At this stage of the First World War, Britain was crucially dependent for shell propellant on HM Factory Gretna (Moorside) with its immense nitration facilities for guncotton and nitroglycerine. There are claims that the Cumbrian Fells and Pennines 'protected' this strategic target from air attack.Whilst Staaken and Gotha aircraft had a limited 800 km range, the Zeppelins would have been superb strategic bombers to attack HM Factory Gretna. The Zeppelin could have hovered out of range of ground fire and dropped small bombs precisely onto nitration facilities, acetone works, glycerine works and acid plant.Similar facilities such as Waltham Forest and Holton Heath - both in easy range, in southern England - were never attacked either. What did the German government think it was up to ? Attacking the explosive works would have left Britain without the means to hold the Western Front and could certainly have prolonged the war. It would have forced the redeployment of fighter squadrons to defend the works and other potential industrial targets.

While I will admit that the plot of ZEPPELIN is okay and not the best I have ever seen, I still like this movie a lot. Michael York plays a British agent that pretends to defect in order to learn the German airship secrets. Along the way he meets the extremely attractive Elke Sommer, though what all that has to do with war, I never was really certain.The film concerns an era that we seldom talk about--WWI and the terror that seized the Allies when the Germans first rained bombs on an unsuspecting London. For the life of me, I can't recall another movie that mentions this in any way, so historically speaking this is an important topic.I was fortunate enough to have seen this film on the big screen when it first came out in the very early 1970s. I remember sitting in the first row in the balcony and watching the big screen as the Zeppelin first appeared up out of the clouds--pretty reminiscent of the shark attacking in the later film, JAWS! Much of the film is set on the dirigible, the scenery is great and the Zeppelin scenes are pretty realistic. Give it a try--it's a forgotten and worthwhile film.

A very interesting tale of a German mission to destroy the Magna Carta provides exciting airborne action during WWI. A German-born British flier is emotionally torn by duty and homeland. The special effects are better than average and responsible for the films atmosphere. The story line leaves too many questions. This melodrama was filmed in Scotland. The notable cast includes: Michael York, the fascinating Elke Sommer, Andrew Keir and Peter Casten. Neutrality sometimes walks a tightrope.

Produced as Ronald Getty's (son of J.Paul Getty) venture into motion pictures it attempted to explore a subject that had up to its point only been explored through the explosion of the German airship Hindenburg. It attempted to tell the story of loyalties with the then current anti-military fashion (petty drum rolls when the more dramatic and militaristic "We Sail Against England" was originally written would have provided a contrast needed).Since the general public's reaction to a philo-German film was unknown it was thought that any overt militarism (such as the "Blue Max") should be down because the subject matter of Zeppelins without swastikas (i.e., The Hindenburg) was an unknown commodity thus a safe course was taken and downed played and thus weakening the film. Originally, scenes of epic battles waging beneath the skies of blue were considered and deleted.In a story meeting Bob Wise's underplay of German militarism in "The Sound of Music" was argued as the public's desire to see Germania topics -- as fodder for story antagaonists without their significance.It remains at least to me an attempt to discuss loyalty, love's betrayal and history on a very very limited budget.I remember researching it with dad. What interested Getty was that his father's oil company furnished Germany's airships during the First World War. His contribution despite his then titanic sums available to him for a variety of reasons was very modest. Rumor had it J. Paul called Jack Warner and was concerned that his son was investing in movies and what could he expect... Ronald should however be commended because without his involvement no film on zeppelin would have been made at all (of the very limited collection of zeppelin films thus far).The film could have used an injection of drama that was unfortunately out of vogue during the time of its production. This sounds like an excuss but one must remember it took "Patton" ten years to be produced out of similiar concerns. It was private money after all...To dad... thanks for the memory ol' fella will miss ya...