When was an aeroplane first used to drop bombs?

[Adorno]

I read an interesting account from WWI of the first time major Alex Anderson experienced an air raid.
The British had besieged Kut al-Amara (south of Bagdad) when in the middle of February 1916 a fokker aeroplane circled the town.

"Everyone were interested because it was clearly a fast plane."
"It turned south of the town and when it was headed North-West you could see it dropping something, briefly reflecting the sun
- more specifically one could see four items being dropped ..."

Up until then aeroplanes had only been used for reconnaissance.
But does anyone know when an aeroplane was first used for air raids? Was it even during WWI?

 

[Vovolov]

I was interested so I did a quick google at work. You've probably found this yourself already, but:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomber#The_first_bombers

In 1912, during the First Balkan War, Bulgarian Air Force pilot Christo Toprakchiev suggested the use of aircraft to drop "bombs" (called grenades in the Bulgarian army at this time) on Turkish positions. Captain Simeon Petrov developed the idea and created several prototypes by adapting different types of grenades and increasing their payload.

On 16 October 1912, observer Prodan Tarakchiev dropped two of those bombs on the Turkish railway station of Karağaç (near the besieged Edirne) from an Albatros F.2 aircraft piloted by Radul Milkov, for the first time in this campaign. This is deemed to be the first use of an aircraft as a bomber.

 

[Adorno]

Interesting. How come it took so long (at least 5-6 years) to become widely used?
When a major and all his troops in 1916 had never witnessed an air raid it can't have been common.

Although the drops were described as very inaccurate. When aeropanes were used to drop supplies to besieged troops (again in Kut)
they complained how the supplies ended up in enemy (trenches) territory, or into the river 

 

[Captured Joe]

Yes, it seems the first use of actual bombs (rather than (hand-)grenades, which were first used by the Italian airplanes in 1911) took place during the First Balkan War. Most sources credit the Bulgarians, although I remember something being written about the Greeks first using those devices.

 

[BenKenobi]

Venice was bombed in 1849 by hot air balloons. But it was more akin to sending mines down a river than an actual aircraft bombing.

 

[Wellenbrecher]

Interesting. How come it took so long (at least 5-6 years) to become widely used?
When a major and all his troops in 1916 had never witnessed an air raid it can't have been common.

It was a completely new category of tactics and strategy.
Using them as scouts and even having those aerial scouts fight others aerial scouts fits perfectly well within existing schemes and idea. Incorporating new stuff...
Just consider how long it took them to realise that sending a mass of soldiers into a no-man's-land filled with barbed wire and machine guns on the other side might not be the best idea in the book.

Also technical limitations of course.
You'd have to have an aircraft that can carry any amount of bombs of a worthwhile size to begin with. Or rather the capabilities to build such a craft.

 

[Adorno]

I was actually thinking about the stalemate on the Western front.
It happened early in the war. Air raids might have been useful to break enemy lines.
The bombs used at the siege of Kut (by Fokker planes) were up to 100 pounds.
But again, they were not very accurate and would require countless raids along the trenches hoping to hit artillery/machine gun positions.

 

[Jhessail]

Hand grenades were dropped from scouting planes occasionally. But the development of the air arm was fairly slow in all countries. Not just because decision makers were hidebound traditionalists (though that did happen) but also because of severe technical limitations. In 1914, if pilots even met each other (rare), they pretty much had to use a revolver to shoot at each other. The war loosened purse strings and hastened development work. Scouting and artillery spotting were natural extensions from the hot balloons used in the 19th century, and were well performed by even the earliest planes. Strafing or bombing required much more work to be efficient.

Luftstreitkräfte was founded in 1910 but deployed armed planes only in the summer of 1915 and those were prototypes Fokker M.5K/MG, all five of them. So for about 10 months, the Germans had had exactly zero planes with guns. Royal Air Corps was founded in 1912 and in 1914 had one balloon and four aeroplane squadrons - all of which were used for recon and spotting, though they didn't even have wireless sets until spring of 1915, though their planes were armed. Aviation Militaire was founded in 1909 and boasted 132 machines by 1914 but also concentrated on recon and artillery spotting, largely in unarmed Farman MF.2 planes. But at least the Froggies were the first to realize the importance of fighters and started building purpose-built Morane Saulnier machines in late 1914.

 

[Mylae]

Yes, it seems the first use of actual bombs (rather than (hand-)grenades, which were first used by the Italian airplanes in 1911) took place during the First Balkan War. Most sources credit the Bulgarians, although I remember something being written about the Greeks first using those devices.

It was actually the 1911 Italian-Ottoman war on Lybia.
a nice article here http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-13294524 in which you all can realize that it was all new considering that the first military plane in Italy was built in 1909, and US made attempt in 1908 of dropping dummy bombs but I do not think there were open statements on this.

 

[Captured Joe]

Those weren't really aircraft bombs but more like hand-grenades (Italians called those bombo a mano too).

 

[Adorno]

It was actually the 1911 Italian-Ottoman war on Lybia.
a nice article here http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-13294524 in which you all can realize that it was all new considering that the first military plane in Italy was built in 1909, and US made attempt in 1908 of dropping dummy bombs but I do not think there were open statements on this.

Interesting personal account from. Exactly what I was looking for. 
Gavotti is "pleased to be the first person to do it", but has no other reflections.
He describes in detail how he does it, but not a word on ballistics - how he intends to hit the target - other than dropping the bomb and hoping it hits.