The stranded C26 Airship at Eemnes.

The stranded C26 Airship at Eemnes.
On December 13th 1917, the First World War hit home for the Heek family of Eemnes, a
small village in the centre of The Netherlands made up of Eemnes-Binnen and EemnesBuiten. That day, their home/bakery, located at Wakkerendijk 3, was rudely awakened at six
thirty by the crashing of an unmanned British airship.
The C26 hanging on the house at the Wakkerendijk, Eemnes. Source: Spaarnestad Photo, foto
SFA022802382 en SFA022802377).
De airship was the C26, a Coastal Class non-rigid blimp of the Royal Naval Air Service
(RNAS). These were used to search for German submarines along the coast. The airship had a
crew of 5 men sitting in the gondola, which hung from the body of the cigar-shaped balloon.
The airship was powered by two Daimler 12-cilinder engines and could stay in the air for 22
hours. The body of the balloon was approximately 60 meters wide.
The C26.
So how did the C26 end up all the way in the middle of The Netherlands? And unmanned at
that! The C26 was under the command of captain Flight Lieutenant G.C.C. Kilburn, on board
with him were second officer Flight Lieutenant H.E.C. Plowden, Petty Officer A.C. Townsend
LM (Steersman), F.D. Johncock (Mechanic), and AM2 F.W. Warman (Radio Operator). On
December 12th, de C26 was sent out to search for its sister ship, the C27, as it had not
returned from patrol. The commander of the C27, Flight Lieutenant J.F. Dixon DFC, was also
a dear friend of G.C.C. Kilburn.
G.C.C Kilburn in the middle of the photo with on right of him Flight Lieutenant J.F.Dixon
DFC commander of the C27 (Photo: Martyn Doggrell).
G.C.C. Kilburn enlisted in 1915 as midshipman of shore, which meant that he came from the
land and had no experience as a sailor. On November 11th 1915, he made his first flight in an
airship, the SS14. After a long period of training, he was transferred to Scotland where he
started flying on the Coastal Class airship, first on the C5 and later that year on the C7. In
August 1916, Kilburn made his first flight as a commander of the Coastal Class airship and in
the same month, he qualified as a Coastal Class pilot. In January 1917, he was stationed in
Kingsnorth near Chatham where the Coastal Class flew until he became the commander of the
C26 in June 1917 and transferred to Pulham in Norfolk. During his stay here, he also
occasionally flew with the C27 and in July 1917, he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. On
July 17th 1917, he made a parachute jump from C26. His last flight was on December 12th
1917 with the C26 which ended up in Eemnes.
Coastal Class airship.
The C27 had left from Pullham on December 11th for a patrol to the east of the Norfolk coast.
The RNAS reports show that in the early morning, the patrol went on normally but from
around 09:40 there was no response anymore from the C27. The reports go on, stating that the
following happened: “Neither of the two homing pigeons that were on board returned, from
this we can conclude that the airship ran into problems. The following day, one of our
trawlers reported seeing a burning airship falling into the water in the distance but that they
saw neither enemy planes nor boats. The official German newspapers report that one of their
aquaplanes shot down a British airship in the southern part of the North Sea”. The C27 ran
into trouble rather quickly as they were spotted by a German aquaplane, a HansaBrandenburg W.12. It was piloted by Oberleutnant zur See, Friedrich Christiansen and
Vizeflugmeister Bernhard Wladicka who fired on the C27 which took fire.
Hansa-Brandenburg W. 12. The model and colors where in Oberleutnant zur See, Friedrich
Christiansen flew when he shot down the C27.
Oberleutnant zur See Friedrich Christiansen.
The C27 crashed into the sea, burning, killing all five crew members. The airman made a
picture of his victory.
On board of the C27 were: Flt. Lt. J.F. Dixon DFC (Commander), Flt. Lt. H. Hall (Second
Officer), AM1 J.E. Martin (Steersman), AM1 E.R. Whyte (Mechanic) and AM1 J.E. Collett
(Radio Operator).
The C27 falling down buring in to the sea.
