Submarines were the principal threat faced by the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean Sea. Although relatively few in number, the subs had an outsized impact on Allied operations. To counter the submarine, the Royal Navy brought the ‘Submarine Scout’ airship to production in just two months and sent an ‘airship expeditionary force’ to Gallipoli in August 1915. How was the ‘silver sausage’ employed in the Aegean? Was it effective?

Bernard de Broglio is a member of the Australian Society of WW1 Aero Historians. He has a particular interest in the Aegean air war 1915–1918 and spends his spare time exploring what remains of the British, French, German and Ottoman aerodromes at the Dardanelles.