Wind, accidents, and a shallow pool of experienced personnel made the early Zeppelin force extremely brittle. Two airships were destroyed in mid-air accidents, killing much of the naval airship division's experienced cadre. Germany therefore entered August 1914 with only one operational Zeppelin and ended the year with four divided between the North Sea and Baltic fleets. Building history's largest rigid-airship fleet by 1918 required the division to rebuild its expertise while expanding its technology and infrastructure.
Notable Point · 9:21-9:54
German naval airship losses and wartime recovery
Germany entered the war with a fragile naval airship force after two fatal accidents, then rebuilt it into history's largest rigid-airship fleet by 1918.