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Airships over Birmingham ?

chocks2 said:
Hi Folks. My Gran told me that he saw a Zeppelin Airship over Aston Station.
Airships would have been seen over the Birmingham area as far back as 1912. E.T Willows flew the "Willows 1" over the area in 1912 before opening his airship factory in Handsworth where he built the "Willows 2" and several of the Sea Scout Airships for the Royal Naval Air Service. From about 1915 onward the RNAS would have been moving Airships from the east coast to the west and vice versa on a regular basis and their flight path would bring them over the area. Even after WW1 the RAF continued the use of military airships in the training role.
R100 and R101 would probably have flown over the area also during the 30's
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Hi Chocks2,

The British military airships in WW1 were very different from the Zeppelins
in both size and construction and were in the main of the 'blimp' variety
with engine and crew accomodation slung underneath. They were mainly used for coastal patrols, so you would not expect to see many in Birmingham except as you say, if they were passing through or being delivered. I don't think they would have easily been confused, as
pictures of Zeppelins were widely available in WW1.

Kind regards

Dave
 
Hi Dave 89.
I appreciate your points and agree with them. I was merely pointing out that airships were more common in the skies over Birmingham than many seem to think, and to those who were not in the forces or involved in some way at the time it would have been easy to mistake the early Zeppelin and the British HMNA "Mayfly" design airships. I also agree that by the time the later Zeppelins (late 20's, early 30's) most people would have been able to tell the difference.
I personnaly have a great interest in the Airship and I am in the process of writing a book about the Naval Airship Stations throughout the UK so any info would be well appreciated. Cheers
 
snowball,
Hurrah at last I hear of someone who seems to have had the same memory that I reported.Your grannies memory is fantastic,give her my love!
My memory of the airship is from where 'I' lived which was Garrison Lane!! The time slot was probably the early to mid
1930's.:):):)

Lesg128
 
Hi Dave89, Sorry but my Mother wouldn't have known the difference between a Zepplinn and Boeing 747 and probably cares even less. Considering the fact that I'm in her bad books, for suggesting she might have been mistaken, as things stand right now if she were to claim it was a flying saucer I wouldn't dare to doubt her !!!:redface:
 
Hi there lesg128,

I was flattered that you thought the memories I refered to were from my "grannie", however I should point out that the lady in question is my mother, not grandmother. My mother is currently packing her bags and will be on the next Zepplinn to England. She feels seriously maligned that you should think she is my grandmother (I'm 65 years old). Suggest you don't go out at night for a little while - don't forget she knows the area like the back of her hand, she also presumes it hasn't changed much since 1939.

Regards, and start running, Snowball.
 
Born 1929 i cannot recall an Airship in the Brum sky it would have been a source of wonder to us kids, i do remember the Hindenberg disaster in 1937 because my brother Ed to supplement his low jewellers pay mainly sold the Sports Argus (a great sports results paper) at Colliers Corner, Yardley, when the Hindenberg was destroyed by fire The Birmingham Mail printed a special paper giving the news, my brother sold it to the queue outside The Tivoli Cinema in that time there were two seperate performances of the film and of course there was`nt news like we get now, Ed made a big profit n that night. Len.
 
Lesg128, Lencops and all,

I was born in 1927 and lived in Carlton Road off Bordesley Green. There was definitely an airship came over I think in 1931. Of course I was very young but have no doubt that it was there. I now think that it was the zeppelin that toured the country mentioned in a previous message.

When the blitz started people started thinking that in reality it was taking photographs in readiness for the war. I do not know about that but, in any case, the occupants of the airship would have been taking photographs in any event. They travelled very slow compared to present day aeronautical standards.

Old Boy
 
Snowball said:
Hi Dave89, Sorry but my Mother wouldn't have known the difference between a Zepplinn and Boeing 747 and probably cares even less. Considering the fact that I'm in her bad books, for suggesting she might have been mistaken, as things stand right now if she were to claim it was a flying saucer I wouldn't dare to doubt her !!!:redface:
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Hi Snowball,

I would have loved to see one, but I wasn't born until 1943.

