the enemy troops.

Z.V was damaged, made an emergency landing and was lost in August 1914 after fire of Russian artillery. Z.V became a victim because it could not go higher than 2000 m with its heavy bomb load.
However, the airship operations continued at the Eastern front.

I could enjoy the "movies" in spite of the "(mis)edutainment"-component.
They are not worse than common Hollywood.

[Catfish]

Hello Rammjaeger,
thanks for putting this right, my fault. I never heard of eastern front Zeppelin missions before - but then i never really heard much at all about the eastern front during WW1 - and sure not at school.

Is there any recommendable literature about the war with Russia in WW1 ? I have read about Kurt Jentsch and his life at the macedonian front towards Saloniki, but never about the northern front.

Thanks and greetings,
Catfish

[rammjaeger]

Catfish,

you are touching an "open wound" or a huge gap here, therefore it is not really your fault if you did not hear or read a lot about Eastern fronts.

The best material is unpublished and rests in archives and collections.
Most German aviation historians do not contribute to WWI aviation history, especially the Eastern Fronts are a "white spot".
Russians have plenty of stuff but we are not so aware of their work (and the current political trend is probably not good for objective history writing).
Kurt Meindl did a lot for the Austrian side. Some English-speaking researchers contributed to this topic as well. You can find the topic "Russian front" covered in some articles published in "Over the Front" and other magazines by Germans, Russians, US-Americans and others.

However, in my humble opinion a real great reference work is missing here.
We all wait for Augie Blume´s book.

---
In general you can find reports about the fight on the Russian theatre of war mixed with other reports in the expensive and rare "standard literature" (Die gewöhnlichen Verdächtigen) like:
v. Eberhardt: Unsere Luftstreitkräfte 1914-1918.
Neumann: Die deutschen Luftstreitkräfte im Weltkriege.

As well some collections of reports or memoirs touch the topic Eastern front(s), e.g. Flieger am Feind, Chomton: Soldat in den Wolken etc.

Harry Redner and - many years ago - Schmalenbach did deal with military airships (includes Army and Navy air ships at the Eastern fronts).
Traditional history works of Heer and Marine (1920s/30s) cover the topic as well.