After four days of heavy fighting with significant casualties on both sides, the Germans were forced to retreat. WikiMatrix. As the spectators at Lakehurst looked on, this triumph of engineering turned to tragedy. On 29 September, the line was finally broken. At 5:50 AM on the morning of September 29, 1918, the North Carolinians of the 30th Divisionthen serving under British command as part of the Fourth Armyemerged from the safety of their trenches and formed up in a single line, each man standing shoulder to shoulder, roughly four to six feet apart. Only six days before the disaster, it was planned to make the Hindenburg have a hook on her hull to carry aircraft, similar to the US Navy's use of the USS Akron and the USS Macon airships. " At an hour and date to be notified later, the 46th Division, as part of a major operation, will cross the St. Quentin Canal, capture the Hindenburg Line, and advance to a position shown on the attached Map A.". North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2017/09/28/breaking-hindenburg-line, Advisory Council on Film, Television, and Digital Streaming, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion, Twins from Siam, World Sensation, Died in Surry County, 6 Tar Heel Bluegrass Venues and Events to Explore, Finding Surry County Apples All the Way in Africa. The Hindenburg Line resisted all Allied attacks in 1917 and was not breached until late in 1918. Zeppelin flights didnt end immediately with the Hindenburg disaster. Eckener noted that a smaller storm front followed the thunderstorm front, creating conditions suitable for static sparks. Two additional scientific papers also strongly reject the fabric hypothesis. Additionally, some of the bracing wires may have even been substandard. Without warning, an explosion consumed the tail end of the Hindenburg, throwing the craft off-balance and rearing the nose skyward. Oktober gelang es der 46. und 32. britischen Division, . On May 6, 1937, while landing at Lakehurst, N.J., on the first of its scheduled 1937 trans-Atlantic crossings, the Hindenburg burst into. Transferred C Company ?? The section presented here, with maps from the 30th Division showing the area around the Hindenburg Line in September-October 1918, is entitled 29th of September: Foch [French Field Marshall Ferdinand Foch] was to play on this day his master strike, hurling the First, Third and Fourth British Armies against the Hindenburg Line between St. Quentin and Cambrai. In order to give our reading audience a better perspective on the events of September 29, 1918, we present a transcription of a portion of an original typed historical unit sketch of the 120th Infantry, written by Col. Sidney W. Minor, the commander of the 120th. Not all fabric on the Hindenburg burned. The first experiments with using hydrogen and helium to lift vehicles into the sky were conducted in the late 18th century, but it took more than a century for the technology to become viable for commercial and military use. Sentence examples for hindenburg line from inspiring English sources. I can imagine that one of these shear wires parted and caused a rent in a gas cell. On the evening of May 6, 1937, spectators and reporters gathered at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey to catch a glimpse of the cutting edge of air travel. Boche officers captured, when told that the operation had been a success, did not believe it, but when finally convinced, threw up their hands in despair saying, It is over; there is nothing between you and the Rhine., Old Hickory Division Breaks Hindenburg Line, North Carolina DNCR blog post, published September 29, 2016. Operation Order No 7 (Appendix No 2) issued at 01:20 hours. If we will assume this further, then what happened subsequently can be fitted in to what observers have testified to here: Gas escaped from the torn cell upwards and filled up the space between the outer cover and the cells in the rear part of the ship, and then this quantity of gas which we have assumed in the hypothesis was ignited by a static spark. This unit sketch is not widely available, and appears to have only a few copies known to exist. The coordinated attack quickly descended into an assault of fragmented groups. Home. The British are advancing on a wide front. Zeppelins would appear without warning, looming in the sky while panicked civilians scrambled for cover. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Translations in context of "HINDENBURG LINE" in english-spanish. It was built in German territory along its border with France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Contents 1 Background 1.1 Battle of the Somme 1916 1.2 German strategy for 1917 1.3 Defensive fortification 1.4 Anglo-French strategy for 1917 While fires generally tend to burn upward, especially including hydrogen fires, the enormous radiant heat from the blaze would have quickly spread fire over the entire surface of the airship, thus apparently explaining the downward propagation of the flames. The shock wave tends to rip nearby bags which then explode themselves. Advisory Council on Film, Television, and Digital Streaming, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion, https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2016/09/29/old-hickory-division-breaks-hindenburg-line. Newsreels, as well as the map of the landing approach, show that the Hindenburg made several sharp turns, first towards port and then starboard, just before the accident. At the time, some Germans wondered whether the airship had fallen victim to sabotage, but the possibility of foul play was soon ruled out by investigators in the United States. The Hindenburg Line (Battleground) Paperback - January 28, 1997 by Peter Oldham (Author) 10 ratings Part of: Battleground French Flanders (76 books) Kindle $7.99 Read with Our Free App Paperback $16.11 16 Used from $3.98 5 New from $12.57 During the investigation, Commander Charles Rosendahl dismissed the boy's report. To break the Hindenburg Line. [S]ome of the men were singing, some of them cussing, recalled Surry County native John Collins, a member of Company A, 120th Infantry. Hindenburg Line (Siegfried-Stellung), a system of fortified and entrenched reserve positions stretching 80 km southeast from Arras to Soissons, France, built by the Germans in the winter of 1916-17. We were determined to win, although our faith was tempted by being told that we could not succeed, as the line was too strong., At 4:30 A.M. [of September 29, 1918] all troops were reported on Tape and the slow passing second each seemed an age. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., (2006) pp. Australian, British, French and American forces participated in the attack on the line, which began with a three-day bombardment, using 1,637 guns along a 10,000-yard-long front (in the last 24 hours alone, the British artillery fired almost a million shells). In front of them, a slowly creeping Allied artillery barrage pounded the German lines, softening them for the infantry. Although Captain Pruss believed that the Hindenburg could withstand tight turns without significant damage, proponents of the puncture hypothesis, including Hugo Eckener, question the airship's structural integrity after being repeatedly stressed over its flight record. The Hindenburg disaster was an airship accident that occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States.The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst.The accident caused 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen) from the 97 people on board (36 passengers and . The photos of the Hindenburg disaster clearly show that after the cells in the aft section of the airship exploded and the combustion products were vented out the top of the airship, the fabric on the rear section was still largely intact, and air pressure from the outside was acting upon it, caving the sides of the airship inward due to the reduction of pressure caused by the venting of combustion gases out the top. HERE are many translated example sentences containing "HINDENBURG LINE" - english-spanish translations and search engine for english translations. Had the skin contained enough metal to produce pure thermite, the Hindenburg would have been too heavy to fly. Each was a complex of trenches, protected by belts of barbed wire, sometimes 40-metres deep, and pillboxes. Albert Holderried, mechanic; Alfred Stockle, engine mechanic; Alois Reisacher, mechanic; Emilie Imohof, hostess; Ernst Huchel, senior elevatorman; Ernst Schlapp, electrician; Franz Eichelmann, radio operator; Fritz Flackus, cook's assistant; Alfred Hitchcok, chief mechanic; Ludwig Knorr, chief rigger; Max Schulze, bar steward; Richard Muller, assistant chef; Robert Moser, mechanic; Rudi Bialas, engine mechanic; Wilhelm Dimmler, engineering officer; Willi Scheef, mechanic. On 29 September, the line was finally broken. They attacked a strongly defended sector at Bellicourt with tanks, artillery, and aircraft working in concert. The Brit. Despite this, other parts of the Hindenburg Line remained under German control. On that day, the 30th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, broke the Hindenburg Line, an important segment of the German defensive network on the Western Front in Europe during WWI. Over the coming month, the Allies will press this hard-won advantage. For several years the Graf Zeppelin executed mainly well-publicized demonstration flights, including an around-the-world tour in 1929. [59] However, Otto Beyersdorff, an independent investigator hired by the Zeppelin Company, asserted that the outer skin itself was flammable. Box 3, Folder 15, 120th Infantry Records, WWI 132, WWI Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C. How can we make this page better for