My gran saw the flames from the L48 which was shot down at
Theberton in Suffolk in June 1917 from some distance away, and
it lit up the night sky. A local vicar gave my gran two little fragments
of the Zeppelin's frame which he had brought back by bike from
Theberton. I have those now.

Kind regards

Dave
 
If these upload properly, here are a couple of photos of the interior of the Hindenburg and the dining-room of a Zeppelin. Impressive, eh?

Big Gee
 
Hi Folk,

In August 1931 the Graf Zeppelin visited London and the following day did a 24 hour tour around Britain.

In July 1932 the Graf Zeppelin did a final tor around Britain.

As Birmingham is the second city it is inconceivable that it was omitted on both tours. I certainly saw it over Small Heath.

Old Boy
 
Other airship/Zeppelin posts on the forum. (Search Zeppelin)

The interesting one was in WW1 that had engine trouble and was lost by its sister ship. It floated about above Shirely and South Birmingham for some time in desperation.

I have a feeling that it was this ship that bombed Shirley and was not too anxious to decend.

It may well have been part of the 'fleet' that set out to bomb Liverpool and in poor weather ended up over the Midlands. (The sistership found something to bomb in the black country) As far as I remeber the ship with engine trouble came down returning to Germany with the loss of all hands and would have been better off facing the wroth of our relatives.

There is quite a lot of information about this mission. Mikejee supplied me with details to follow up.
 
Hello - you certainly were not dreaming lesg128, and if my neighbour can find it, I will scan and upload a photo of it asap.
 
Hi phil 72
Thanks for letting me know that I wasn't dreaming. There have now been about 6 replies which seem to confirm my sighting!
It would be marvellous if there was a photo of it!!
Look forward to anything you can download.
Regards
Lesg128
 
Hi Louis Dalby
What a marvellous photo, I am eternally grateful to you and your Grandfather. For many years I had this memory of an Airship over Garrison Lane when I was a child in the early 1930,s. Many people have doubted my memory but you have now vindicated me. It is obvious from the car and the road that it was certainly not one of the Zeppelins that came over in WW1 to bomb Birmingham.
Many, many thanks.
Lesg128
 
Tonight whilst watching a program on TV the Zeppelin was mentioned and my 86 year old mother piped up "I remember seeing one of those when I had the measles and was off school, mum lifted me out of bed so I could look out of the window to see it because she said it was something I shouldn't miss".

My mother was living at 58 Hullbrook Road, Billesley, where she was born in January 1926. She was in a darkened room to protect her eyes because she had measles, she thinks she was probably about 6 at the time, but isn't certain, she says she remembers the strange sound of the engine and that everything went dark as it slowly passed by (probably a good thing considering she had measles).

I love it when something triggers her memory and she relates a story.

Bewdley
 
Hello Bewdley
What a marvellous woman your mother is remembering the Airship that came over England in the early 1930's this is a question I raised about 2 years ago having had a similar experience. I was born 1931 and had a distinct memory of an Airship flying over Garrison Street,Birmingham when I was a child. I estimated that this was about 1933-1935 At first I was 'pooh poohed' and 'experts' said it was not possible because no airships of that period were built due to the terrible accidents that happened. In particular the explosion of the British R101 in 1930.
However I did learn that the Germans had sent Airship's,probably the Graf Zeppelin,which made various trips over England in that period as a propaganda excercise when they were organising the Olympics of 1936. Someone has suggested that they had taken the opportunity to do a bit of reconissance to prepare for possible war with England. Garrison St. was next to a major Birmingham railway siding which was heavily bombed during WW2.
Please give my heartiest thanks to your mother for this marvellous recollection.
Lesg128
 
My Mom was born in 1921 and I can recall her telling me she had seen the R101 when I visit her this week I will ask her for the full story of when and where she saw it.
 
