Pont Saint Vincent


   The act of turning Zeppelin’s sky train into a reality did not prove as straight forward as it now seems. The fact that the LZ-4 was the first of his inventions, to see front line service, says everything about the German’s development process. It was the fourth such vehicle they had built and on the day of it’s first mission, it was the only one that existed. The first three Sky Trains had all been destroyed in the testing process. The number of problems they encountered in turning this into a viable technology were more than Zeppelin had originally thought. The single biggest of these was keeping the vehicle from tipping end over end. The balance problem was both crucial and unexpected.
This is why the LZ-4 was a very curious looking vehicle. It lacked the sleek, aerodynamic, cigar shape that future dirigibles would have. This was mainly due to the railing system that had been mounted on the lower side of the gas bag. It ran from the front gondola to the rear and held a series of weights that could be pulled along the railing from back to front. It was the job of two of the six man crew, one stationed forward and one aft, to work these weights in flight and keep the vehicle balanced. The entire thing looked much like a giant Chinese abacus and was even informally referred too as such. No one, however, would call it that in front of Zeppelin who grew angered at the suggestion.
Of course, the real miracle was not that the Germans eventually made it work for the idea was sound enough and most of the technology, that went into the completed project, had been around and was tried and true. What was amazing was that they had gone from nothing to a workable prototype in less than a year and half. The feverous work and speed of development impressed more than a few influential men in Berlin. This included Tirpitz and most of the German Admiralty who were used to dealing with the schedules for building ships. It could take years to assemble a ship and that included well tested designs. What these airships were proving, more than anything else, was that they could be quickly manufactured and, more important, the resources required to build them were not even a fraction of the cost of a sea going vessel. The only real question left was, would they actually work?
There had been some feverish debate over what to do with their prototype. The more conservative faction had insisted that it be used for observation only. It could render service and Germany would not risk loosing her only prototype. Since the test was going to take place under the command of Alfred von Schlieffen, he got the final say in the matter and he would hear none of that. Schlieffen already had observation balloons and he had not supported the project for that purpose. Schlieffen was tired of doing little more than fending off French assaults on Metz and Strasburg. He wanted to crush France and his idea for the deployment of LZ-4 was an offensive one. He wanted to drop artillery on the enemies heads.
Schlieffen’s staff toyed with any number of targets for their new toy. It took some time for the most informed of his staff to convince their general that the LZ-4 had limitations. After much debate they finally decided on a target that could give them the most bang for their very limited buck. They decided to go after the French supply lines and the best way to do that was hit it at a natural choke point. They also had to find one that was within the LZ-4’s limited range. That was another concept that seemed to have been well beyond Schlieffen. When he was informed of the matter he asked a simple but pointed question, “why can’t it fly where I tell it?” Representatives from Zeppelin tried to explain but, Schlieffen grew quickly confused, then turned angry, and gave up as he stomped off back to his office.
This was how the LZ-4 lifted off, ironically, on the morning of April 1st. As you might have noticed the date, it was ironic because it was April Fools Day. It was just one of many inauspicious beginnings to Germany’s new grand Air Navy. The second of these seemingly horrible omens would come at take off.
The ground crew had no idea what they should be doing. Many had never even heard of such a thing, let alone seen an airship, before they were brought out to the field just east of Metz. One man, for reasons known only to himself, held firmly to one of the guide lines even after all of his comrades had let go. The LZ-4 lifted effortlessly into the air. This crewman found himself dangling. The ships crew only discovered this when they tried to pull in their lines and couldn’t budge the one that this soldier was still hanging on to. It would take hours for them to land and the argument, about what to do, became academic only fifteen minutes later when the soldier lost his grasp and fell to his death.
Fortunately for the LZ-4, she flew the first leg of her journey with no more tragic incidents. It was only then, after spotting the city of Nancy, that the crew discovered a certain problem that no one had given much consideration. The problem was one of actually finding their target. It was trivial to pick a target and point to it on a map. It was easy to find such a target by traveling to it on the ground. From the air the world looked like an entirely different place and landmarks, of the kind that people take for granted when strolling down a road, simply don’t exist in the air. One has to find an entirely new set of landmarks and be able to recognize them from a vantage point on high.
