1917-1918

The BE2 Night Fighter

Several of the very latest Zeppelins fell to RFC BE2c pilots over coming weeks and later that year, RNAS airmen achieved similar success. The inherent stability of the BE2c which had proved its undoing in the deadly skies over France was perfectly suited to the night-fighting role against large relatively slow-moving targets. Despite mounting losses, the Naval Zeppelin crews continued to raid the British Isles, spurred on by their energetic chief, Korvettenkapitan Peter Strasser. More Zeppelins were lost: shot down by aircraft, lost to gales and accidents, or bombed in their sheds: Strasser himself was killed in 1918 when a Naval DH4 crew up from Great Yarmouth shot down L70, the largest, most modern Zeppelin in the Naval fleet. Long before Strasser and his doomed crew perished over the North Sea, the German Army air service had realised that the days of the Zeppelin were numbered – a more efficient, less costly, means of transporting bombs to the enemy was required – and that came in the form of an aeroplane…