I.
A siege is the sequestration of a point in space until the forces arrayed against the point force its surrender through violence and denial of resources. What is required for a siege? Dominance of the territory. Political control of the offensive forces and some level of control, usually contingent on victory, of the territories from which they come. Trained engineers, tradesmen. Money and will.
II.
Walls change the offensive calculus. Cheap and plentiful ladders lead to taller walls. Taller walls lead to catapults. Thicker walls. Trebuchets. Principles of engineering and masonry. Cannons. War is waged against verticality, and hundreds of years before powered flight the field is plowed for the sower. Vultures await the assault of the Crusaders from the tips of turrets.
III.
In 1793, the brothers Montgolfier approach the Jacobins with a balloon design to subdue the besieged and troublesome city of Toulon. Explosives might be dropped from the basket. Could they satisfactorily destroy fortifications? It does not matter. This is a new, regicidal world. Terror is a virtue, and for these purposes – they are too late. An artillery officer named Napoleon Buonaparte conquers the city. He would conquer most of Europe with maneuver. Not balloons.
IV.
From 1862 to 1863, Ferdinand von Zeppelin is attached to the Army of the Potomac as an observer. He visits Thaddeus Lowe’s short-lived Union Army Balloon corps. Later he takes a tethered balloon ride in St. Paul, Minnesota. During the Franco-Prussian War a decade later he makes a name for himself in reconnaissance. He develops a design for an air ship with a rigid frame and multiple gas sacs. His first army contract comes in 1906. But there are competitors. Powered flight is still in its infancy but promises to be far more effective.
V.
In 1914, the Luftstreitekrafte boasts over 250 aircraft of various type and 12 airships. Before the Germany army is halted at the Marne, a German pilot in a small airplane visits Paris with a cockpit full of grenades. He throws them out over a railway station and lets loose a streamer from the tail: “The German Army is at the gates of Paris. You have no choice but to surrender.” One woman is killed. Retaliatory raids are launched into Germany by the Allies. Tactical bombing missions are carried out along the front to varying degrees of success by all belligerents. Sikorsky’s “Muromets” bomber conducts close air support missions, naval raids and after-action reconnaissance to assess damage. In 1915, the Allies launch a startling bomber blow against Freiburg. Kaiser Wilhelm authorizes bombing campaigns away from the front. Over London.
VI.
The Zeppelin LZ-38 airship bombs London for the first time on May 31, 1915. Just short of two tons of high explosive. Seven people dead. Workers go absentee. The international press is ablaze. D.H. Lawrence writes, staring from the window in his London flat: ““Then we saw the Zeppelin above us, just ahead, amid a gleaming of clouds … Then there was [sic] flashes near the ground—and the shaking noise. It was like Milton—there was war in heaven.” The Zeppelin’s range and payload put it far ahead of anything else flying – for a few years. From 1915-1918, Zeppelin and Gotha raids kill 1,400 people. Allied reprisals tally just under 1,000. Civilians make up most of the dead. The question must be asked, and eventually is: can we consider the men who manufacture shells civilians? The British blockade against Germany holds fast until the Treaty of Versailles is signed and presses the question home. Somewhere between 400,000 and 750,000 German men, women and children die of starvation.
VII.
1921. Disarmament is the political watchword of the day for most, but not all. Giulio Douhet, freshly out of prison, finishes his book The Command of the Air, a treatise on those issues which he had so forcefully criticized the Italian general staff for ignoring. Its prophecies of war not between armies, but whole nations, and skies blotted out by fleets of bombers bathing cities in flame, ripple through young air officer reading circles throughout Europe. Hugh “Boom” Trenchard fights budget cuts to his newly formed Royal Air Force while managing a bombing campaign against “recalcitrant tribes” in Iraq. Squadron commander Arthur Harris experiments with rigging improvised bombing bays to Vickers Vernon passenger aircraft stationed in Mesopotamia. Billy Mitchell sinks a mothballed German battleship with six well placed 1,000 lb. bombs. In 1925 he is court-martialed for “conduct in prejudice to good order and discipline.” He had accused the Navy and the Army of treason for not sufficiently preparing the nation for the coming total air war.
Big fan of this exploration on Thanksgiving. I've found any discussion on strategic bombing that doesn't touch upon Douhet is usually hot air so I let out an audible cheer when I read his name. Excited to see more.
Might I suggest adding a subsection on or reference to the Italo-Turkish war? Always loved the image of Bedouins taking potshots at biplanes.