The Eta, having been inflated and deflated several times owing to
the poor quality of the envelope, attempted to fly to Dunkirk in
November, 1914. She encountered a snowstorm near Redhill and
was compelled to make a forced landing. In doing this she was so
badly damaged as to be incapable of repair, and at a later date
was deleted.
No. 8, which was delivered towards the end of 1914, was also
moored out in the open for a short time near Dunkirk, and carried
out patrol in the war zone of the Belgian coast.
So ends the story of the Naval Airship Service before the war.
With the submarine campaign ruthlessly waged by the Germans from
the spring of 1915 and onwards, came the airship's opportunity,
and the authorities grasped the fact that, with development, here
was the weapon to defeat the most dangerous enemy of the Empire.
The method of development and the success attending it the
following chapters will show.
CHAPTER VI
NAVAL AIRSHIPS.--THE NON-RIGIDS--
S.S. TYPE
The development of the British airships of to-day may be said to
date from February 28th, 1915. On that day approval was given
for the construction of the original S.S. airship.
At this time the Germans had embarked upon their submarine
campaign, realizing, with the failure of their great assaults on
the British troops in Flanders, that their main hope of victory
lay in starving Great Britain into surrender.
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