From the archives | 9 October 2014

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 10 October 1914: The Germans must really be in very desperate straits if, as is alleged, they are straining every nerve to prepare a hundred Zeppelins and other aircraft to hover over London and bombard our capital from the clouds. No doubt the first appearance of the visitors will have an alarming effect on London, but it will soon be found that their efforts can only be local, and that even if St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey are damaged, and a small number of people are killed in the streets — say, one per ten thousand of the population— terror will soon turn to indignation and contempt… The only way in which a Zeppelin raid on London will affect the war will be to cause a vast rush to the recruiting stations, a rush against which the War Office will have to protect themselves by raising the standard of height to seven feet.