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The "Do nothing" raids
The "Do nothing" raids
The Japanese attack had caught China off-guard and she was demoralized and reeling with her armies being forced to cede ground, her navy sunk to the bottom of the Amoy harbour, her air force grounded by her own obsolescence and her cities burned and crumbled under the relentless assaults of Japanese bombs.
There was only one thing that dominated the national mood and dominated the mind of China's leader Chiang Kai-shek: Revenge.
It was only natural that China would look for a way to strike back. He would find this in China's Zeppelin force.
Chinese Airship Zheng He emerges from her hangar
China had invested considerable resources - in time, money and skilled manpower in the construction and maintenance of these behemoths. Some have criticized Chiang and his Air Marshall Feng Ru for wasting "enormous resources" in the development of these airships. When the war broke out in 1937, China had 20 of these "Behemoth" class airships.
What were the use for these airships? Recently classified documents suggest that the main intention for these airships was to continue trade with Germany in the event of total blockade of China. However, the continued trade between China and the United States meant that there was a conduit for German-Chinese trade and it was decided not to risk the airships in long voyages over the Soviet Union and other nations.
It was decided to use these airships for a military application: to bomb Japan as an act of revenge. The first test would be the voyage of the airship Zhang He the Zhang He took off on January 1 1938 from a secret airfield in Tibet - it was decided to launch it from Tibet to minimize Japanese interception. Zhang He flew at 40000 feet - above the maximum ceiling of most Japanese fighters and carried 5 tons of bombs for the initial "Do Nothing" raid.
In order to scout out the territory and ensure accuracy, a plane was attached to the Zhang He(which was fitted with a fighter harness) the plan was for the Zhang He to navigate to Tokyo, lower himself to 20000 feet and send out the scout plane to do recoinnasance. With this conducted the Zhang He was authorized to drop the bombs.
The mission went off without a hitch - the first known attack of the "Behemoths" which would continue to torment Japan with continuing frequency as the war went on.
The Japanese attack had caught China off-guard and she was demoralized and reeling with her armies being forced to cede ground, her navy sunk to the bottom of the Amoy harbour, her air force grounded by her own obsolescence and her cities burned and crumbled under the relentless assaults of Japanese bombs.
There was only one thing that dominated the national mood and dominated the mind of China's leader Chiang Kai-shek: Revenge.
It was only natural that China would look for a way to strike back. He would find this in China's Zeppelin force.
Chinese Airship Zheng He emerges from her hangar
China had invested considerable resources - in time, money and skilled manpower in the construction and maintenance of these behemoths. Some have criticized Chiang and his Air Marshall Feng Ru for wasting "enormous resources" in the development of these airships. When the war broke out in 1937, China had 20 of these "Behemoth" class airships.
What were the use for these airships? Recently classified documents suggest that the main intention for these airships was to continue trade with Germany in the event of total blockade of China. However, the continued trade between China and the United States meant that there was a conduit for German-Chinese trade and it was decided not to risk the airships in long voyages over the Soviet Union and other nations.
It was decided to use these airships for a military application: to bomb Japan as an act of revenge. The first test would be the voyage of the airship Zhang He the Zhang He took off on January 1 1938 from a secret airfield in Tibet - it was decided to launch it from Tibet to minimize Japanese interception. Zhang He flew at 40000 feet - above the maximum ceiling of most Japanese fighters and carried 5 tons of bombs for the initial "Do Nothing" raid.
In order to scout out the territory and ensure accuracy, a plane was attached to the Zhang He(which was fitted with a fighter harness) the plan was for the Zhang He to navigate to Tokyo, lower himself to 20000 feet and send out the scout plane to do recoinnasance. With this conducted the Zhang He was authorized to drop the bombs.
The mission went off without a hitch - the first known attack of the "Behemoths" which would continue to torment Japan with continuing frequency as the war went on.
- CCA
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