NOVA: Zeppelin Terror Attack

This is one of the best history documentaries produced by Nova. It discusses the Zeppelin bombing campaigns England, and its effect of British moral. It also shows some expariments with the effects of early fire bombs, how the gas bags were made of cow guts, and British bullets designed to shoot these airships down.

This is a reasonably good documentary, but it’s not simply a narrative of the history of the zeppelins. It also focuses on technology such as that used to keep the zeppelins in the air and the design of incendiary bombs used against British cities. They also explain the use of “sound mirrors” to detect the zeppelins from the ground. The filmmakers sometimes overexplained things like the use of cow intestines in zeppelin airbags within the framework of the airship. The documentary also conducts tests on the host to show the danger of altitude sickness. I would’ve actually taking their word for that without the demonstration. One fun aspect of this documentary is that it shows a contemporary zeppelin, which is about half the size of those used during World War I. The documentary further examines specially adapted anti-zeppelin aerial tactics and ammunition, which took some trial and error to work out. This is probably the most interesting part of the documentary.Also, here is a picture from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum showing a mock-up World War I air raid shelter in London’s tube system, including a chart showing the difference between German and British airships and fixed wing aircraft.

This DVD provided excellent historic background to the development of the Zeppelin and its use in World War I. Glad I bought it.

My son loves history and enjoyed TT his asking for more Nova DVDs

very interesting documentary about the first blitz from the air. Very good resolution and audio.

This is a 60 minute video with English SDH subtitles.It tells the story of Germany bringing the war to civilians far behind the battle lines in WWI. For the 1st time London was attacked from the air. In the 2 ½ years that these attacks occurred hundreds died both in London and in some of the surrounding areas.The way these zeppelins were built by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin is shown, including films of today and computer reenactments from WWI.The talking heads- those that narrate and illustrate some methods, are done well - almost a conversational style and then examining the types of bombs dropped and how the British finally came upon the method to shoot down these behemoths.It's a fascinating film for those who like history, and aviation, and military weapons.

Fairly well documented. Good movie to learn about the Zeppelin during ww1. To be recommended.