you? The Hindenburg Line, or Siegfriedstellung, achieved almost mythical status in the minds of the British public: the strongest defence system the world had then seen, scientifically designed by fortification experts with only one aim, to keep at bay the British Army. Walter Allison, a graduate of Newburgh Free Academy probably did not know what hit him when wounded in the stomach on September 29, 1918. . Members of the 119th Infantry reached the Hindenburg Line ahead of schedule, leaving them stranded just in front of the enemy with their left flank exposed. For example, the propellant for the Space Shuttle solid rocket booster included both "aluminum (fuel, 16%), (and) iron oxide (a catalyst, 0.4%)". The incendiary paint hypothesis asserts that the major component in starting the fire and feeding its spread was the canvas skin because of the compound used on it. Stock Image. It was a British attack followed by the biggest German counter-attack against the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) since 1914, in the First World War. Although Bain's fabric ignited, critics argue that Bain had to correctly position the fabric parallel to a machine with a continuous electric current inconsistent with atmospheric conditions. Falling, burning debris would also appear as downward streaks of fire. In its first year of operation it carried hundreds of passengers across the ocean in 10 round-trips between the United States and Germany and 7 trips between Germany and Brazil. The Hindenburg was originally made to use helium gas. . So pleased and delighted were the British that church bells were rung when the Line was pierced at Cambrai in November 1917. If it failed the war would probably drag along for months to come; if successful, it meant the withdrawal of enemy forces in Belgium and along the line of the Meuse, before their only two gateways into Germany could be closed. [66] They conclude that it would have taken about 40 hours[clarification needed] for the Hindenburg to burn if the fire had been driven by combustible fabric. On 2-3 September 1918 the Canadian Corps broke open its northern hinge (the Drocourt-Quant switch, or Wotan-Stellung) and . About half way between these two cities, or what is left of cities, the St. Quentin Canal passes under ground for a distance of six thousand yards. The day before the disaster, a fuel pump had broken during the flight, but the chief engineer testified that the pump had been replaced. While the exact cause of the tragedy isnt known for certain, the most likely theory is that a discharge of atmospheric electricity ignited the airships hydrogen gas cells. [61] For example, the fabric on the port and starboard tail fins was not completely consumed. We have taken thousands of prisoners. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1968. Introduction From the moment, in late 1914, when ground warfare went static and underground, the Germans began a strategy of fortification of their defences. At 804 feet long (more than three times the length of a Boeing 747 and only 80 feet shorter than the Titanic), the Hindenburg was the largest aircraft ever built. Before the airship's takeoff on March 26, 1936, Ernst Lehmann chose to launch the Hindenburg with the wind blowing from behind the airship, instead of into the wind as per standard procedure. This page was last edited on 4 November 2022, at 03:30. The first of the seven trench lines had been taken by the Allies on September 11th.*. So pleased and delighted were. . Their mission? In goes into glorious detail about the evolution of German defensive doctrine . The corps' reserve division moved through the hole and by the end of the day the corps had taken 5, 100 prisoners and 90 guns. In response to this criticism, the IPT therefore postulates that a spark would need to be parallel to the surface, and that "panel-to-panel arcing" occurs where the spark moves between panels of paint isolated from each other. Hi there! Battalion was at Templeux-la-Fosse by 13:00 hrs. It burns off slowly, particularly because it was in an enclosed space between outer cover and gas cells, and only in the moment when gas cells are burned by the burning off of this gas, then the gas escapes in greater volume, and then the explosions can occur, which have been reported to us at a later stage of the accident by so many witnesses. Despite this, the skin alone would burn too slowly to account for the rapid spread of the fire, as it would have taken four times the speed for the ship to burn. The loss of lift at the rear caused the airship to nose up suddenly and the back to break in half (the airship was still in one piece), at that time the primary mode for the fire to spread was along the axial gangway which acted as a chimney, conducting fire which burst out the nose as the airship's tail touched the ground, and as seen in one of the most famous pictures of the