aerialbombing

The aerial bombing trials of 1923 conducted by General Billy Mitchell (USAAS), which saw the destruction of USS Virginia (BB-13) as a target ship in September 1923. Virginia, commissioned in 1906, was long obsolete and slated for sale and scrapping under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. Instead of being sold for scrap, she was eliminated from the fleet during the aforementioned bombing trials. Here is footage of Virginia being bombed and ultimately sunk (see beginning at the 10min 58sec mark): YouTube - US National Archives: Aerial Bombing of Ships (1921-1923) - (National Archives Identifier: 24624 - Local Identifier: 111-H-1119)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Virginia_(BB-13)

Thanks for all the information! We'll add information to the description.

Another Bain photo of first aerial bombing:

The East End is understandable. The West End is just to intimidate.

The later carpet bombing of German cities was a direct result of this bombing of London during the very early part of the war when Britain did not have the bombers capable of similar bombing raids in Germany. There is often a viewpoint that the later bombing of Germany should not have gone ahead, however, the allies were in danger of defeat during those early years of the WW2 and it became the survival of the fittest or be defeated. Germany was to reap the results of Hitlers indiscriminate bombing of London.

I totally LOVE this map! I naturally do not mean what it depicts, but that it demonstrates the resolve of the English. Being American, I wish Americans today were as tough as the English in those days. We have created a generation that believes everything is owed to them. They're more likely to wave a white flag today, than do something about it.

Very interesting. I now know that I was born in an area (Bromley) with either 17-32 or 33-64 bombs per sq km, that as a young adult I was in another 17-32 zone (Acton) before moving to a more densely-bombed area (Chiswick) and then the comparative safety of Hillingdon near Uxbridge. (All this was well after the war.) As for why particular areas were chosen, it's worth remembering that areas like Acton had quite a lot of industry. I believe that London Airport was near Croydon in the 1940s; perhaps it was in that high density area to the east.