Zeppelins
Before the Great War, Britons were largely unaffected by war, but this was to change at the beginning of 1915. The Forces were deadlocked on the Western Front, so the Germans decided to use their Zeppelin airships, which could carry up to two tonnes of bombs, to spread fear and panic, and break morale, by targeting British towns and cities.
The first raid took place in King’s Lynn and Great Yarmouth. Residents recalled hearing an eerie throbbing sound followed by the sound of explosions. No one had ever experienced anything like it. The Zeppelins came out of the dark, there was no warning and suddenly people were dealing with bombs raining from the sky. It must have been terrifying.
However reports from the time suggest that there was not the sort of chaos and panic the Germans had been aiming for. Papers reported that, time and time again, people reacted stoically and got on with the job of clearing up.
With the British spirit as strong as ever, the Zeppelins aimed for London. Bombs and incendiaries rained down but there was no way to defend the city against this new terror. Gradually, though, defences were brought in that proved deadly for the bombers. Explosive bullets that set fire to the hydrogen that filled the Zeppelins proved to be their undoing.
But the vulnerability of civilians to airborne attacks changed forever how wars would be waged, and led to the formation of the Royal Air Force in 1918.