The Hindenburg over Cleethorpes June 1936.

An original, real photographic postcard published by Hardy’s Photographers, Cleethorpes.

The photograph was taken in the afternoon of Tuesday 30th June 1930. The German airship ‘Hindenburg’ was heading up the River Humber towards Yorkshire. It was a surprise visit to England from its base in Friedrichshafen and was not one of its trips to North or South America. The visit may have had a more sinister purpose; to observe the industrial heartlands of Northern England.

The ‘Hindenberg’ first flew in March 1936 until she was destroyed by fire 14 months later on May 6, 1937 while attempting to land at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester Township, New Jersey, at the end of the first North American transatlantic journey of her second season of service. Thirty-six lives were lost.