disaster. In August 1916 the German armies on the Somme had been subjected to great strain; the IX Reserve Corps had been "shattered" in the defence of Pozires. Author: Matthew M. Peek, Military Collection Archivist. The decisive action was about to take place, and the New Zealand Division was brought up . Byng's growing enthusiasm, even with Haig's support, was insufficient to summon up forces for the operation while Third Ypres was still underway. The troops were off with the second, going with the barrage, for the success depended on getting the Boche [Germans] before he could get out. The 119th and 120th Infantry Regiments [originally units created from North Carolina National Guard units] led the assault on the Hindenburg Line. Entitled The 120th Infantry, USA, On His Majestys Service, the 10-page history written around 1919 includes several pages on the deadliest day for North Carolina soldiers in WWISeptember 29, 1918. During the US inquiry, Eckener testified that he believed that the fire was caused by the ignition of hydrogen by a static spark: The ship proceeded in a sharp turn to approach for its landing. The fabric skin of the airship was covered with a paint that contained aluminum powder, giving it a silvery appearance. The Hindenburg line wasn't broken until late 1918, shortly before the war ended when the Germans were in near-full retreat. 1, which still stands, is where the airship was to be housed after landing. 100 years ago this week marks the anniversary of September 29, 1918, which is the deadliest day in the history of North Carolinians who fought in World War I. The Hindenburg Line . Bad again with sciatica cannot walk. hindenburg Ludendorff. On that day, the 30th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, broke the Hindenburg Line, an important segment of the German defensive network on the Western Front in Europe during WWI. Pruss had made the sharp turn under Lehmann's pressure; while Rosendahl called the airship in for landing, believing the conditions were suitable. More North Carolinians died on that day than any other single day in the war. [clarification needed]. is was the much-vaunted Hindenburg Line and the soldiers who forced their way through it were men of 137th Staordshire Brigade. Hindenburg Line. However, the complexity of the airship's structure would make it virtually impossible to detect all weaknesses in the structure. Bain received permission from the German government to search their archives and discovered evidence that, during the Nazi regime, German scientists concluded the dope on the Hindenburg's fabric skin was the cause of the conflagration. They attacked a strongly defended sector at Bellicourt with tanks , artillery, and aircraft working in concert. In the first months of 1917, the German Army achieved one of the greatest strategic surprises of the entire First World . The MythBusters concluded that the paint may have contributed to the disaster, but that it was not the sole reason for such rapid combustion.[62]. AbeBooks.com: The Hindenburg Line (Battleground) (9780850525687) by Oldham, Peter and a great selection of similar New, . The British force at Cambrai. ID: 2A8R36M (RM) During the attack on the Hindenburg Line, the 30th Division was part of the British Fourth Army. So pleased and delighted were the British that church bells were rung when the Line was pierced at Cambrai in November 1917. The Hindenburg Line (German: Siegfriedstellung, Siegfried Position) was a German defensive position built during the winter of 1916-1917 on the Western Front during the First World War.The line ran from Arras to Laffaux, near Soissons on the Aisne.In 1916, the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme left the German western armies (Westheer) exhausted and on the Eastern Front, the . Published by Leo Cooper, United Kingdom, 1997. LONDON, Nov. Thus what can be seen burning in the photographs cannot be hydrogen. That is, it will burn if placed within a fire but is not readily ignited. ", "Secrets of the Dead: PBS television documentary on the Hindenburg disaster. That means it was not an explosive mixture of hydrogen, but more of a pure hydrogen. The British were to witness triumph and joy again, when, towards the end of the Great War, the Hindenburg Line was to be broken by men from the Midlands. meter (506,391 foot-pounds) of trimming was needed.