ZEPPELIN: The Story of Lighter-Than-Air Craft

Zeppelin! The word conjures images to the mind of a graceful airship with a deadly intent. The author was a Zeppelin commander during the First World War, bombing England on numerous occasions, and even met some of the supreme German commanders such as General Erich Ludendorss. He was well acquainted with Count Zeppelin and all the designers and management of the Zeppelin Company. He had ever increasing faith in its success on international routes and it is sadly ironic that this talented man should die in Hindenburg shortly after he had produced the draft for this book. He died following the fire that destroyed the Hindenburg on 6th May 1937, surviving the fire but badly burned, still discussing the future of airships and battled over the possibility of any natural phenomena causing the loss of the airship. He died the following day. After the war he had worked under Hugo Eckener who took over the management following Count Zeppelin's death in 1917. He was closely involved in the voyages of the Graf Zeppelin, including the famous round the world voyage, and pioneered services to the United States and the regular service to South America. Lehmann makes his Nazi sympathies quite clear, but tactfully does not touch upon his differences with Hugo Eckener regarding the use of the warships for Nazi electioneering. Nor does he touch upon Göring's manoeuvring which broke up the Zeppelin Company, thereby leaving Eckener as an outsider. Lehmann believes in the superiority of German engineering, and beyond that the superiority of everything German. He served as Commanding Officer on more than 100 of the flights between 1928 and 1936 and Captain Lehmann was named Director of the new airline in 1935. In 1936 he commanded ten round-trip flights to Lakehurst on the new Hindenburg. An amazing discovery of his book draft, now in 352 fine heavyweight pages, fully illustrated throughout.