Loss of airships L 3 and L 4

On 17 February 1915 the German navy lost two airships, L 3 and L 4, the same ones that less than a month earlier had bombed Norfolk. Returning from a reconnaissance flight over the North Sea, with failing engines and in a snowstorm, both had to make emergency landings on the coast of neutral Denmark. The crew of L 3 burned their airship on the island of Fanø. L 4, from which most of the crew jumped after a hard landing, rose again with four men on board and disappeared over the sea.

The flight north

Both airships took off at about 4 a.m. from Fuhlsbüttel near Hamburg. They were to reconnoitre the northern North Sea as far as the coast of Norway and check that there were no British warships along the route. The next day the ship Rubens, disguised as the Danish freighter Kronborg, was to sail from Wilhelmshaven with arms and supplies for the forces in German East Africa. L 3 was commanded by Kapitänleutnant Hans Fritz, and L 4 by Kapitänleutnant Magnus Count von Platen-Hallermund.

One of L 3’s engines failed soon after take-off. Later the wind changed, and a strong headwind from the south, with snow falling, meant that on the way back the airships barely made headway. At about 1 p.m. Fritz radioed for help. In the afternoon a second engine stopped, and it became clear that L 3 would not reach Germany.

Two landings

At about 5.45 p.m. Fritz set the airship down on the beach at the northern tip of Fanø, the island lying opposite Esbjerg. No one was seriously injured. The crew carried out the bombs and destroyed the documents, and then Fritz set fire to the airship with a flare pistol. Because of the strong wind only part of the hull burned. All the crew, 15 or 16 men according to different sources, were detained by the Danish authorities.

L 4 had flown further north and on the way back met even worse weather. At 5.25 p.m. it sent a distress signal, and by about 6.30 p.m. only one of its engines was still running. Platen-Hallermund tried to land on the coast of Jutland, north of the cape of Blåvands Huk, the westernmost point of Denmark. The airship struck the beach at Børsmose and the forward gondola was smashed. Eleven men managed to jump out, one of them breaking a leg in doing so. No one, however, opened the gas valves, and the lightened airship rose into the air with four mechanics on board. The wind carried it out over the sea. Neither L 4 nor its four men were ever found.

Internment

Denmark was a neutral state and under international law had to intern soldiers of the belligerent powers who found themselves on its territory. According to some accounts, the survivors of L 4 at first tried to pass themselves off as fishermen, but they were quickly recognised. Both crews were taken to Odense and quartered in the barracks of the Danish 6th Infantry Regiment. Most of them remained in Denmark until the end of the war. Platen-Hallermund escaped from internment at the end of 1917.

For the Germans it was a painful loss. The navy had few airships at the time, and two of them were lost in a single day, not in combat but because of the weather and unreliable engines. The accident showed how dangerous flights over the sea in winter were for airships. Rubens nevertheless sailed as planned.