SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

I remember my mam telling me about the Zeppelin flying over Leeds in the thirties. She said it was taking pictures for use by German bombers later. Who knows?

simong wrote: Yes, I haven't found any pictures (and would love to see one) but the Hindenburg passed through Leeds in May 1938 en route from New York to Frankfurt and flew up the Aire valley at a low altitude. I can't find the quote now but I read an eyewitness account from someone from around Rawdon who said that the ship was below them in the valley at that point, which would have been something to see. The airship passed though again about a month later, which raised questions in Parliament as whether a foreign aircraft should be flying over the country like that.Of course it has since transpired that the ship was indeed carrying out reconnaissance. I remember training on one of those beauty's whilst doing my para training down and Brize. Worst jump you can do as a para as its all quiet and still, unlike from a moving plane. Horrible things, you drop like a stone for the 1st couple of hundred feet. Mind you, the kna**er cracker you go onto is by far the most painful jump you can ever do!!     

I've tried searching Leodis for mentions of German airships. 'Air ship' 'hindenberg' and various spellings of 'zepellin' bring up nothing. However, 'balloon' brought this up. Could be last night's Riggwelter, mind...

Trojan wrote: I remember my mam telling me about the Zeppelin flying over Leeds in the thirties. She said it was taking pictures for use by German bombers later. Who knows? My mother also remembered the Zeppelin flying over Leeds just before the war and people assumed it was taking aerial photos of potential targets.

YEP 29 Sept 2001: (sorry, can't reproduce the pic)THIS is a snap of the huge German airship TheHindenburg – 804 feet long – as it flew overYorkshire in 1936. Indeed, in that year TheHindenburg made three sorties over the WhiteRose county passing over Leeds and flying upthe River Aire valley on May 23, June 30 and inthe dark in October 12.Were these just innocent journeys or did theGerman air ministry have a sinister motive? Isuppose we’ll never know but the conspiracytheorists had a field day. Questions were askedin The House of Commons about TheHindenburg’s purpose and whether it wasspying, especially when it flew over the shipbuilding town of Barrow.Such suggestions were pooh-poohed byGovernment ministers, including Sir PhilipSassoon, Under-Secretary for Air, who toldMembers there was an “understanding” withthe German authorities that the airship wouldavoid flying over Britain except when forced todo so by some urgent and reasonable necessityof navigation.Sir Philip added that there was no reason tobelieve those regulations were being broken,and that his information was the flights tookplace over England because of adverse weather.His reply didn’t wash with some MPs whocontinued to protest about the flights and thatprompted Sir Philip to announce he’d take upthe question of the Zeppelin flights overEngland with the German government.SabotageThis snap of The Hindenburg was taken bytextile magnate Mr Peter Hainsworth who diedlast year. Mr Hainsworth stood in the groundsof his family home – The Grange, offPriesthorpe Road, Farsley, Pudsey, a housenow next to Leeds outer ring road – to get thisphotograph of the airship on its passage up theAire Valley on June 30, 1936.In May the following year The Hindenburg wasdestroyed when it caught fire coming tomooring at Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA, and36 of the 97 on board died. At the time therewere allegations of anti-Nazi sabotage, butthese were never substantiated.

YEP 29 Sept 2001: (sorry, can't reproduce the pic)THIS is a snap of the huge German airship TheHindenburg – 804 feet long – as it flew overYorkshire in 1936. Indeed, in that year TheHindenburg made three sorties over the WhiteRose county passing over Leeds and flying upthe River Aire valley on May 23, June 30 and inthe dark in October 12.Were these just innocent journeys or did theGerman air ministry have a sinister motive? Isuppose we’ll never know but the conspiracytheorists had a field day. Questions were askedin The House of Commons about TheHindenburg’s purpose and whether it wasspying, especially when it flew over the shipbuilding town of Barrow.Such suggestions were pooh-poohed byGovernment ministers, including Sir PhilipSassoon, Under-Secretary for Air, who toldMembers there was an “understanding” withthe German authorities that the airship wouldavoid flying over Britain except when forced todo so by some urgent and reasonable necessityof navigation.Sir Philip added that there was no reason tobelieve those regulations were being broken,and that his information was the flights tookplace over England because of adverse weather.His reply didn’t wash with some MPs whocontinued to protest about the flights and thatprompted Sir Philip to announce he’d take upthe question of the Zeppelin flights overEngland with the German government.SabotageThis snap of The Hindenburg was taken bytextile magnate Mr Peter Hainsworth who diedlast year. Mr Hainsworth stood in the groundsof his family home – The Grange, offPriesthorpe Road, Farsley, Pudsey, a housenow next to Leeds outer ring road – to get thisphotograph of the airship on its passage up theAire Valley on June 30, 1936.In May the following year The Hindenburg wasdestroyed when it caught fire coming tomooring at Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA, and36 of the 97 on board died. At the time therewere allegations of anti-Nazi sabotage, butthese were never substantiated.

Answer: Leg it!!!This leaflet was published in June 1915, by The Daily News. Click on the image to read it. Notice how there is no mention of air-raid sirens and the first intimation of a raid will be the "noise of falling bombs!" Bit of a waste of paper, really!        

This is the Hindenburg's sister-ship Graf Zeppelin II. Built in 1938, it was 245m long, and held 200,000 cubic metres of highly flammable hydrogen. It had a payload of 60 tonnes, a range of 16,500 km and could travel at a maximum speed of 110 kph. She was identical to the Hindenberg except for the engine/propellor configuration. She was broken up in 1940 on Goering's orders, presumably for the scrap aluminium.    

The fate of the Hindenburg, as seen on the cover of Led Zep II. Recipe for disaster: simply add one spark to 200,000 cubic metres of hydrogen.    

This is a photo of a Zeppelin hovering low over Wembley for the 1930 FA Cup final ( Arsenal v Huddersfield). It was probably just a propaganda stunt. This predates the Nazi's coming into power , so no Swastikas on the tail fins. Maybe they were just up for the cup or maybe someone told them to spy on the Woolwich Arsenal.