Q&A · 13:17-13:52

Could Zeppelins attack battleships with heavy shells?

Zeppelins could conceivably drop heavy shells, but accurate attacks on ships would be difficult.

Question

Could Germany answer a more powerful Queen Elizabeth with Zeppelins carrying armour-piercing bombs or torpedoes?

Short answer

Dropping battleship shells was conceivable, but accurate aiming would be very difficult. The torpedo suggestion receives no developed answer.

Notes

A hypothetical German response to larger British battleships is to build more Zeppelins and arm them for attacks on ships. Dropping battleship shells is treated as technically conceivable, with a brief comparison to Japanese use of such weapons. The difficult part would be aiming and dropping them accurately onto a moving target. The suggestion remains a counterfactual possibility without an established effective attack method.