The Imperial Navy - Airships

At the time of mobilization there were 12 steerable and 18 airship units.

Before the war there were airships in both the Army and the Navy.

However, they proved unsuitable in land warfare: they were too slow and frequently fell victim to enemy aircraft, even though the airships were also equipped with machine guns for defense.

When losses became too great, the Supreme Army Command in 1917 abandoned the use of airships in land warfare and handed the remaining available equipment over to the Navy.

The Navy had favored airships even before the war. The consequence was that naval aviation was barely developed at the start of World War I.

The Navy used airships of the Zeppelin type.

The largest airships were up to 226 m long.

A total of 119 airships are listed; the latter ones (from LZ 115 onward), however, did not go into service or their construction was halted.

Airships up to LZ 25 had already been built before the world war.

The deployment of the airships served reconnaissance, e.g. over the North Sea, but also bombing, primarily of targets in England.

Supply missions were also undertaken.