The Incredible Tale of History's Only Real Sky Pirates

Uncover the incredible and daring tale of history's only true sky pirates! In the midst of World War I, a German zeppelin commandeered a Norwegian schooner in a jaw-dropping aerial raid.

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[chartreux]

German Historian here (Working for the IFZ in Munich mostly. As much as i do enjoy a lot of Simons Content i must applaud him for posting this rather unknown Incident on the "Today I Found Out" Channel. Surprised me massively.
Simon and of course the whole Team doing the Research etc. for him do have an insane amount of Variety and as a Historian i often check Videos of his Channel and go "Nice! He's covering something lesser known compared to 99% of all the other History-related Channels!"
Now Simon and his Team only have to make a Video on the following 2 very overlooked but worth-telling Stories of these two German Personalities which both to this Day are still respected by the American and especially British Military (and their Stories taught in Military Academy):
- Felix von Luckner (aka "The Sea Devil" (german: Seeteufel)) of World War I who has also been called "The Emperors Pirate" by British Historians who because of his Actions was even praised by the British a few Years after WWI
- Günther Prien (aka "The Bull of Scapa Flow (german: Der Bulle von Scapa Flow)) of World War 2 who with his U-Boat did something so ballsy early on in WW2 against British Ships in Scapa Flow that also right after WW2 a ton of British Veterans and Historians praised him and wrote Books about him (Think Rommel but U-Boat).
Prost & Cheers from Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps and keep up the great Work

[akumabito]

Sky pirates? Hell yeah! We badly need a remake of the classic game Crimson Skies!!

[skrag]

To quote The History Guy, "Don't all good stories involve pirates?"

[ZeroDarkness-]

Sea Pirates: exist
Land Pirates: exist
Aerial Pirates: once exist

Space Pirates: in progress

[chrisbiebel]

Considering it was during a war and the ship was considered a "valid war prize" wouldn't they technically be considered "privateers" instead of pirates, or would they need official sanction to perform the actions for them to be considered privateers?

[prophetsspaceengineering]

Nice to see somebody finally picking up this story^^ It's a good one. Another fun fact about the privacy incident is that the bulk of the airship was used to block the wind behind the sailship, leaving it dead in the water. A truly bizarre interaction of vessels.
On another note, the German commanders were well aware of how ineffective those raids were. They continued anyway because they were binding considerable allied resources in the UK.

[kremepye]

I think the Houthi capture of that ship via helicopter would count as sky piracy

[ItRemindMeOfHome]

With a crew of drunken pilots
We're the only airship pirates!
We're full of hot air and we're starting to rise
We're the terror of the skies and a danger to ourselves now

[grahamariss]

Important to point out that the Zeppelin base at that time was in Germany, those islands became Danish in 1920.

[YesmynameisBob]

I watched Talespin, I know there are more flying pirates than just these guys

[Forgery_world]

Nathan zackary manning the zeppelin gypsy magic with the fortune hunters... what a game crimson skies was

[awmperry]

Not the only case - and that was a legitimate war prize.

The *real* sky pirates are the Houthi pirates who seized a car carrier, the Galaxy Leader, in November last year after boarding it by helicopter.

[jusjetz]

I wish anyone makes any Sci-fi Steampunk/Dieselpunk Genre About Sky Pirates with Airplanes and Airships like Crimson Skies or Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow. But Hollywood just won’t give it a shot.

[-zz]

There is the Airborn series, a series of novels which play in a world where airships provide for the entire air travel. There is in one book also a raid by airship pirates. When I was a teenager, I really loved these books.

[keithwalmsley]

Gives a whole new meaning to Captain Jack "Sparrow"!!! 🤣🤣🤣

[alans]

I think the record for the longest flight by a military airship is held by the US Navy when the 'Snow Bird' flew 9, 448 miles over a period of 11 days in its' double crossing of the Atlantic in 1957. The flight was non-stop and un-refueled.

[TalenGryphon]

"A crew of drunken pilots! We're the only airship pirates!"

[SergioLeonardoCornejo]

I was introduced to the concept of sky pirates by Final Fantasy XII. I'm glad to know there eas at least one single historical case irl.

[invaderraven]

As a modern day airship crewman. I approve of this

[BlazingOwnager]

Despite this entire video, nobody explained WHY they were abandoning a perfectly functional ship.