When the C26 was sent out, little was known of the faith of the C27. There was regular
contact between the C26 and the radio station of the marine base at Lowestoft. These show
that they couldn’t find anything and at 13:04, the radio station sent out the following message:
“Visibility is less than 3 kilometres, return but land no later than 3 o’clock.” The C26
confirmed receipt of this message at 13:25. At 15:40, the station asked the C26 for its
position, to which the C26 answered: “12 kilometres east of Yarmouth”. The radio station then
gave them the order to return to base. The C26 confirmed this message and replied they would
be back at base at 16:45. But at around 17:15, Pulham base got a message from the C26 that it
had problems with one of its engines and was drifting towards the sea, approximately 4
kilometres east of Lowestoft. Lowestoft was warned but because of the poor visibility, they
could not see the airship. The last message from the C26 was on December 13th at 01:23. It
was an incomplete message that read: “Pulham from C26-------------“. Nothing more was
heard from the C26 after this.
The C26 was seen by the coastguard of Kessingland, south of Lowestoft. It then looked as if
the C26 was on its way back to Pulham. The coastguard later saw the C26 flying along the
coast and the crew shouting to the civilians to grab the ropes but visibility was getting worse.
Kilburn wrote about this: “We returned to Pulham at 12:30 and at 16:00 we reached the coast
south of Lowestoft instead of Yarmouth. Visibility was very poor and the wind was stronger
than I had expected. We followed the coast in the direction of Lowestoft to be sure of our
position and at 17:00 we reached Beccle until suddenly our rear engine failed for an
unknown reason”. Kilburn goes on: “Our mechanic thought, as did I, that we would be able
to restart the engine. But after we tried several times, it unfortunately didn’t work. We
immediately tried to lower the airship so that we could land but this too failed as we couldn’t
let enough gas escape to descend sufficiently”.
Nothing more was heard from the C26 until a telegram arrived from the marine-attaché in The
Hague stating that an airship had come down in The Netherlands in the morning of December
13th.
The C26 drifted off further over the sea towards The Netherlands and came to ground in the
vicinity of a little place called Poortugaal, near Rotterdam. Four of the five crewmen managed
to get out of the gondola here. Petty Officer A.C. Townsend injured his leg in the process.
Kilburn wrote: “About 11 o’clock the drogue suddenly opened (it had got caught up in some
way) and reduced our speed to about 8 knots. We fired Verys lights rifle periodically and also
flashed the Aldis lamp. I did not throw the code books overboard as I intended to go up again
on reaching the Dutch coast and send another W/T signal. At one o’clock the wind rose a
little and the ship started to kite, hitting the sea several times and necessitating the use of the
remaining ballast and a bomb.”
“Shortly after, the drogue lifted out of the water and the ship ascended to 3,700 ft. where she
was kept in equilibrium for two hours. Directly we rose we tried to send a W/T message. This
took some time owing to slight damage to W/T instrument when hitting the sea. The operator
heard base asking for information, but he was unable to get anything through.”
“At 2.30 (earlier than we expected) we found that the ship was over land by the cessation of
the sound of waves, thus, unfortunately, losing the chance of throwing the codes overboard. I
intended landing to rip and burn the codes and the ship and send the pigeons off. Everything
was prepared to do so. Again owing to the lack of a top valve we were unable to start
descending and had to cut a small hole in the bottom of the envelope. Since the blower was
useless, the ship got into a very bad shape and the car turned practically upside down,
necessitating everyone sitting on the port rail. The rips and top patch were got ready and the
water and the remaining petrol were used as ballast. No lights were seen at the coast or on
land and owing to the fog the land was never seen at all.”
“The grapnel caught in something and brought the ship up with a jerk that nearly threw
everyone off, but the ship did not touch the ground and before we could rip she broke loose.
We could not see the ground (although we must have been fairly close) even with the aid of
the Aldis lamp.”
“At 3.15 am the grapnel caught again. This time I gave the order to jump, thinking we were
only 10 feet up, holding on to the rip lines. But we were at least 30 ft. up and in the drop the
rips were jerked from our hands. Lieut. Plowden was saved by falling into a canal, but PO
Townsend unfortunately dislocated his leg. LM Johncock was shaken but escaped hurt. AM 2
Warman was caught up somehow and was taken off in the ship before we could do anything.”
