"We who strike the enemy where his heart beats have been slandered as 'baby killers' ... Nowadays, there is no such animal as a noncombatant. Modern warfare is total warfare."
- Peter Strasser, chief commander of the German Imperial Navy Zeppelins during World War I

The Zeppelin P Class was the first Zeppelin airship type to be produced in quantity after the outbreak of the First World War. 22 of the type were built as well as 12 of a lengthened version, the Q Class. They were used for many of the airship bombing raids on the United Kingdom in 1915-16, for naval patrol work over the North Sea and Baltic and were also deployed on the eastern and south-eastern fronts.

P and Q class Zeppelins were operated by both the German Army and the Navy. Although the bombing raids are their best known activity, the majority of the flights made by the naval craft were patrols over the North Sea and the Baltic. The class was obsolete by 1917 and most of the craft that had not been lost to accidents or enemy action had been dismantled by the end of September 1917. The last survivors were LZ 50 (L 16), which had been relegated to training duties and was wrecked at the Nordholz base on October 19th, 1917. and LZ 46 (L 14), which carried out 42 reconnaissance missions and 17 attacks on Britain. It survived the war and was destroyed by its crew on 23 June 1919.

The first P class Zeppelin constructed was LZ 38, assigned to the Army and first flown on 3 May 1915. After a series of raids on the East coast of England, it became the first airship to bomb London on 31 May 1915, dropping 1,400 kilograms (3,000 lb) of bombs on the eastern suburb of London, killing seven people. A consequence of this raid was that reporting restrictions were introduced in England. Formerly press coverage contained detailed accounts of the location of bombing raids: after this, only generalised locations were published. It carried out five raids on England, before it was destroyed when its shed at Evere was bombed on June 7th, 1915.

LZ 40 (L 10) was the first P class flown by the Navy, and bombed London on June 4th, 1915. It took part in five raids and made eight reconnaissance flights: on September 3rd, 1915, it was struck by lightning and crashed in flames in the North Sea near Neuwerk, Germany, with the loss of the entire 20-man crew.

On September 8th, 1915, LZ 45 (L 13), commanded by Heinrich Mathy, was the first Zeppelin to bomb central London, setting fire to textile warehouses to the north of St Paul's Cathedral and causing over half a million pounds worth of damage, around one sixth of all material damage caused by the bombing of Britain during the war.

Pictured here is a 1:700 scale replica of a German Imperial Navy LZ 41 Zeppelin Tactical No. L 11, from 1915. Now in stock!

Dimensions:
Length: 8-3/4-inches

Release Date: December 2017

Historical Account: "Eleven in the Heaven" - L-11 was 536.4 ft long with a diameter of 61.35 ft. Its gas capacity was greatly increased from the earlier Zeppelins, like the L-9, which had 879,500 ft capacity, to 1,126,700 ft capacity. This increase in gas lift saved 35,050 lbs of lift and all this power was contained in 16 gas cells. The L-11 was powered by four Maybach C-X engines of 210 hp each. Each engine had a four bladed-laminated wood propeller, manufactured by the famous Lorenzen factory. The new Zeppelin could reach a maximum speed of 57.7 mph/h giving an endurance of 2700 miles. This was a great achievement in its time for Zeppelin designs. In average conditions it could go as high as 10,500 ft with a crew of 18, including officers.