The Hindenburg Engulfed by Flames
By 1937, zeppelins had ferried tens of thousands of paying passengers over a million miles, in over 2000 flights, without a single injury. It was widely assumed that they were the wave of the future. One of Germany’s Zeppelin Company’s airships had recently flown passengers across the Atlantic in luxury and style, in a mere 60 hours – quite a feat for commercial travel at the time.
Then catastrophe struck the Hindenburg, the Zeppelin Company’s flagship and the biggest airship ever built – three times the length and twice the height of a Boeing 747. On May 6th, 1937, after an uneventful trans-Atlantic flight, the Hindenburg tried to dock with a mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, when it suddenly erupted in flames.
Within 37 seconds from when the first spark appeared, the world’s biggest airship was incinerated. Of 97 people on board, 35 died, and another died on the ground. The spectacular disaster, captured on reel and film and widely disseminated around the world, shattered public confidence in zeppelins, and brought the airship era to an abrupt end.
The catastrophe was commonly blamed on sabotage: the Hindenburg was not only the pride of the Zeppelin Company, but also a source of German national pride and a symbol of resurgence under the Nazis. Many were eager to stick it to the Nazis, and an incendiary bullet was advanced as a plausible cause. Another widely accepted hypothesis blamed a static spark.
Whatever started the fire, it would not have spread as rapidly as it did if the Zeppelin Company had not opted to fill its airships with highly flammable hydrogen, instead of a less combustible alternative such as helium. If the Hindenburg had used helium, like airships do today, neither shot nor spark could have reduced it to cinders in under a minute.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources & Further Reading
America in WWII – Raid in Ruins: Ploesti
BBC History – World Wars: The Fall of France
Encyclopedia Britannica – Jean-Bedel Bokassa: President of Central African Republic
First Battalion, 24th Marines – Underwood v. Klonis
Keegan, John – Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy From Napoleon to Al Qaeda (2003)
Libcom – Stjepan Filipovic: Everlasting Symbol of Antifascism
Listverse – 10 of the Most Important Photographs in History
New York Times, November 8th, 2012 – How a Galway Pub Led to a Skyscraper
Ohio History Central – Kent State Shootings
Reader’s Digest – This Vintage Photo Reveals a Secret Behind One of the World’s Most Famous Images