An attempt was made to anchor the airship but without success. One of the crewmembers,
radio operator William Warman, got stuck in a joist with his foot; he clung on until Sliedrecht
where he managed to get out. Frederick Warman recalls: “When the CO gave the order for
everyone to jump out, Warman caught his feet in the skid of the Ship, and was taken up with
her again before he could get clear. He managed to hang on, upside down, underneath the
skid, which was covered with oil and petrol. The ship was at an angle of 45 degrees, down by
the tail, and he could not get back into the boat, but remained on the skid. He estimated that
he was there about an hour, and having cleared his foot, when the ship came low again he
dropped off the skid”. He estimates that he hung on to the joist for an hour. He goes on to
say: “falling on his back in a ditch, where he fell asleep, the ship having immediately risen
again. Warman landed at Sliedrecht, near Dorddrecht, and the Dutch newspapers report that
the ship landed at Eemnes”.
The crew of the C26 was apprehended and would remain in detention for the rest of the war,
probably in Groningen.
At the end of his report, G.C.C. Kilburn wrote the following: “I should like to bring to your
notice the excellent behaviour of the crew who showed no signs of panic and carried out all
orders with energy and precision. I am glad to say that PO Townsend is doing well.”
The unmanned C26 was pushed further north by the wind direction, where it hung in a tree at
steam pumping station on the Vecht near Utrecht around five thirty. It subsequently got stuck
in telegraph wires that it had pulled along. Because of this, fire bombs, an oilcan, a petrol
container and a parachute fell out of the gondola, luckily without causing any damage.
The C26 eventually untangled itself and flew over the Hoge Vuursche (between Hilversum
and Baarn) and eventually came down in Eemnes-Binnen. When it came down, the airship
pulled down and along with it a telephone wire and 200 meters of electrical cable hanging on
poles, destroying a chimney stack. The airship then came down in a lime tree in front of the
Lindeboom Café, and from the tree it went along the façade of the neighbouring house,
damaging that as well. The airship had by then lost so much gas that it landed on the family
Heek’s house on the Wakkerendijk in Eemnes. When the C26 came down on the house in
Eemnes, the neighbour of Wakkerendijk 1 wanted to shoot at with his hunting rifle. Luckily
he was held back.
The body of the balloon hooked onto the roof at the back of the house and stayed in a vertical
position. De gondola had smashed into the wall and was bent double. The engines didn’t
cause any further damage. All along its wind-defined flight path, bags originating from the
gondola were found. The airship was clearly visible in a wide area as can be read in H.
Horts’s eye-witness testimony: “When I cycled to work at a quarter to seven in the morning, it
was still dark on the Wakkerendijk. You couldn’t see much because street lighting back then
was still just a few oil lanterns every few hundred meters (that you have to put on every
evening and the celebratory lights is not what it used to be either). I saw the balloon at baker
Heek’s place, with its front in the wood pile. The wood pile was there because in those days
the oven was still fired with wood. The back of the balloon was still filled with gas and stood
up meters above the bakery. What happened next, I don’t know; you see, I had to get on and
get to work as there was no being late”.
The Dutch army had already been warned and soldiers of the army camp near Laren were
soon on their way towards Eemnes looking for the crew. It was soon clear that they were
already in detention and that the airship was empty.
It was decided that the airship would be taken away to Soesterberg. To achieve this, several
trucks and military personnel from Naarden, Crailo and Soesterberg arrived on the afternoon
of December 13th. Around 17:00, under the watchful eye of many inhabitants of Eemnes, the
airship was punctured. Only the next day was it taken away on three trucks.
The Heek family received 600 Guilders indemnification from the British government for the
damages incurred.
Merlijn van Eijk 2011
With thanks to: Marieke Hilkens, Johan Ryheul, Martijn Overkleeft, Evelyn Voets, Martyn
Doggrell en Historische kring Eemnes.
Sources:
• http://landewers.net
• http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums
• Article by W. van IJken in the periodical of the Historische kring Eemnes.
• British Naval Airships 1909 – 1921 by Brian J. Turpin
Then and now (Photo: Merlijn van Eijk).
Wakkerendijk 3 nowadays (Photo’s: Merlijn van Eijk).