BATTLE OF BRITAIN 1917

The first heavy bomber raids on England. The early use of strategic bombing is a fascinating yet little-examined aspect of the First World War In detailing the German raids' planning and execution and the British attempts to counter them, this riveting study considers the first Blitz on Britain from both sides' perspectives. In Autumn 1918 the Germans began equipping with the Gotha twin-engined bomber. Four Gotha squadrons were established in Belgium, and carried out their first bombing raid in May 1917. This twenty-two aircraft sorties against Folkestone caused 95 deaths. In June, eighteen Gothas attacked London in broad daylight, killing 162 people. Over ninety British fighters met them, but not one Gotha was brought down. From mid-September the even larger Zeppelin-Straaken Riesenflugzeug or "Giant" bomber, with an 800 kilometre range, joined the Gothas. While the Gotha/Giant night raids continued throughout 1917, the British began successfully intercepting them in December. Anti-aircraft fire and the increased use of barrage balloons also thwarted the bombers, with an eighty-kilometre-long line of barrage balloons surrounding London by the war's end.