New exhibition delves into '˜baby killer' German Zeppelin raids on South Yorkshire

A new exhibition is set to reveal South Yorkshire's pivotal role in battling German zeppelins - known as '˜baby killers' - during the First World War.
A postcard of a Zeppelin raid.A postcard of a Zeppelin raid.
A postcard of a Zeppelin raid.

The exhibition, called ‘Riding High: Doncaster Airfields and thew Zeppelin Raid on Sheffield’ will delve into how the area trained the world’s first fighter pilots and pioneered cutting-edge technology in a terrifying international arms race against the deadly enemy airships.

It will trace the near-forgotten 100-year-old origins of modern air-warfare through personal letters and photographs from the time and original remnants from serving aircraft will be displayed.

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It is being launched at South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum in Doncaster on Tuesday, September 20, and is part of the wider Doncaster 1914-18 scheme - a four-year project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund to commemorate the centenary of the First World War.

Jude Holland, Doncaster 1914-18 project manager, said: “In the run-up to the war, aeroplanes were a novelty – little more than pleasure-craft - and people would never have dreamed of flying to war.

“Zeppelins changed that: they were a horrifying innovation that sent a shockwave of fear across Britain, and were dubbed ‘baby killers’. For the first time, the skies became a battleground and the frontline could become your backyard, as Sheffield discovered first-hand on September 25 1916 during a midnight raid that killed 28 local people. The country was catapulted into a deadly battle for the skies, with South Yorkshire right at the heart of it all.”

The exhibition will discover how the area became a regional hub in the battle for the skies, training hundreds of pilots, assembling aircraft and acting as a base for the Royal Flying Corps, later to become the Royal Air Force.

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South Yorkshire Aircraft museum volunteer Ian Kingsnorth said: “Over 8000 air-related casualties are recorded between 1916 and 1918, so training grounds, like Doncaster, had to produce thousands of pilots during the course of the war.”