The author's uncle, George Albert Hyde was killed on 13 June 1917, aged five, when his Primary School was bombed. This led to a deep interest in the German air raids on England, and the writing of this book. It is a good study of what was effectively two waves of attacks - first by airships, which were neither accurate nor very successful, and then by the big Gotha bombers, which were much more dangerous. Indeed, if the War had continued longer, the even bigger R-Planes might have made a huge impact on events. 

Hyde starts with an overview of the political and military situation during the first two years of the War, which is of the 'Churchill good, Haig bad' type, and then gives a detailed account of the events of these two momentous years, concentrating understandably on the bombing of his uncle's school, and leaves us with a fair assessment of the strategic value, or otherwise, of the raids. The civilian population were frightened, but output did not diminish; houses, shops and schools were destroyed, but warehouses full of military supplies were largely missed; front line squadrons were withdrawn from the Western Front to protect the capital, but not for very long. Quite quickly, Home Defence became an issue, and was dealt with. Some interesting facts emerge - for example, the Gothas were dangerously badly assembled from inferior materials due to the stringency of the Allied blockade of Germany. And that the tips of their propeller blades revolved at 30,000 feet per second, making a very loud and distinctive noise. I would have liked more photographs, but there is a good index and a helpful map, even if it shows some RNAS/RFC airfields behind the German lines! Nevertheless, this is a good read, and gives an unbiased account of events of some importance.