Bombs sent by balloons

QUESTION

Was the first aerial bombardment from a dirigible?

The first aerial bombardment was a form of drone attack using balloons rather than a dirigible, a term used to describe airships such as German Zeppelins.

In 1849, the Austrian army launched 200 unmanned, bomb- carrying hot-air balloons against Venice during the First Italian War of Independence.

The Republic of Venice had been independent for more than 1,000 years before it was conquered in 1797 by Napoleon, who ceded it to Austria. In 1848, the Italian patriot Daniele Manin declared Venice a republic and the Austrians retaliated with a blockade.

As the Venetians held out despite starvation and disease, young Austrian officer Franz von Uchatius came up with an innovative plan.

Noticing that the prevailing wind blew from the sea, he invented a system of bomb-carrying paper balloons designed to drift over the city before dropping their deadly cargo. Just how the bomb was released is uncertain as none of Uchatius’s records survive.

The best guess is that a timed fuse disengaged and activated a 30lb bomb. The balloons were launched from land and the Austrian paddle steamer SMS Vulcano.

They were not a success. Though one of the charges burst in St Mark’s Square, there was little damage. After an unexpected change in wind direction drove some of the balloons back to the besiegers, their use was abandoned.

The locals found it rather amusing. One contemporary account has: ‘Applause was greatest when the balloons blew over the Austrian forces and exploded, and in such cases the Venetians added cries of “Bravo!” and “Good appetite!” ’

eventually, the Austrians brought in heavy artillery to bombard the city with more than 1,000 rounds a day, resulting in Venice’s surrender.

Paul Gillies, Wigan, Lancs. The first bombs dropped by heavier than air aircraft were during the Italo-Turkish War. They were dropped by Italian pilot

Drone war: The aerial bombardment of Venice by the Austrians in 1849 Giulio Gavotti on November 1, 1911. The same method was used in the First Balkan War in 1912, where their use was more widespread.

The first recognised bomber aircraft was the French Voisin III, but it didn’t carry out the first bombing raids of World War I.

The first bombing raid of the war by either side was by a Zeppelin, a dirigible aircraft developed by the Germans, on the night of August 5/6, 1914, when Liege in Belgium was targeted.

They had been designed as passenger aircraft by Graf (Count) Von Zeppelin at the turn of the century, but the German military saw their potential in warfare.

The first bombing raid on Britain occurred on December 24, 1914, using a seaplane. Zeppelin raids started on January 10, 1915, and the first bombs to fall on London were dropped by a Zeppelin in May 1915.

In all, 51 German bombing raids were carried out on the British mainland, dropping 5,000 bombs, killing 557 people and injuring 1,358. Though the impact of the bombing was small in comparison to what was happening on the Western Front, it created widespread alarm among the civilian population of the South-east of england.

As demonstrated by the fates of the

British R101 on October 5, 1930, and the German hindenburg on May 6, 1937, airships were soon seen as too vulnerable to fire. Air forces around the world then concentrated their efforts on the development of heavier-than-air bombers.

Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.

QUESTION When, due to cowardice, someone fails to do something they should, why are they said to have ‘bottled it’?

ThIS is an ironic reference to the old cockney slang for the bottom: a*** rhymes with glass, hence bottle and glass. When someone loses their will or is seen to be hesitant, for example, in a rugby or football tackle, or not wanting to jump off a diving board, it is said they are so scared they have ‘pooped their pants’.

Their bottom had gone, or more politely, their ‘bottle’ had gone. This is why someone is said to have ‘bottled’ it when they appear apprehensive.

An awful lot of cockney rhyming slang has slipped into daily use without us realising it.

Arthur Reeder, Newport, Isle of Wight.

QUESTION Do the railways really carry more people today than in the Twenties, Thirties and Forties?

We ARe not quite there yet, but it could happen soon. The railways peaked around World War I.

The length of national track levelled out at 20,000 miles; the highest number of rail journeys, almost 2,200 million, was in 1920; and rail freight peaked in 1924 at 2,250 million tonnes.

Between the Twenties and the eighties, the railways were in a lengthy decline. Passenger numbers underwent a sharp contraction, declining to 1,300 million passenger journeys in 1930.

Freight remained stable at 2,000 million tonnes until the Sixties when the Beeching cuts resulted in the closure of a third of the rail network and the scrapping of a third of a million freight wagons. Freight declined to just 600 million tonnes today.

The story for rail travel is different. Between 1970 and 1994, the beginning of privatisation, the railways were catering for between 720 and 750 million passenger journeys. however, since 1994, there has been a sharp year-on-year increase. By last year, passenger journeys were up to 1,800 million per year.

Andy Parks, London SW6.