Tondern raid

The Tondern raid or Operation F.7, was a British bombing raid mounted by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force against the Imperial German Navy airship base at Tønder, Denmark, then a part of Germany. The airships were used for the strategic bombing of Britain. It was the first attack in history by aircraft from an aircraft carrier. On 19 July 1918, seven Sopwith Camels took off from the converted battlecruiser . For the loss of one man and several aircraft, the British destroyed Zeppelins L 54, L 60 and a captive balloon. In March 1918 the battlecruiser joined the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow, flying the flag of the Rear Admiral Commanding Aircraft, Richard Phillimore. Furious had been converted for use as an aircraft carrier during her construction, with a flight deck forward of her main superstructure. During 1917 the carrier had been equipped with Sopwith Camel 2F.1a, naval variant of the Sopwith Camel. These partially replaced the Sopwith 11⁄2 Strutter. In late 1917 a second flight deck was fitted aft, landing on which proved "almost as hazardous as ditching in the sea". Until such need arose she was dispatched on reconnaissance missions off the Heligoland Bight, searching for minefields and looking for evidence of counter-mining by the Germans. While Britain, Japan, and Russia had all performed ship-based air raids as early as 1914, these were performed by seaplanes lowered into the water using cranes. The Furious, by contrast, was designed to launch its aircraft directly with an onboard catapult. An attack on the bases of the Naval Airship Division of the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) was allegedly suggested to Rear Admiral Phillimore by his Royal Air Force staff officer Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Clark-Hall and one of his pilots, Squadron Commander Richard Bell-Davies, VC. Clark-Hall received Phillimore's approval and that of the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, Admiral David Beatty. It was originally planned to use 11⁄2 Strutters in an attack but these were too valuable for reconnaissance and Sopwith Camels were substituted, whose range meant an attack on the airship base at Tønder.