Royal Air Force Bomber Units 1939-42

One mouth after the war between Italy and Turkey broke out in October 1911, Lieutenant Cavotti of the Italian Air Fleet dropped four modified 4^-lb Swedish manufactured hand-grenades on Turkish troop concentrations. This comparatively minor event, which was followed by similar aerial attacks during the opening days of November, heralded the birth of strategic bombing. As a result of this activity the Turks protested that the Italian fliers had bombed a military hospital at Ain Zara. The Italian reply was that the same target - which was in fact a collection of tents which may or may not have been used to accommodate wounded troops - had already suffered bombardment from their warships without any form of protest. So, within a few days of the earliest known use of the aeroplane as a bomber, the illogical argument that high explosive shells delivered by artillery were acceptable where­as similar destruction from the air was immoral, was aired for the first time. It was an argument that would be discussed on many occasions, and one that was destined never to produce a satisfactory answer.