Paintings, Prints & Drawings — 1916
Fall of Cuffley Zeppelin
Charles Dixon's drawing shows the fall of a German airship north of London during World War 1. Commanded by Hauptmann Wilhelm Schramm, Schütte-Lanz SL11 was one of 16 German airships sent on a mass raid over England. It was seen over Hertfordshire by 21-year-old pilot Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson, who was out flying on the night of 2 September 1916. As he attacked the wooden-framed airship with gunfire it burst into flames and crashed in a field near Cuffley, in Hertfordshire. Little remained of the wreckage or its crew. Robinson was later awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions.
Charles Dixon worked as an illustrator for magazines and this drawing was printed as a double-page black and white spread in the Graphic of 9 September 1916, only a week after the event. His version of the incident is dramatic rather than accurate. For example, the airship shown here is a pre-war model and not one used in the First World War.
- Category:
- Paintings, Prints & Drawings
- Object ID:
- A17584
- Object name:
- Fall of Cuffley Zeppelin
- Object type:
- Artist/Maker:
- Dixon, Charles
- Related people:
- —
- Related events:
- Related places:
- Production date:
- 1916
- Material:
- paper, watercolour, gouache
- Measurements/duration:
- H 485 mm, W 790 mm (overall)
- Part of:
- —
- On display:
- —
- Record quality:
- 100%
- Part of this object:
- —
- Credit:
- —
- Copyright holder:
- digital image © London Museum
- Image credit:
- —
- Creative commons usage:
- —
- License this image:
To license this image for commercial use, please contact the London Museum Picture Library.