Description
Object description
image: A German Zeppelin falls from the sky after being shot down by a British fighter plane. Several Royal Navy warships
are at sail in the sea below.
Label
On 11 August 1918 Lt S D Culley took off, in his Sopwith Camel N6812 aircraft, from a lighter being towed behind a
destroyer. This was part of a large fleet of ships under the command of Admiral Tyrwhitt intent on bringing German seaplanes into action.
After a fight with some seaplanes, Zeppelin L53 was spotted and Culley duly took off and succeeded in bringing it down. Culley's Camel is
in the museum's collection, and hangs in the atrium.
A title note to The Action of 11th August, 1918 (written by the artist) refers the viewer to the signal shown on the flagship, which reads
"See Hymn 224. Verse 7" The verse reads thus;
"Oh, happy band of pilgrims
Look upward to the skies,
Where such a light affliction
Shall win so great a prize."
Strictly speaking the action took place nearer to the island of Ameland, rather than Borkum. Borkum is one of a chain of sandy islands
including Juist, Norderney and Sharnhörn which run up the North Sea coast of north Holland and Germany to southern Denmark. The whole of
this area is a maze of shallow channels running through treacherous and constantly shifting sandbanks deposited by three major rivers - the
Ems, the Weser and the Elbe. The strategic importance of these sandy outposts to Germany is graphically described in Erskine Childers'
book 'The Riddle of the Sands', published in 1903.
A later action against the German seaplane base on Borkum on the 21st October 1918 involved the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. Unable
to reach the area from airfields in France and England due to the aircraft's restricted range, and unable to get near the coast due to the
shifting sandbanks, the Royal Navy towed the British planes on lighters as near as they could to Borkum, the idea being that the aircraft
would take off from the lighters and attempt a raid on the base. The attack was aborted when most of the planes crashed into the sea on
take-off.
The artist produced four other paintings as a result of his sojourn in the North Sea with Admiral Tyrwhitt's fleet, including one showing a
kite balloon attached to HMS Concord and "in the distance destroyers are seen towing a raft with the Camel Scout aeroplane which brought
down the Zeppelin off Borkum Island" (Charles Pears, title note).
History note
Imperial War Museum Naval Section Commission
Inscription
CHAS. PEARS.
