I am going to tell you the story of the flying giant, which appeared one day in the sky over Yambol – the Zeppelin.

Yambol Zeppelin appeared soon after Bulgaria had joined world war one on the side of Germany. Then, on the twenty-sixth of November, nineteen fifteen, the Ministry of War decided to build an air shed near Yambol for that new miracle of aerial navigation, called an airship. Its construction was assigned to a German company from Saarbrucken. Soon, some engineers, workers, and constructors came and began their work on that curious building. Before long, the Germans built the high rising air shed. Its walls were made of metal, and its roof was wooden, with two layers of roofing felt. Its entrance looked onto south-west, because the wind blew in that direction most of the day. That air shed was huge and very impressive. Its length was two hundred and forty meters, and its width – seventy meters. Later, they built lodgings and a canteen for the staff, working at the air shed.  Then, some warehouses, workshops, weather research station, gas station, pump station, and a power station were built. The whole team, taking care of the airship and the air shed, consisted of one hundred and eighty Germans and four hundred Bulgarian soldiers. In the summer of nineteen sixteen the air shed was officially open as part of the Aerial navigation Union.  Soon after that, the first airship arrived from Germany. It belonged to the system shute-lanz. The task of the airship was to make intelligence flights over the Black sea, but during one flight it was out-of-service and fell into the sea. After that, its place was taken by another vehicle – the famous German airship L fifty-nine.

The new airship arrived in Yambol in nineteen seventeen. There were five huge engines on its board and it could carry load and weapons of fifty-two tons. It flew at an unprecedented speed of eighty kilometers per hour. The airship crew consisted of two hundred and twenty specialists, commanded by captain Bocholt. Today there are only a few important details left about the airship L fifty-nine, such as the memories of the pilot Georgi Popvasilev. He says: “You can fly very well by the zeppelin, well and cheerfully, but it is very dangerous, as well. You feel like being attached to a bomb, which could explode any moment.” Indeed, the German zeppelins were filled with hydrogen, which was inflammable and there was always the possibility of an explosion. That was exactly what happened years after that with Hindenburg. But, let’s go back to Yambol zeppelin. It set a record for the longest flight during the war – ninety-five hours and five minutes, covering more than two thousand kilometers over Africa and reaching the outskirts of the town of Khartoum. There, it threw about twelve tons of bombs at a military base of the Entente.  This happened in the period between the twenty-first and the twenty-fifth of November, nineteen seventeen. Of course, the zeppelin made some other important flights over Africa, as well. It even bombarded Naples twice in March, nineteen eighteen. In fact, we can say that the first air blows between Italy and Bulgaria didn’t date from nineteen forty-three in the direction Brindisi – Sofia, but from nineteen eighteen, in the direction Yambol – Naples!

On the seventh of April, nineteen eighteen, during its eighteenth flight, Yambol zeppelin rose over the town for the last time, on its way to Malta. Its task was to bombard a British naval station, but before reaching its aim, it was shot down by airplanes of the Entente over the Mediterranean Sea. The whole crew died. According to other sources, the zeppelin was shot down by a friendly fire – the German submarine UB fifty-three, which was patrolling in the Mediterranean.

Later, in the nineteen thirties, new workers came and disassembled the air shed. The materials were used for making other, smaller air sheds for the Bulgarian battle airplanes at several military airports.
Such is the story of Yambol zeppelin, remembered by its contemporaries from the beginning of the twentieth century. If you like it, listen to the others, as well.