Strategic bombing is designed to destroy a country's ability to wage war by bombing from the air the enemy's infrastructure, such as factories, railways, and refineries, so essential for the production and supply of war materials. The strategy was, of course, heavily employed by the Luftwaffe, RAF Bomber Command and the USAAF during WW2, but the original concept was introduced by the Royal Navy in WW1. It was agreed that the Royal Flying Corps would concentrate on reconnaissance of the Western Front whilst the nascent Royal Naval Air Service would focus on home defence, defence of the dockyards and attacks behind enemy lines on railway yards and Zeppelin factories.
One such raid was that of November 1914 on the Zeppelin factories in Friedrichshafen when a flight of the RNAS left France to cross Lake Constance. It was the first attack of the war on German soil. Unfortunately, the raid was only a partial success, but others were to follow.
I describe this raid and other developments in naval aviation in my 5* historical thriller, The Wings of the Wind.
