There's an almost as absurd case in the Congressional Record of a Naval blimp going off course in the pre-war years. After a couple of wrong turns they decided to go to ground in the dark, a few miles from the lights of an unidentified city, and simply "ask" for directions. As the descended, they struck a powerline and the lights of that nearby city went out....
A second attempt at landing encountered a tree, and after daylight, it became apparent that the tree had stayed with the blimp when it made its emergency dumping of ballast to break loose.
It's a fairly pathetic case of nobody having any clue or backup plan about what to do in the event of a stray gust of wind blowing them off course. It does show how amazingly durable the things were, though. Supposedly, there were no cases of a convoy losing ships to U-boats while they were escorted by airships, so they were quite effective in an anti-submarine role.....in good weather.
A second attempt at landing encountered a tree, and after daylight, it became apparent that the tree had stayed with the blimp when it made its emergency dumping of ballast to break loose.
It's a fairly pathetic case of nobody having any clue or backup plan about what to do in the event of a stray gust of wind blowing them off course. It does show how amazingly durable the things were, though. Supposedly, there were no cases of a convoy losing ships to U-boats while they were escorted by airships, so they were quite effective in an anti-submarine role.....in good weather.
