Aerial bombing
'The window rattled behind me: then all the windows rattled and we became conscious of the booming of guns getting nearer. 'At last the Zeppelins', Sidney said, with almost boyish glee. From the balcony we could see shrapnel bursting over the river and behind, somewhat aimlessly. In another few minutes a long sinuous airship appeared high up in the blue black sky, lit up faintly by searchlights ...
It moved slowly ... the shells bursting far below it - then there were two bursts that seemed nearly to hit it and it disappeared ... It was a gruesome reflection that while we were being pleasantly excited, men, women and children were being killed and maimed… There was apparently no panic, even in the crowded Strand. The Londoner persists in taking Zeppelin raids as an entertainment ...'Did you see the Zeppelins?' was the first question, in the most cheerful voice, which every man, woman and child asked each other for at least twenty hours afterwards ...' Beatrice Webb recorded her impressions of one on 8 October 1915
Beatrice Webb, Diaries 1912-24
'... all Londoners at least had every reason to believe they were on the front line ...'
In reaction to the Zeppelin raids of 1915-17 and Gotha bomber raids of 1917-8, some 200 posts of the Metropolitan Observation Service staffed by volunteers were established in 1916, which eventually formed the nucleus of the post-war Observer Corps in 1925.
With quasi-military jobs for civilians to do and anti-aircraft guns stationed in open spaces throughout the London Air Defence Area, all Londoners at least had every reason to believe they were on the front line as well.
The Home Front meant that by 1918, World War One had become truly a people’s war, and we should not be surprised, therefore, that the nation’s first Labour government was elected shortly afterwards, in 1924.
Published: 2005-03-14