I completed my 3 months basic training when I joined the RAF in June 1948 at RAF Cardington home of the ill fated R101, its huge hanger was still there (and I think still is), during PT we had to run once round the hanger and were told that was 1/4 of a mile. At the time it was used to store inflated barrage balloons. There is a memorial to those who lost their lives in Cardington church. Eric
 
bewdley said:
Tonight whilst watching a program on TV the Zeppelin was mentioned and my 86 year old mother piped up "I remember seeing one of those when I had the measles and was off school, mum lifted me out of bed so I could look out of the window to see it because she said it was something I shouldn't miss".

My mother was living at 58 Hullbrook Road, Billesley, where she was born in January 1926. She was in a darkened room to protect her eyes because she had measles, she thinks she was probably about 6 at the time, but isn't certain, she says she remembers the strange sound of the engine and that everything went dark as it slowly passed by (probably a good thing considering she had measles).

I love it when something triggers her memory and she relates a story.

Bewdley
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Having read all the above, we took Our Mom out for lunch today. I asked her if she had any recollection of an airship flying over Brum and immediately she said "Yes, it began with a "Z". "Zeppelin" ? I asked, "That's it", she said.
Thing is, my mother was born in 1917 and what she remembers took place when she was around 5 yrs old.
She said she was with her mother (who was carrying a baby who would've been my aunt Florrie) and she thinks they were in Edgbaston somewhere.
What ever it was overhead, it was big & black and her mother was terrified by it.
Bit early for the R101, I think. I wonder if a captured Zeppelin would've been flying around, 1922-ish ?
 
Hi Maypolebaz,

There were several British airships around in the early 1920's,
and in 1920 two German Navy Zeppelins, the L64 and the L71
were flown in to the RNAS airship base at Pulham in Norfolk by
their German crews as part of war reparations. They never flew
again, and were scrapped in 1921, - two of the engines from L71
were used on a British airship.
I understand that none of the countries who received Zeppelins
as reparations actually flew them.
So it looks as if your mum must have seen a British airship, as the
next commercial Zeppelin didn't fly until 1928.

Kind regards

Dave
 
Thanks for that Dave.
I can imagine that, so soon after the war, people would've called any form of airship a Zeppelin.
(People in Belfast called our Ferret armoured cars "Whippets" and that was in 1972 !).

Baz.
 
I finally got round to asking Mum about the R101 to-day she recalls seeing it in 1931/32 whilst she was visiting her grandmother in Newport Pagnell and not in Birmingham as I had thought.
 
the smiths said:
I finally got round to asking Mum about the R101 to-day she recalls seeing it in 1931/32 whilst she was visiting her grandmother in Newport Pagnell and not in Birmingham as I had thought.
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Hi,

If it was the R101, it must have been slightly earlier, as the R101 was built
in 1929, and crashed in October 1930.

Kind regards

Dave
 
I think I may have actually taken this photo from this site when the thread was current last, it depicts the R101 over Birmingham on the 18th of October 1929 less than 12 months to the day it crashed on October 5th 1930 in France killing 48 passengers.
 

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Hi Dave thank-you for the information on the R101 Mom was born in 1921 so that not a bad memory on the years she told me will inform her of this.

Thanks also to Phil for photo.............
 
I too have this faint recollection of an Airship passing over Birmingham around ( I'm guessing here )1936-1937. I was with my farther at the high end of Bull Ring at the time. Likewise to ' lesg 128 ' I too have wondered over the years if my memory has played tricks on me.
 
Roy Blakey said:
I too have this faint recollection of an Airship passing over Birmingham around ( I'm guessing here )1936-1937. I was with my farther at the high end of Bull Ring at the time. Likewise to ' lesg 128 ' I too have wondered over the years if my memory has played tricks on me.
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My grandfather took a picture of a German airship over the Lucas factory at Hall Green before WW2, I posted the picture on this site but it seems the been deleted.
 
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