Category Archives: Aviation history

German Bird’s Eye View of Paris, 1914

ArizonaRepublican101014

A hundred years ago today, October 10, 1914, the Arizona Republican carried this aerial photo of Paris, taken from a German aeroplane. The paper notes that the pilot and photographer, one Lieutenant Thin, had received the Iron Cross. Undoubtedly the intended audience for this photo was the French: If the Germans can take a photograph from the air, then they can drop a bomb from the air, which is exactly what they had been doing.

In other war news, the papers were reporting that Antwerp had fallen, and that the Belgian government had reconstituted itself inside France.


Bombing of Paris, 1914

ParisBombs

A hundred years ago today, German zeppelins bombed Paris, Warsaw, and other cities.  The map above, from the September 28, 1914 issue of the New York Sun, shows the locations of the Paris bombs, near the Eiffel Tower.  In Paris, three were killed by bombs, one of which landed at a spot the American ambassador had passed only minutes earlier.

In Calais, bombs were dropped but failed to explode.  And the Poles managed to shoot down the zeppelin bombing Warsaw, taking the crew prisoners.

See also:  Fall of Paris, 1940

 


French WW1 Airship

FrenchBlimpThis photo, from the August 30, 1914 issue of the New York Sun, shows a French airship and British warships guarding shipping in the English channel. The paper also reports that German troops are now only 87 miles from Paris.

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