German-English New Guinea Airship Expedition

[A.W. Carson]

By looking at the title, everyone is immediately going to tell me it never happened. In that case, they would be correct. This planned German-English airship expedition over New Guinea never did happen in 1914 due the outbreak of of war and subsequent capture of German New Guinea (Deutsch Neuguinea).

However, postage stamps were at least issued in Germany for the Deutsch-Englische Luftschiffexpedition zur Erforschung Neu-Guinea. You can find examples of them here http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/neuguinea.htm
Such an expedition probably would have accelerated the knowledge of the interior of New Guinea by several years at that point in time.

Even by 1918, New Guinea had not been crossed by Europeans. Claims by Hauptmann Hermann Detzner at the end of the war of penetrating into the interior, for instance, were hotly disputed. He ended up having to recant most of his book,Vier Jahre unter Kannibalen by 1932. Such an expedition probably would have accelerated the knowledge of the interior of New Guinea by several years at that point in time.

Can anyone fill in any details of what was planned for this Zeppelin expedition? Perhaps an article written in an aviation journal or so forth?

[jempie]

Hi!

Never heard about this "expedition"!
And I know in general a lot about airship history!
But the stampt proves it! (Although never took place due to WWI ?)
No book or magazine I remember to have which had it about!

This is so to see stuff for for more The Zeppelin-Philately-Study-Group,
with members allover the world but most I accept into U.K. and Germany!
You could contact one John Duggan at gillawoodward@lineone.net (Gilla is his wife!) and both leading this philately organisation!
They wrote a lot of books on Zeppelin Philately!

I am sure they and their members will be interested in this subject, and if they have heard about or not, they will react!

That stamp must be of high value I accept!

VBR

Jempie

[A.W. Carson]

Originally Posted by jempie

Hi!

Never heard about this "expedition"!
And I know in general a lot about airship history!
But the stampt proves it! (Although never took place due to WWI ?)
No book or magazine I remember to have which had it about!

This is so to see stuff for for more The Zeppelin-Philately-Study-Group,
with members allover the world but most I accept into U.K. and Germany!
You could contact one John Duggan at gillawoodward@lineone.net (Gilla is his wife!) and both leading this philately organisation!
They wrote a lot of books on Zeppelin Philately!

I am sure they and their members will be interested in this subject, and if they have heard about or not, they will react!

That stamp must be of high value I accept!

VBR

Jempie

Thanks, Jempie! I didn't even think to contact such a society. Generally they cover such obscure subjects as this very well. I have a couple of monographs at home (in German) on the postal service in Deutsch Neuguinea in August-September 1914. But I don't recall seeing anything on this particular subject.

I wonder what Zeppelin was planned for use with this expedition? I wonder how the tropical climate would potentially affect it or its operation.

From what I can tell, the stamp seems to have been issued in Germany and not Deutsch Neuguinea. The colonial stamps all used Kaiser Wilhelm II.'s yacht (Hohenzollern?), so I had never before seen this Zeppelin stamp.

I see examples of it on Ebay going for about US $800. You're right, it must be very rare. I'll contact the person you suggested above.

Thanks again,

Aaron

[rammjaeger]

Aaron,

I am not 100 % convinced that the German-British expedition intended to use a Zeppelin at all. There were four German systems available in this time:
Zeppelin, Parseval, Groß-Basenach and Schütte-Lanz. I believe a non-rigid or half-rigid system was possibly easier to use in this area but I leave this question to the airship experts.

VBR
Hannes

[A.W. Carson]

Originally Posted by rammjaeger

Aaron,

I am not 100 % convinced that the German-British expedition intended to use a Zeppelin at all. There were four German systems available in this time:
Zeppelin, Parseval, Groß-Basenach and Schütte-Lanz. I believe a non-rigid or half-rigid system was possibly easier to use in this area but I leave this question to the airship experts.

VBR
Hannes

Hannes,

I had completely forgotten about the Schütte-Lanz airships. If I remember correctly, the "German" army operated this type? I say 'German' because I am unaware which Heer used them--Prussians only? I know the Kaiserlische Marine used the Zeppelin types. See the link way at the top of the thread; it shows the stamps having what appears to be a rigid/semi-rigid airship. However, the postage stamps may well be totally inaccurate.

I don't know much else on the expedition. But I find something odd. When the First World War broke out, a surveying expedition was occurring in Deutsch Neuguinea to map the border with British/Australian New Guinea. It was led by Hermann Detzner, who later became famous for avoiding capture by the Australians. My theory is that a much more difficult land-based expedition was launched due to the tense political situation in Europe. From what I understand, Detzner was accompanied by a large contingent of the Polizeitruppe. This constituted the reserve "expeditionary" force that was made available in the protectorate after the bloody Sokheks revolt occurring in 1910 on Ponape Island, in the Carolines Islands (SMS Emden assisted in putting it down). Because it was not in the Rabaul area in September 1914, German officials had to improvise with a hurriedly-equipped force consisting of inexperienced police-soldiers and German reservists.

Detzner had only been in Deutsch Neuguinea beginning about January 1914, I believe. He had previously served in Kamerun. In any event, I wonder how his story ties in with the Luftschiffexpedition that never occurred!

P.S. I have an article on Detzner in English. I can mail (postal) it to you if you want; it's well-researched and fair to Detzner and his critics.

Thank you,

Aaron

[jempie]

Hi!

The Schütte-Lanz would have been a bad choice!
Made of plywood and during WWI the SL 2 f.e. gave proof for it was non cionsistend against humidity! They had to enlarge it, to keep it airworthy as to much water was absorbed by the framework!

The SUCHARD foreseen for a South-Atlantic crossing had a boat gondola f.e....the crossing never took place...(contructed about 1910, the crossing had been foreseen from 1913 on!)
This airship was based on the Parseval concept...constructed at berlin aznd later broughtover to KIEL...
It was the Swiss chocolate firm "Suchard" who financed it!

But on this project? Never heard from and I have a lot of balloon and airship
history books into my private (home)library!
But the old ones are merely from before 1912!

vbr

Jempie