Plan B Forum

German strategic bombing during World War I

The best-known German strategic bombing campaign during World War I was the campaign against England, although strategic bombing raids were carried out or attempted on other fronts. The main campaign against England started in January 1915 using airships. From then until the end of World War I the German Navy and Army Air Services mounted over 50 bombing raids on the United Kingdom.

These were generally referred to as "Zeppelin raids": although both Zeppelin and Schütte-Lanz airships were used, the Zeppelin company was much better known and was responsible for producing the majority of the airships used. Weather conditions and night flying conditions made airship navigation and therefore bombing accuracy difficult. Bombs were often dropped miles off target (one raid on London actually bombed Hull) and accurate targeting of military installations was impossible. The civilian casualties made the Zeppelins an object of hatred, and they were widely dubbed “baby-killers”. With the development of effective defensive measures the airship raids became increasingly hazardous, and in 1917 the airships were largely replaced by aeroplanes.

Although the direct military effect of the raids was small, they caused widespread alarm, leading to the diversion of substantial resources from the Western Front and some disruption to industrial production. Concern about the conduct of defence against the raids, the responsibility for which was divided between the Admiralty and the Army, led to a parliamentary inquiry under Jan Smuts, whose report was to lead to the creation of the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 1 April 1918. The defence organisation developed by the British was an important precursor of the fighter direction system that would prove vital in winning the Battle of Britain.[1] The raids were also influential because they led to an overestimation of both the material and psychological effects of the bombing of cities.[2]

Airships made about 51 bombing raids on England during the war. These killed 557 and injured another 1,358 people. More than 5,000 bombs were dropped on towns across Britain, causing £1.5 million in damage. 84 airships took part, of which 30 were lost, either shot down or lost in accidents.[3] Aeroplanes carried out 27 raids, dropping 246,774 lb (111,935 kg) of bombs for the loss of 62 aircraft, resulting in 835 deaths, 1972 injured and £1,418,272 of material damage.




Kagohl 3 received the first Gotha G.IV aircraft in March, and on 25 May 1917 the squadron mounted its first attack, sending 23 Gothas to bomb London. Two were forced to turn back over the North Sea due to mechanical difficulties, and cloud over London caused the remaining bombers to divert to secondary targets at the Channel port of Folkestone and the nearby Army camp at Shorncliffe. The raid resulted in 95 deaths and 195 injuries, mostly in Folkestone. In Shorncliffe, 18 soldiers (16 Canadian and two British) were killed and 90 were wounded.[50] Nine Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) Sopwith Pups engaged the returning bombers near the Belgian coast, shooting one down.[51]

A second attack on 5 June 1917 was diverted to Sheerness in Kent but a third attack on 13 June resulted in the first daylight raid on London, causing 162 deaths and 432 injuries. Among the dead were 16 children killed by a bomb falling on a primary school in Poplar.[52] This was the deadliest air raid of the war. No Gothas were lost. In 1938, Air Commodore Lionel Charlton described the raid as "the beginning of a new epoch in the history of warfare."[53]

News of the raid was received enthusiastically in Germany, and Brandenburg was summoned to Berlin to be awarded the Pour le Mérite, Germany's highest military honour. On taking off for the return journey, the engine of his aircraft failed. Brandenburg was severely injured, and his pilot, Oberleutnant Freiherr von Trotha, was killed.[54]

The reason for the relatively large numbers of casualties seems to have been ignorance as to the threat posed by aerial bombardment of a city in daylight. Lt. Charles Chabot, a Royal Flying Corps (RFC) pilot on leave recorded that: "...Raids hadn't become a very serious thing and everybody crowded out into the street to watch. They didn't take cover or dodge."