Zeppelin LZ 23

Zeppelin LZ 23, with the army designation Z VIII, was the second improved L-class Zeppelin and the eleventh airship of the Imperial German Army; the article gives its first flight as 21 February 1914. It stood unused in its hangar at Metz without gas for months and was filled only at the start of the war in August 1914, when it flew reconnaissance and disruptive flights against the marching French troops. On 21 August 1914 it was ordered, like Z VII, to scout and bomb French troops that had entered Alsace; it was hit by friendly fire on the way, dropped 160 kilograms of bombs over the enemy lines, then lost control and gas and made an emergency landing in the forest of Badonviller in French Lorraine. The article opens by saying it was shot down by anti-aircraft fire on 23 August 1914, while its history section places the loss after the order of 21 August.