Online Collection

The Online Collection showcases a selection of our objects for you to discover and explore. This resource will grow as the Museum's Collection is catalogued and computerised, and as new acquisitions are added.

'Zeppelin brought down in flames at Cuffley, near Enfield, at 2.30am, Sunday Sept 3rd 1916'

Commercial postcard, World War One (1914-1918), 1916 (c). The image is captioned as 'Drawn by an eye-witness'.

Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson (1895-1918), Royal Flying Corps, shot down the German airship SL11, often misidentified as the Zeppelin L21 (LZ61), over Britain on 3 September 1916.

Searchlights highlight a flaming airship as it plummets to the ground.

Robinson was flying a converted BE2c aircraft over Cuffley, Hertfordshire, when he spotted the German airship SL11. He made an attack which caused the airship to burst into flames. Having demonstrated that the German airships were not invincible, he was awarded the Victoria Cross by King George V at Windsor Castle.

From the first of three photograph albums compiled by Sergeant Arthur John King 1/25th (County of London) (Cyclist) Battalion, The London Regiment, 1909 (c)-1918.

NAM Accession Number

NAM. 1972-05-81-1-37

Copyright/Ownership

National Army Museum, Out of Copyright

Location

National Army Museum, Study Collection

Object URL

https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1972-05-81-1-37