The Flatpack Bombers
The Royal Navy and the Zeppelin Menace
Gardiner, Ian
In 1908, H.G. Wells wrote his science fiction thriller The War in tbe Air in which a fleet of Zeppelin airships crossed the Atlantic and devastated New York. When war broke out with Germany in 1914, many people in Britain feared that London would be laid waste by German airships as soon as the Kaiser gave the order. Zeppelins also meant that the British Navy could do nothing in the North Sea without the risk of being spotted. This 'menace', which no aircraft could match, spurred the British government into creating the Royal Flying Corps. It also led Winston Churchill and the Royal Navy to set about bombing these airships on the ground in 1914. Thus it was that the Royal Naval Air Service, with IKEA-style flatpack aeroplanes, pioneered Strategie bombing which led to the Blitz and the massive raids on Germany and Japan in the Second World War. Moreover, the Royal Navy extended its striking range by developing the first aircraft carriers in order to destroy Zeppelins in their bases many miles from the sea.
This is the extraordinary story of those first bombing raids. It describes the technical innovations that made them possible, the thrilling exploits of the pilots, and the courage and endurance of their adversaries, the German Zeppelin crews. It also explains why the British nightmare never came about.
Every bomber raid, and every aircraft carrier strike Operation, owes its genesis to those early naval flyers, and there are ghosts from 1914 which still haunt us today.
Softcover
163 Seiten / pages
photos
excellent condition, new book
Barnsley, England - 2014 - Pen & Sword Aviation
Art.Nr. 21548
