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One of the notable observations from World War I is the number of advances made during the War by one side or another. Advances menbing increased lethlty included poson gas and machine gun firing mechanisms to allow firing through propellers, importnt because it mean the pilot could better im. And in addition to the innovations, was the rate at which those advances could be replicated by the other side. There is a long list of these developments. Many of these developments were at first made by the Germans who somewhow failed to realize the rapidity which they could be replicated by the Allies who had a greater industrial capacity and thus the capability to produce armaments in larger quantities. Thus the Germans again were not thinking about the consequences when they began bombing civilians, first with Zepplins and then with the new Gotha bombers. Britain formed the Royal Air Force as a indepdent service (April 1, 1918). Prime Minister David Lloyd George promised to repay the Germans for its air raids 'with compound interest'. [Tilford, pp. 15-16.] The Allies did not begin building Zepplins, but they did begin building bombers. Had not the Germans not surrendered (Novembr 1918), German civilians woukd have experienced the horrors of strategic bombing that the Germans had initited. The Allies were building a massive fleet of strategic bombers and crriued out small scale raids (1918). The Germans built 205 Gotha bombers. The British built 600 Handley Page bombers and only stopped because the Germans surrendered. The United Srates has begun building the Handley Page bombers. These bombers would hve been turned on the Germans in large numbers during 1919 had the Germans not surrendered (November 1918). (While this did not occur in World War I, it would occur in World War II on massive scale unimagined World War I.)
Tilford, Jr., Earl H. "Air Warfare: Strategic Bombing" The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1996).
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