The First Aerial Bombing Raid

On November 1, 1911, during the Italo-Turkish War in Libya, the Italian aviator Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti carried out what is generally regarded as the first aerial bombing in history. Flying a Bleriot XI monoplane over Ottoman positions, he dropped several small grenade-type bombs by hand onto Turkish troops below.

The bombs were tiny and the damage they caused was negligible, but the significance of the act far outweighed its physical effect. For the first time, a heavier-than-air aircraft had been used to deliver an offensive weapon against an enemy on the ground, opening a new and ominous dimension of warfare.

The Italo-Turkish War saw several aviation firsts as Italy experimented with the new technology, including reconnaissance and crude bombing. Gavotti's flight pointed directly toward the strategic bombing campaigns that would devastate cities in the world wars to come, making it a landmark, if grim, moment in aviation history.