JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 334
Dropping bombs from flying machines had lost much of its newish noirness by 1915, even though the whole idea of the practical applications of dropping explosives on people was only four years old. That sort of high explosive newness can be shed very quickly, given the immediacy of its action. But Londoners were outraged enough in 1915 to label the bombing of populated non-military targets as murder, as the title of this full-page print screams from the 23 October 1915 issue of The Illustrated London News in our second post on the history of aerial bombing. The subtitle reads: “Like a thief in the Night: One of the Fleet of Hostile Airships Which Raided this Country on October 13 Over the London Area—Shells from Anti-Aircraft Guns Bursting About It." It continues: “lives lost and damage done without the shadow of military excuse” is how it was quietly referred to in the text, the the subtle image is anything but--it is quiet, but it is also cold, and scary, the menacing zeppelin shown floating darkly deadly above the roofs and chimney tops of residential houses. The point of the picture was crystal clear--the enemy was practicing something new, and that something new was directed at civilians, and that it could be crushing and deadly and a threat everywhere.
The Zeppelins were new to war, having been first brought to development in 1900; by the beginning of the war, in 1914, the Germans had two operational airships that could reach an altitude of about 4500 feet and carry 4400 pounds of bombs. Their first raid on England came on 31 May 1915 and within the year would kill 550 British citizens, though the costs to the Germans were so high (77 of 115 active Zeppelins would be either destroyed or damaged beyond repair by June 1917) that the air attacks would be suspended in July 1917.
Comments