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Sending and collecting postcards was very popular in Europe during the early 20th century. Both France and Germany had substantial post card industries. As a result, post cards became a common media for propaganda. Here we see a little German boy making a disparaging remark about a German Zeppelin which the Germans attempted to use in the air war, but with little success.
Sending and collecting postcards was very popular in Europe during the early 20th century. Both France and Germany had substantial post card industries. As a result, post cards became a common media for propaganda.
Here we see a little German boy making a disparaging remark about a German Zeppelin which the Germans attempted to use in the air war, but with little success. We also have noticed German and British cards which depicted Zapplins.
The caption says, "Maman il est sale ballon Boche ... y pète." We at first translated this as, "Mommy it is the dirty German (Boche is the pejorative French word for German) balloon ... it farts." (Notice the black smoke and fumes coming out of the Zephlin.) A French reader provides a better translation, "Mommy, how dirty is this bursting Boche balloon... he is really farting!" The French sentence is suitably childish as if the boy is talking. Our reader tells us, "Today, we never will use such a quote written like this. For example "Y" will be written "il" (it). Another French reader tells us that a better translation is, "Mommy (,) it is dirty (,) German balloon… it farts". Which is a childish way of saying "Mommy, the German balloon is dirty ...it farts". The first translation you included gives the impression that the child has already seen the balloon before. The second translation is even worse, adding new words to the original sentence (how, this, bursting, really).
I am not sure this was sent to, but it looks to be a girl or young lady (Melle) perhaps in a place called Charente. It does not seem to have been sent by a soldier, but rather a woman named Marie. I'm not suyre what the message says.
The Germans attempted to use Zephlins as bombers, but they proved easy targets for fighters and artillery. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917) was born in Konstanz, Baden (1838). His name became virtually synonamous in Europe with rigid, lighter than air craft or dirigibles. (The non-rigid craft are known as vlimps. He was an officer in the Prussian Army who fought in the Austro Prussian War (1866) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). He also was a military observer with the Union Army during the American Civil War (1863). It was during the Civil war that he first worked with baloons. He developed working derigibles in the early 20th century and convinced the German military that they had potential military applications. Zeppelin's LZ-3 was commissioned by the Germany Army as the Zeppelin Luftschiff 1 (1909). The Germans deployed 115 Zeppelins during World war I. They were used for reconnaissance and bombing. Some even raided Britain. They proved to be vulnerabile to attack and unsafe in rough weather. The Germans essentially discontinued the use of Zeppelins for active combat during the Verdun campaign (1916). By that time the Allies were deploying high performance aircraft that were easily shooting the Zepplins down. The Germans introduced models that could reach higher altitudes, but this reduced their ability to hit targets. The mounting losses of Zepplins and the superior performance of fixedwing aircraft caused the Germans to withdraw the Zepplins from active service (1917). Count von Zepplin also died (1917).
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