Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. Zeppelin LZ 55 (Army tactical number LZ 85) was a P-class Zeppelin of the Imperial German Army in World War I. It was shot down by the old British pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Agamemnon in 1916 during the Salonika campaign.

This is a fantastic souvenir, measuring 5 ⅜ x 4¼” and molded into the shape of the Ottoman Royaltyal Arms and cipher and crescent, military trophies, flags and Turkish orders, from the era of Sultan Abdul Hamid II The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The back of the piece is inscribed with dots:

MADE ON
H.M.S. ST. GEORGE
FROM METAL OF
ZEPPELIN
BROUGHT DOWN
AT SALONICA
MAY 1916

On 5 May 1916 LZ55 made another attack on Thessaloniki (Salonika) harbour. Part way through the attack it was caught in spotlights. and all the ships in the area opened fire with their anti-aircraft guns. LZ55 continued its attack but HMS Agamemnon's 12-pounder anti-aircraft gun hit LZ 55; breaking it in half according to one of the crew. The airship crashed in the swamps at the mouth of the Vardar River west of Thessaloniki and its crew were captured. The crash site soon became a tourist attraction, with a report that "a dozen Canadian nurses. They had come up ... and waded through to it. What a sight they did look, skirts up round their waists wading through mud and slime up to their knees."

The metal structure of the Zeppelin was dragged by Allied soldiers from the swamps to the White Tower of Thessaloniki. There it was reconstructed so that Allied engineers could study how the Germans built airships.

The plate is made of aluminum and has two small screws in the back for mounting. This is a fantastic souvenir piece, ready for further research and display!