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Auction: 19022 - Historical Documents, Postal History and Autographs
Lot: 2137

Autographs
Germany
Zeppelin Airship Crash
1916 (3 September) O.H.M.S. envelope with a note on the outside reading, These are fragments of a Zeppelin Destroyed about 6 hours ago at Enfield near here - the bits were brought in this morning by a friend who visited the wreck in his motor." and signed by C. duP. Chiappini. with small pieces of wood, metal fragment and some of the grey outer skin with a muslin-type backing. Also three coloured postcards of the crash, one with the legend "The end of the 'baby-killer'"

On the night of the 3rd September 1916 the war arrived in a very real way to the small village of Cuffley. A Schutte-Lanz airship SL-11 (a wooden airship which was lighter than a Zeppelin) was on a bombing raid over London and was successfully attacked by 2nd Lieutenant (later Captain) William Leefe Robinson of the 39th Home Guard Squadron. His small biplane used a new type of incendiary ammunition to set the ship alight. SL-11 came down to earth behind the Plough Inn at Cuffley. The entire 15 man crew was killed. It became the first airship shot down on British soil and Leefe Robinson was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions. A memorial stands on the sight of the crash today.

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Sold for
£140