It was not that the Germans had completely ignored this factor, they had not. The crew of LZ-4, on that morning, were all men who had the most experience in flying. The problem was that all of the testing had been conducted over the same areas, with nice large lakes that they had become intimately familiar with and, as such, had long since mastered navigation in that area. When they were given their mission, to bomb a railroad bridge, just west of Nancy, in one of it’s suburbs called Pont Saint Vincent, they did not think it would be particularly difficult to locate such a target. As they found out, they were wrong.
Besides being a major hub in the supply chain of the French Army, Nancy was also the largest French controlled city in the area. As expected, it was easy enough to recognize. The problems began to develop as they flew around over the city and realized that recognizing one of it’s suburbs was not as simple. Nancy had many and there were more than a few rail lines that ran through the area. There were also more bridges than the aircrew had realized. Nancy not only sits on a river but has many canals and everyone of them had more than a few bridges. The fact that the French Army had thrown even more temporary bridges, over the river, since the start of the war, did not help matters either.
The one thing that the LZ-4 did have going for it was the French reaction to their flight, or, you could actually call it a lack of reaction. The airship spent the better part of the morning flying around over Nancy and it’s local environs. For the entire time that it was loitering in the area, it does not appear as if a single Frenchman fired at it. In fact, it became quite a wonder and drew many spectators. Civilians were climbing up on their roof tops and searching the skies, hoping to see this strange new wonder. Military men were frantically calling their higher headquarters and more than a few panicked. They all knew it was German for there was no way to miss that fact. An iron cross had been painted on LZ-4’s canvas and was clearly distinguishable from the ground. Still, reacting to something that was very unknown, and lacking any orders, the French Army did nothing but join their civil populace and watch.
Meanwhile, the crew of LZ-4 were becoming frustrated. Their last attempt to find the bridge involved locating a known landmark, in this case it was the spiral of a church, and then dead reckoning their way to the target using a map, a compass, and estimated speed. It failed and largely because they had no accurate way to figure out how fast they were going. Their speed would vary greatly and there was little they could do about it. The airship was also getting pushed around by wind currents and would slide and spin. These were minor variations but, it all added up to make accurate navigation impossible.
Finally, LZ-4 gave up it’s primary target and looked for anything that might be worth dropping their payload on. They picked the first thing that they saw and was obviously military. Ironically, as it turned out, they were sitting directly over Pont Saint Vincent but, apparently, had no idea that this was the case. Why they did not see the bridge at this point is anyone’s guess. They chose a target that was located near a set of railroad tracks. It was a temporary depot where the French had just been stopping trains next to an open field and unloading crate after crate of supplies. It was large enough to hit and, certainly, looked juicy enough for the LZ-4 to expend her four bombs that were converted artillery shells for a naval five inch gun.
The tactical effects of the attack were completely negligible. The bombs lacked any fins or control surfaces to help them drop accurately on the target. They dropped like rocks but, not how anyone had thought they might. They were bottom heavy and were flipping end over end as they fell. Only one shell detonated and it completely missed the target. This seems to have mostly been due to the inability of the crew to hold their airship steady enough for the bombardier. The shell landed on the opposite side of the railroad tracks, from the depot, and made a large enough crater to suitably impress the French. It had not directly damaged the tracks but, did manage to weaken it’s bed. Even this was mostly a cosmetic victory since French engineers had the damage repaired in under a day.
What the attack did do was kill six French soldiers, one of whom was a Lieutenant Colonel and commander of the depot. They had been watching the LZ-4 with as much wonder as everyone else and the bombing caught them off guard. It does not appear as if they even took cover from the falling objects. Their deaths were largely the result of debris thrown up from the explosion and this made the headlines in every newspaper in the world.
It has been often commented that if you want to know how effective your weapon is, ask your enemy. France gave Germany, and particularly Zeppelin, the most effective bomb damage assessment they could ever hope for. It was not because the reports of the LZ-4 raid were accurate, they were anything but. The truth was that the LZ-4 had accomplished little of any military significance. The raid was most obviously a tactical failure. Despite this, the exaggerated French accounts and the general horror that this new weapon generated was all that Zeppelin needed to continue his work. Kaiser Wilhelm was now Zeppelin’s most enthusiastic patron and he would make sure that his new air fleet would get the budget it deserved. Zeppelin would put those resources to good use.