mankind’s destiny now hung on flying machines. Of these there were only a few thousand on the planet. The propeller war-planes of 1940 were modestly destructive, compared to aircraft men have built since. But they could shoot each other down, and unopposed, they could set fire to cities far behind battle lines. Massive bombing of cities from the air had, for some years after the First World War, been considered war’s ultimate and unthinkable horror.
It’s strange we hear so much of the horrors of trench warfare and chemical warfare in WWI but the war in the air is glossed over.
