ABSTRACT
The most intense form of air panic took place when British cities were actually under aerial bombardment. Attacks on London, the political and also, significantly, the press and publishing capital of the nation, were particularly liable to induce press-mediated scares about the ability of modern society to withstand the strain of modern warfare. The most important air panic during the First World War in fact took place in June and July 1917, after the danger from Zeppelins had largely passed. The new threat came from formations of German aeroplanes operating from bases in Belgium in daylight, large multi-engine bombers called Gothas. The most contentious question was whether or not to bomb German cities in reprisal for the attacks on British civilians, usually in reference to air raids but also sometimes U-boat attacks. Their specific content varied over time, deviating from the knock-out blow theory significantly only in the Edwardian period before the concept had been developed.
