Flight Number GZII 8

This was a propaganda flight to Reichenberg, in support of a plebiscite regarding the German annexation of the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia under the Munich Agreement of 1938. The flight carried in excess of 105,000 pieces of mail, all of which was dropped from the airship over Reichenberg on December 2nd. When the airship arrived over Reichenberg, it also dropped large quantities of propaganda leaflets in four different designs, with each produced in four different colors.

There are two main varieties of the red flight cachet, which depicts the airship in flight over the mountains of the Sudetenland. The hand stamp for the first type was made of resin. The zeppelin in that variety has a pointed nose. The second type (shown here) was applied with a rubber stamp that produced better impressions and an image of a zeppelin with a more rounded nose.

Mail received a machine cancel upon its arrival in Reichenberg. The most common date for the cancel is December 2nd. A small number are known with December 3rd arrival cancels, and there is also an error cancel dated October 2nd.

Flight route: Frankfurt - Hammelburg - Eger - Teplitz - Reichenberg - Gablonz - Nixdorf - Leitmeritz - Haida - Regensburg - Augsburg - Pfaffenhofen - Branau - Linz - Landau - Passau - Obernzell - Hohentisch - Bereichstein - Furth - Karlsbad - Ellbingen - Seusse - Bamberg - Hammelburg - Frankfurt