[54]. Hindenburg line synonyms, Hindenburg line pronunciation, Hindenburg line translation, English dictionary definition of Hindenburg line. North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2018/09/25/120th-infantry-breaks-hindenburg-line, In order to give our reading audience a better perspective on the events of September 29, 1918, we present a transcription of a portion of an original typed historical unit sketch of the 120th Infantry, written by Col. Sidney W. Minor, the commander of the 120th. However, black-and-white photographic film of the era had a different light sensitivity spectrum than the human eye, and was sensitive farther out into the infrared and ultraviolet regions than the human eye. Flames raced through the body, quickly burning up outer skin and exposing the aluminum structure underneath. Carried out by the First, Third and Fourth Armies these victories rank among the greatest-ever British military achievements. Occasionally, the Hindenburg's varnish is incorrectly identified as, or stated being similar to, cellulose nitrate which, like most nitrates, burns very readily. First, it implies that the crewmen in the lower fin had seen the fire start in the keel and that Hans Freund and Helmut Lau looked towards the front of the airship to see the fire, when Freund was actually looking rearward when the fire started. Norman arrived at the front at midnight. Additionally, Dessler contends that the skin would also be electrically conductive in the wet and damp conditions before the fire. The breaking of the Hindenburg Line was part of a series of Allied assaults known as the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the Armistice on November 11, 1918. One or two more dramatic versions of his escape have appeared over the years, neither of which are supported by the newsreels of the crash, one of which shows a fairly close view of the portside passenger windows as passengers and stewards begin to drop through them. The hypothesis is limited to the source of ignition and to the flame front propagation, not to the source of most of the burning material, as once the fire started and spread the hydrogen clearly must have burned (although some proponents of the incendiary paint theory claim that hydrogen burned much later in the fire or that it otherwise did not contribute to the rapid spread of the fire). ", "Last survivor of the Hindenburg disaster dies at age 90", "The Hindenburg 75 years later: Memories time cannot erase. New York, August 30. Reinforcements from the 117th and 118th Infantry Regiments moved up in the afternoon to bolster their position but they remained more or less stalled. Advances were made, but it was a struggle between the two forces. Although these raids were not especially destructive when compared with later bombing raids by airplanes, they were effective at sowing fear. Although neither the British nor the French had broken through the front, they had mostly destroyed the German defences. Some of the 26 people listed as immediate victims may have actually died immediately after the disaster in the air station's infirmary, but being identified only after some time, along with the corpses of the victims who died in the fire. This was used first in September 1918 during the breaking of the Hindenburg Line. The job out for this regiment included three rows of wire each forty feet deep, three rows of Hindenburg Line, the southern end of the tunnel which would hold a division of troops in perfect security. (the third line of defences of the Hindenburg Line), the village of Beaurevoir and the heights overlooking the Beaurevoir Line. Oldham, Peter. The rest it is not necessary for me to explain, and in conclusion, I would like to state this appears to me to be a possible explanation, based on weighing all of the testimony that I have heard so far. The German airship LZ-129better known as the Hindenburg was landing. Thread starter Deleted member 1487; Start date Jan 23, 2011; Jan 23, 2011 #1 Deleted member 1487. We have taken thousands of prisoners. While the New Zealanders had been resting, a very brilliant operation, carried out largely by Canadian troops, had broken through the main defences opposite the town. The Hindenburg line broken [Hill, Thomas] on Amazon.com. Companies pledged themselves to go through to their objective even if only one man were left. The MythBusters team also discovered that the Hindenburg's coated skin had a higher ignition temperature than that of untreated material, and that it would initially burn slowly, but that after some time the fire would begin to accelerate considerably with some indication of a thermite reaction. . The entire disaster was captured on newsreel and was also narrated by a radio news reporter named Herb Morrison, who uttered the infamous phrase Oh, the humanity! as the Hindenburg crashed. A flash or a bright reflection in gas cell 4, that crew members near the lower fin had seen just before the fire. The Germans opened fire and inflicted heavy casualties. The Hindenburg Line, constructed in 1916,ran over 100kilometres between Arras and Laffaux. The Hindenburg Line was attacked several times in 1917, notably at St Quentin, Bullecourt, the Aisne and Cambrai and was broken in September 1918 during the Hundred Days Offensive . The attack did not go smoothly and casualties were high. One bracing wire tested after the crash broke at a mere 70% of its rated load.