Zeppelin LZ 104

Zeppelin LZ 104 (construction number), designated L.59 (tactical number) by the German Imperial Navy and nicknamed Das Afrika-Schiff ("The Africa Ship"), was a German dirigible during World War I, famed for attempting a long-distance resupply mission of the beleaguered garrison of Germany's East Africa colony.

Africa flight
The L.59 was a naval airship ordered to prepare for the resupply of Generalmajor Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck’s troops.

On 4 November 1917, after a 29 hour flight from Friedrichshafen under the command of Hugo Eckener, the airship arrived at Yambol (Jamboli) in Bulgaria, the last available airbase before flying over two thousand miles across the Mediterranean and Entente-held Africa. At Jamboli Kapitänleutnant [Lieutenant Commander] Ludwig Bockholt, a regular German naval officer, met the zeppelin. He would be commander for the mission, code named China-Sache, loosely translated as "China Show" or "China Matter."

Because it would be impossible to resupply the airship with hydrogen gas upon its arrival in Africa, it was planned that no return trip would be made. Instead, it was projected that every part of the ship be cannibalized for use by Lettow-Vorbeck's bush army. The outer envelope would be used for tents, muslin linings would be bandages, duralumin framework would be for wireless towers, and so on. In addition to its own structure, L.59 carried 15 tons of supplies. The cargo included machine guns plus spares and ammunition, food, medical supplies, a medical team and Iron Cross medals.

L.59's two initial attempts at starting the journey were foiled by weather in the Mediterranean, but on 21 November 1917 her third departure was successful and the ship made good time over Adrianople, the Sea of Marmara and the coast of Asia Minor. However, due to electrical storms over Crete, her wireless aerial was wound in and so the ship failed to receive messages from the admiralty. She crossed over the African coast at 0515 on 22 November near Mersa Matruh and via the Dakhla Oasis set a dog-leg course up the Nile. That afternoon, an engine malfunctioned when a reduction gear housing cracked; the loss of this powerplant eliminated the prospect of radio transmission, although wireless messages could be received. The next morning she nearly crashed when heat turbulence from the dunes below and subsequent cooling reduced the buoyancy of her gas. The crew also suffered from headaches, hallucinations and general fatigue in the mid-day heat and freezing cold at night.

Despite these difficulties, L.59 continued on over Sudan, only to be turned back on 23 November, with the ship 125 mi due west of Khartoum when she received an "abort" message. L.59's volunteer crew implored the commander to continue, but he ordered the ship turned back and returned to Bulgaria after averting another potential loss of buoyancy disaster over Asia Minor. She returned to base the morning of 25 November 1917, having traveled over 4200 mi in 95 hours, or nearly four days in the air. When she nosed into her shed at Jamboli, the zeppelin had enough fuel remaining which could have kept her in the air for another 64 hours. Many years would pass before that record was broken.

It was later claimed by Richard Meinertzhagen, the chief of British intelligence in the area based at Cairo, that this message was faked by reporting that Lettow-Vorbeck had surrendered. The British, having broken the German naval wireless code, were aware of the flight and mission. East Africa’s Royal Flying Corps (RFC) squadrons were alerted to watch for the approach of the ship. However, what turned the airship back was a signal relayed from Lettow-Vorbeck. The frail signal was amplified and forwarded by stations in friendly or neutral territories, and after some hours it reached the German naval command. The signal informed headquarters not that Lettow had surrendered, but that the Schutztruppe had been unable to hold the flatlands around Mahenge, the planned destination of the airship, and had been forced by British artillery to retreat into jagged mountains where the airship would have no chance of touching down without risking explosion. With no hope of a place to safely land and with every likelihood of her being destroyed or falling into enemy hands, the German command had no choice but to order a return. The recall signal was sent from the admiralty station at Nauen. Despite its failure, "the adventure of L.59 was heroic both in scale and spirit." Later a transcript of the radio message was reported to have been found in Germany's World War archives, as well as a Turko-German wireless intercept (marked 'Secret') preserved in the files of the British Public Records office.

Final fate
Since the airship was not expected to return from her Africa mission, "no one knew exactly what to do with her." Another African flight was out of the question, the ship was then offered for flights to supply the Ottoman army of Enver Pasha in Arabia, or to search for mines off Constantinople, but nothing came of that. After several reconnaissance flights and bomb dropping forays, L.59 took off from Jamboli to attack the British naval base at Malta, proceeding across the Balkans to the Strait of Otranto. On the evening of 7 April 1918 the surfaced German submarine UB-53 observed the airship approaching in its wake. Her commanding officer, Oberleutnant [Lieutenant] J.L.E. Sprenger, reported that he watched her fly past at about 700 feet, so "close in fact that the details of the gondola could be seen clearly. A few minutes later, Sprenger noted two bursts in the air, and shortly after a gigantic flame enveloped the airship and it nosed down into the water." The airship’s destruction was not claimed by either the British or the Italians; her loss was officially attributed to an accident. None of the 21 crew survived the crash.

In popular culture
The airship and its the long-distance resupply mission was featured in The Ghosts of Africa, a 1980 historical novel by British-born Canadian novelist William Stevenson set during the East African Campaign. The protagonist of O Olho de Hertzog, a 2010 novel by João Paulo Borges Coelho, set in post-WWI Mozambique, arrives in Africa by jumping from the airship in a parachute.