German Gotha bombers would eventually terrorize London again, catalyzing the Smuts Report and the creation of the world’s first air force.

On May 25, 1917, 21 Gotha G.IV bombers attacked London and other targets in southeast England, killing scores and highlighting the island nation’s vulnerability to the fast new raiders.

IN June 1917 a squadron of German Gotha IV biplane bombers set off for London to carry out the first daylight raid on the capital of the First World War.

A plaque will be unveiled at 6.22pm, the exact minute that a German Gotha bomber dropped a 50kg bomb on to Stokes Brothers Greengrocers in Folkestone, Kent, 100 years ago.

The ‘plane was completely intact and we learned later that it was a Gotha 145, ... On the same day that Leonard Buckle took off to deliver mail so did approximately 100 German aircraft, ...