The first use of an air-dropped bomb (actually four hand grenades specially manufactured by the Italian naval arsenal) was carried out by Italian Second Lieutenant
Giulio Gavotti on 1 November 1911 during the
Italo-Turkish War in Libya – although his plane was not designed for the task of bombing, and his improvised attacks on Ottoman positions had little impact. These
picric acid-filled steel spheres were nicknamed "ballerinas" from the fluttering fabric ribbons attached. Turks carried out the first anti-airplane operation in history during the
Italo-Turkish War. Although lacking anti-aircraft weapons, they were the first to shoot down an airplane by rifle fire. The first aircraft to crash in a war was the one of Lieutenant Piero Manzini, shot down on 25 August 1912.
Early bombers , 1918 On 16 October 1912, Bulgarian observer
Prodan Tarakchiev dropped two of those bombs on the
Turkish railway station of Karağaç (near the besieged
Edirne) from an
Albatros F.2 aircraft piloted by
Radul Milkov, during the
First Balkan War. This is deemed to be the first use of an aircraft as a bomber. The first heavier-than-air aircraft purposely designed for bombing were the
Italian Caproni Ca 30 and
British Bristol T.B.8, both of 1913. The Bristol T.B.8 was an early
British single
engined biplane built by the
Bristol Aeroplane Company. They were fitted with a prismatic
Bombsight in the front
cockpit and a cylindrical bomb carrier in the lower forward fuselage capable of carrying twelve bombs, which could be dropped singly or as a salvo as required. The aircraft was purchased for use both by the
Royal Naval Air Service and the
Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and three T.B.8s, that were being displayed in
Paris during December 1913 fitted with bombing equipment, were sent to France following the outbreak of war. Under the command of
Charles Rumney Samson, a bombing attack on
German gun batteries at
Middelkerke,
Belgium was executed on 25 November 1914. The dirigible, or airship, was developed in the early 20th century. Early airships were prone to disaster, but slowly the airship became more dependable, with a more rigid structure and stronger skin. Prior to the outbreak of war,
Zeppelins, a larger and more streamlined form of
airship designed by German Count
Ferdinand von Zeppelin, were outfitted to carry bombs to attack targets at long range. These were the first long range, strategic bombers. Although the German air arm was strong, with a total of 123 airships by the end of the war, they were vulnerable to attack and engine failure, as well as navigational issues. German airships inflicted little damage on all 51 raids, with 557 Britons killed and 1,358 injured. The German Navy lost 53 of its 73 airships, and the German Army lost 26 of its 50 ships. The
Caproni Ca 30 was built by
Gianni Caproni in
Italy. It was a twin-boom
biplane with three
Gnome rotary engines and first flew in October
1914. Test flights revealed power to be insufficient and the engine layout unworkable, and Caproni soon adopted a more conventional approach installing three
Fiat A.10s. The improved design was bought by the
Italian Army and it was delivered in quantity from August
1915. While mainly used as a
trainer, Avro 504s were also briefly used as bombers at the start of the
First World War by the
Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) when they were used for raids on the German airship sheds.
Strategic bombing Bombing raids and interdiction operations were mainly carried out by French and British forces during the War as the
German air arm was forced to concentrate its resources on a defensive strategy. Notably, bombing campaigns formed a part of the British offensive at the
Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915, with
Royal Flying Corps squadrons attacking German railway stations in an attempt to hinder the logistical supply of the
German army. The early, improvised attempts at bombing that characterized the early part of the war slowly gave way to a more organized and systematic approach to strategic and tactical bombing, pioneered by various air power strategists of the
Entente, especially Major
Hugh Trenchard; he was the first to advocate that there should be "... sustained [strategic bombing] attacks with a view to interrupting the enemy's railway communications ... in conjunction with the main operations of the Allied Armies." The B-21 would be capable of loitering near target areas for extended periods of time. ==Other uses==