The L70 (company designation LZ112) represented the final type of military Zeppelin (Zeppelin Typ X), and was conceived around the importance of making an entry to the Atlantic round the north of Scotland and having swift climb characteristics, the emphasis therefore being put on fuel capacity and a lightened structure.

Four airships of this type were planned, of which L70 was the prototype, and the only one to be powered by seven engines, unique among naval lighter-than-air craft. It was work over the Dogger Bank that found L70 on its first operation, a routine patrol during which units of the British fleet were reported. Despite the heavy cloud, course was altered and the targets identified, 10 bombs being dropped on the ships despite concentrated anti-aircraft fire, an example of the type of action in which lighter-borne interceptors would have been of use.

Zeppelins of this type were not planned for patrol work alone however, and despite the fact that by 1918 aeroplanes were exhibiting much greater usufulness for attacks on targets in the British Isles, the day of the airship was not completely over. Thus the L70 was committed to a raid on 5 August, an attack that some thought foolhardy since it was planned to take place before it had grown completely dark. This is the action which cost the lives of not only the entire crew, including the commander Kapitänleutnant von Lossnitzer who had been responsible for the attack on the naval vessels, but also Peter Strasser.

Of the planned four units of the Typ X variants, only two others were built, though only one was commissioned into the Germany navy. This was the L71 (LZ113) later handed over to the UK. The L72 (LZ114) was completed after the Armistice as the Dixmude and was delivered to France as part of war reparations. These vessels differed from the L70 in having six Mb IVa engines and a volume of 68500 m3 (2,419,059 cu ft) in a hull lengthened to 226.5 m (743 ft 1.3 in).

The French ex-German LZ114/L 72, renamed Dixmude, was lost with all hands (44-man crew) between Sicily and Tunisia on December 21, 1923.

The rear nacelle of the L- 71 (LZ 113) “X” Class Super Zeppelin was given the France in 1920 and located at the Musee de L’Air,

L70 (Zeppelin LZ112)
Type: strategic bomber and patrol airship
Powerplant: seven 193.9-kW (260-hp) Maybach Mb IVa six-cylinder water¬cooled piston
Maximum speed 130 km/h (81 mph)
Service ceiling 7000 m (22,9660 ft)
Range 6000 km (3728 miles)
Empty weight 28260 kg (62,303 lb)
Useful lift 43500 kg (95,901 lb)
Diameter 23.95 m (78 ft 6.9 in)
Length 211.50 m (693 ft 10.8 in)
Volume 62200 cu.m (2,196,576 cu ft)
Armament: up to 10 7.92-mm (0.312-in) Maxim machine-guns on free mountings above hull, plus bombs

L- 71 / LZ 113
Engines: 7 x H.S.L.U. Maybach, 240 hp
Length: 693 ft
Diameter: 79 ft

While being built as a Zeppelin Typ V, the L59 (LZ 104) was hurriedly leng¬thened as the second Zeppelin Typ W. This was to replace the L57 which had been chosen for a special mission in November 1917 and, as the LZ102, con¬verted from a Typ V to the first Typ W before being damaged in a storm in October. L57 was intended to fly to German East Africa to aid General von Lettow-Vorbecks forces in the theatre by flying out a sizeable quantity of sup¬plies; the vessel was thereafter to be used as a bomber. Together with the best men of his crew (the cream of each usually moved with the commander) Kapitän¬leutnant Ludwig Bockholt from L57 took charge of L59 without delay, and such was the urgency of the mission that when a member of the crew was discovered to have sold a large part of the rations and made up the cases with the equivalent weight, there was no time to re-provision and the deficit had to be made up with emergency self-heating foods. Although crews for bombing mis¬sions were sometimes reduced to 15 to allow an enlarged offensive load, the full complement of 21 was carried when the vessel set out in November. However, the airship was forced to turn back twice, on the second occa¬sion as a result of damage caused by rifle fire from Turkish railway guards, so that a 32-hour return journey re¬sulted in the next attempt being de¬layed until suitable weather on 20 November. In point of fact a large portion of von Lettow-Vorbecks forces had been forced to surrender on the same day, the commander escaping with a small party to continue the fight after captur¬ing Portuguese supplies, but the recall by radio failed to be picked up in L59. Instead course was set across the Libyan desert where the heat made the vessel difficult to control after gas had been lost through the automatic valves; soon after this one engine began to give trouble. The vessel was beyond the Nile when one of the recall signals was finally heard and the long return trip began. The tropically-kitted crewmen were by now not only exhausted but suffering from the cold at the height where the flight was taking place, but the finaf leg of the journey was suc¬cessfully completed and rightly hailed as a triumph by the German Naval Airship Service, which was still re¬garded as experimental with the officers and men undergoing ‘on the ]job’ training. The problem remained what to do with the vessel and after a lengthy dis¬cussion it was decided to rebuild her for attacks against targets in the Mid¬dle East and Italy, and for these she was back at Jamboli (from which the African trips had begun) in February 1918. It was flying from here on 7 April 1918 that L59 mysteriously blew up not far from the heel of Italy.

