Zeppelin L15

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These are true stories about the Zeppelin airships that werebuilt to wage war, the men who flew them and those who shotthem down.During the Great War, the German military unleashed a terriblenew weapon on the unsuspecting British population, theZeppelin. This airship was virtually silent and could travel atheights beyond the reach of the first anti-aircraft guns beforedropping incendiary bombs indiscriminately on populatedareas causing many civilian casualties and creating a new typeof warfare that still exists today, the Air Raid. So feared werethese machines that they became known as 'the Baby Killers'.But Britain was far from beaten and responded withimprovements in searchlight and anti-aircraft design which, with heroic night flying by the fighter pilots of the Royal FlyingCorps, took the fight to the enemy. The civilian population, including Nurses, Air Raid Wardens and the female operatorsof the London Telephone Exchange, who refused to leave theirposts during the air raids to keep military lines ofcommunication open, played its part too. One man inparticular, Sir Charles Wakefield, the Lord Mayor of Londonwas determined to reward the courage of the first individual toshoot down a Zeppelin on British soil with a substantial prize.How he eventually discharged this debt of honour, despiteopposition from the military establishment exacerbated byclass discrimination, forms a fascinating background to thestory of the L15 Zeppelin and the Wakefield Gold Medal.