‘Baby killers’ in the Balkans: airship raids on Salonika and their impact

Book section : Chapter

Well into 1916, German airships – ‘baby killers’ as they were termed in the British press – were active on most fronts and roundly feared and hated by those whom they were trying to target. Apparently invincible, airships seemed able to arrive unannounced and drop bombs at will. They also killed women and children and other noncombatants as freely as they killed servicemen.

This chapter offers a fresh perspective on Germany’s short-lived airship campaign on the Macedonian Front in 1916. Providing a snapshot, too, of popular attitudes to the tools and ethics of World War I warfare, it draws on a range of contemporary sources, from diaries and letters to newspaper reports and intelligence records, to discuss a range of impacts that resulted from the sudden appearance of this new technology in the skies above Salonika. Death was one of these. Others, though, included its value for Allied propagandists as an example of German barbarity, while the successful downing of a Zeppelin not only boosted Allied morale but also provided opportunities to usefully exploit its wreckage and crew.

Authors: Bailey, R

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Routledge
• Host title: The Macedonian Front, 1915-1918: Politics, Society and Culture in Time of War
• Pages: 98-107
• Chapter number: 8
• Series: British School at Athens – Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies
• Series number: 9
• Place of publication: London
• Publication date: 2022-04-01
• Edition: 1st
• DOI: 10.4324/9780429331084-11
• EISBN: 9780429331084
• ISBN-10: 1000571491
• ISBN-13: 9781000571493
• Language: English
• Keywords: SBTMR
• Subtype: Chapter