L59 (Zeppelin LZ104)
Type: strategic bomber and patrol airship
Powerplant: five l79-kW (240-hp) Maybach HSLu six-cylinder water¬cooled piston
Maximum speed 108 km/h (67 mph)
Service ceiling 8200 m (26,903 ft)
Range 8000 km (4,971 miles) Empty weight 27625 kg (60,903 lb)
Useful lift 52100 kg (114,861 lb)
Diameter 23.95 m (78 ft 6.9 in)
Length 226.50 m (743 ft 1.3 in)
Volume 68500 cu.m (2,419,059 cu ft)
Armament: provision for up to 107.92-mm (0.312-in) Maxim machine-guns above hull, plus bombs

Apart from the historical factors surrounding the last operation carried out by L53, this Zeppelin Type V airship was also of some technical prominence. This lay in the fact that her construction embodied an increased spacing of her main frames, which were now 15 in (49 ft 2.5 in) apart compared with the previous norm of 10 in (32 ft 9.7 in). Measures such as these served to lighten the L53, contributing to the fact that her useful lift was some 62.7 per cent of the total, so that on her maiden raid an altitude of 6300 in (20,670 ft) was attained.
Alternatively known by the works designation LZ100, this airship made its first flight on 18 August 1917 from Friedrichshafen where she had been built, and became the command of one of Peter Strasser’s most senior officers, Kapitanleutnant der Reserve Eduard Proelss. He first brought his new charge over the British Isles on the night of 24/25 September 1917 when raids were directed against targets in the Midlands and north east, 17 months after his first bombing sortie in L13, his previous command.
However, it would be wrong to give the impression that Zeppelins were entirely directed to bombing missions against land targets. L53 is an illustra¬tion of this fact since of the 23 operational sorties made by this vessel be¬tween her commissioning date on 21 August 1917 and her fiery end on 11 August of the following year, only four were bombing attacks. The remainder were scouting missions over the North Sea where the endurance of lighter-than-air craft made them superior to any conventional aeroplane of the day Small wonder therefore that L53 and her nine sister craft (L55/LZ101, L56/ LZ103, L58/LZ105, L60/LZ108, L61/ LZ 106, L62/LZ 107, L63/LZ 110, L64/ LZ109 and L65/LZ111) were regarded as a standard scout type. All after L56 were fitted with Maybach motors of the supercharged Mb IVa type.

On 21 June 1921, returning from another trial flight, Beadmore R36 suffered damage during landing. The release of emergency ballast caused a sharp pitching up, straining the ship against the mooring line. The nearest unoccupied sheds were at Howden in Yorkshire since the Pulham sheds were holding German Zeppelins handed over as war reparations. The wind increased and it was decided that the LZ 109 (L 64) would have to be sacrificed to save the R36. Within 4 hours L 64 had been cut into pieces and cleared to give enough room for R36. Even then she was damaged by a gust of wind during the manoeuvre into the shed.

L53 (Zeppelin LZ100)
Type: strategic bomber and patrol airship
Powerplant: five 179-kW (240-hp) Maybach HSLu six-cylinder water-cooled piston
Maximum speed 106 km/h (66 mph)
Service ceiling 6400 m (20997 ft)
Range 4680 km (2908 miles)
Empty weight 24500 kg (54013 lb)
Useful lift 40460 kg (89,199 lb)
Diameter 2390 m (78 ft 4.9 in)
Length 196.495 m (644 ft8 in)
Volume 55990 cu.m (1,977,271 cu ft)
Armament: two 7.92-mm (0.312-in) Maxim machine-guns on free mountings in single position above forward hull, plus bombs

January 1915 was the date set for the introduction of a new type of German bomber airship, the Zeppelin Typ P. In point of fact the first of the new vessels was four months late in making its appearance, the lead ship L10 (buil¬der’s designation LZ40) being deli¬vered in mid-May. Armament was two 7.92-mm (0.312-in) Maxim machine-guns on free mountings in single gun position above the forward hull.
The ship was sent on its attack against targets in England in the following month with a raid on London, it being believed at all levels and on both sides of the North Sea that the selection of individual targets was possible. In point of fact, the weather took a hand, and L10 was able to get only as far as Gravesend, where its bombs chanced to set light to a military hospital with a consequent reaction against such ‘frightfulness’.
Another attack was mounted 11 days later when Jarrow and South Shields were the targets, despite heavy fire from the defence batteries on the coast. Three other occasions found the new Zeppelin over the British Isles from a total of 28 military excursions from Nordholz. The German system of organization meant that the flights were usually carried out by the same crews, so that some became more ex¬perienced than others, but mindful of the dangers the men tended to live only for the day and to endure bomb¬ing trips under thousands of cubic metres of explosive gas and in numb¬ing cold as best they could.
Strangely, it was on what should have been an uneventful flight, a mari¬time reconnaisance on the afternoon of 3 September 1915, exactly a year be¬fore SL11 was destroyed, that the L10’s career ended. While the airship was making ready to land back at Nordholz near Cuxhaven, the order to valve off gas was given as a normal preliminary to making landfall. Unfortunately a thunderstorm happened to be raging and the naval airship was struck by lightning. There was a violent explo¬sion before the vessel plunged into the shallow waters below, where it burned for several hours. All aboard perished, Kapithnleutnant Hirsch the comman¬der and his crew of 18. Total produc¬tion of the Type P was 10 units, L10 to L19 (builder’s designations LZ40, LZ41, LZ43, LZ45, LZ46, LZ48, LZ50, LZS3, LZ52 and LZ54 respectively).

L10 (Zeppelin LZ40)
Type: strategic bomber airship
Powerplant: four 156.6-kW (210-hp) Maybach CX six-cylinder water-cooled piston
Maximum speed 95 kph (59 mph)
Service ceiling 3900 m (12,795 ft)
Range 2150 km (1,336 miles) Empty weight 21100 kg (46,518 lb)
Useful lift 26200 kg (57,760 lb)
Diameter 18.70 m (61 ft 4.2 in)
Length 163.50 m (536 ft 5 in)
Volume 31900 c.m (1,126,540 cu ft)
Armament: two 7.92-mm (0.312-in) Maxim machine-guns