Product Details
SCHÜTTE-LANZ SL 11
THE ROCKER ASSEMBLY AND CAMSHAFT JOURNAL FROM A 960hp MAYBACH ENGINE,
in excavated condition, with aluminium plain journals and adjustable rocker arms showing the engine had four valves per cylinder, London War Museum label
Provenance: SL 11 or the 'Cuffley Zeppelin' as she is more often known was a Schütte-Lanz hydrogen-filled military airship 570ft. in length. Built for the Imperial German Army and 'launched' 1st August 1916. Airships had been bringing to war to England since 1915 and, despite their size, were difficult to shoot down. This was in part due to their speed, but also because the ammunition used on them initially was largely ineffective.
SL 11 was captained by Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm and was over Hertfordshire on the night of 3rd September 1916 and had just bombed St. Albans, when the airship was engaged by a BE 2C flown by Lt. William Leefe Robinson. Robinson was using the relatively new incendiary bullets which ignited the fuel cells and the airship crashed at the village of Cuffley with the loss of the entire crew. Lieutenant Robinson was awarded the Victoria Cross as a result. Engaging airships was highly hazardous for the R.F.C. pilots as their aircraft were often damaged when the airship's fuel cells caught fire. SL 11 was the first airship shot down over British soil and provided a huge 'lift' for the Home Counties population who had suffered a good deal from the raids.
The German crew were buried at Potters Bar before being re-interred at the German military cemetery at Cannock Chase in 1962. Leefe Robinson became a P.O.W. the following year after being shot down over France. He received bad treatment from his captors and in a much weakened state, sadly succumbed to the 'flu pandemic of 1918, dying less than two months after the Great War ended.
Exhibited: This, and the following six Lots, were on display at the London War Museum, the Whitechapel Theatre of War.
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Estimate £100-200