Zeppelin and Garrison Museum Tønder

The museum is open on Saturdays and Sundays between 10 pm and 3 pm from May until October.

British attack July 1918

The Zeppelin Base in Tønder was during the World War a thorn in the side of the British.
But they were first able to mobilise the final and devastating attack in 1918.
The problem so far was the range of the British planes.
This problem was solved when the British build the first hangar ship in the world, "H.M.S. Furious", which had both a takeoff and a landing deck. They had also developed a new plane that was able "to do the job" - the one-engine fighter: Sopwith Camel. See the story from the British pilot, Walter Albert Yeulett.

"H.M.S. Furious" left Britain on the 18. July bound for the Danish coast. On board it carried 7 Sopwith Camel fighters. The H.M.S Furious was escorted by 17 smaller warships as protection.

03.04 AM on the 19. July 1918 started the first hangarship-launched-air attack ever
(against the Tønder Zeppelin Base ).
There were 90 miles to Tønder from the hangar ships position, that meant that the planes didn’t have enough fuel to return to the ship after the attack, but had to land on neutral ground in Denmark.

04.35 AM was the first of 5 bombs dropped on TOSKA. In the hangar, on the time of the attack, was L-54 and L-60. These Zeppelins burned completely,
and dark smoke stood out of the holes in TOSKA caused by the bombs.
Except for these holes and the damages caused by the smoke TOSKA was undamaged.
The TOBIAS hangar was hit by 2 bombs, and in Tønder City fell a deceived bomb on the marketplace.

This was how Tønders era as a Zeppelin Base ended on 19. July 1918.