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FIRST BLITZ
The Secret German Plan to Firebomb London in 1918
‘Fliege nach England,
England wird abgebrannt’
Fly to England,
England shall be burned down.
German children’s song
‘In comparison, the fire of Rome would have seemed a miniscule, match-box affair.’
Diary of Major Wilhelm Siegert
‘If I were asked what event of the last year has been of most significance to the future of humanity, I should reply that it is not the Russian Revolution, nor even the stern intervention of the United States in a sacred cause, but the appearance of a single German aeroplane flying at high noon over London last November.’
Lovat Fraser, The Times, 1917
Published on 26 May 2008, Neil Hanson’s new book, First Blitz, is the never-before-told story of the German plan to raze London to the ground in 1918.
A world away from the killing fields of France was a battle that could have changed the face of history. In the early years of World War One, London had been subjected to sustained bombing attacks from German Zeppelins, but by late 1916 improvements in British aircraft technology had put paid to the threat they offered.
Undeterred, the German airforce took up the assault and over the course of 1917, threatened to engulf London in firestorms - a portent of the London Blitz and the Battle of Britain over twenty years later. Their determination to bring London to its knees was fuelled by a growing ability to do so.
In less than four years, the Luftwaffe’s England Squadron had moved from crude, canvas and wire light aircraft to four engined giants as big as anything that flew in the Second World War. The First Blitz took place over eight nights in 1917 but it was the second wave of attacks in the summer of 1918, following the development of the ‘Elektron’ incendiary bomb, that came within an ace of obliterating London. The margin between the survival of the world’s greatest capital city and its total destruction came down to less than one hour.
The events and decisions taken in the course of those fateful days were as important as anything that happened on the Western Front. With breathtaking insight, compelling drama and great narrative clarity, Neil Hanson tells the story of the air war that could have altered the course of the conflict and with it, the history of the Twentieth Century itself…
Neil Hanson is the author of four other acclaimed works of narrative history: The Custom of the Sea, The Dreadful Judgement, The Confident Hope of a Miracle and The Unknown Soldier. He lives in Yorkshire with his family.
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