Bombs were first dropped on Britain during World War I, when Germany sent zeppelins against London and other cities, killing hundreds. Britain launched its own raids in return. The British public were said to have coped relatively well with this novel threat. As U.S. Army War College historian Tami Biddle writes, they were angered by the lack of defences, though not necessarily in a state of panic. There were some civil disturbances, and people attacked shops owned, or thought to be owned, by Germans. Still, a view crystallized in the British establishment that bombing could undermine the home front, and even prompt civilians to call for surrender.
It is tempting, as coalition forces continue attacks on the Islamic State, to see air power as a panacea that can deliver an irremediable blow. This was a common view of aerial bombardment in Britain and the U.S. when it began in earnest in the early 20th century and during World War II. In fact, military experts had ambitions for bombing that were on the order of the fantastical, and that had taken shape in the context of colonial misadventures and the publication of apocalyptic writings. It was thought that bombing would smash the spirit of civilians. “What civil or military authority could keep order, public services functioning, and production going under such a threat?” asked a notable military theorist, Giulio Douhet. Today, though, the limits of bombing have been revealed, as if upon waking from a fever-dream.