The Defence of London 1915–1918

1924, third edition of Rawlinson's account of the Zeppelin and Gotha raids on London

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Printing Details

Third edition. Hardback bound in the original red cloth with printed titling to spine and upper board. 19 × 12.5cm, xiii + 267pp.

A first-hand account of the chaotic and pioneering efforts to protect the British capital from the world’s first sustained strategic bombing campaigns. Rawlinson, a naval officer tasked with organizing London’s anti-aircraft (AA) measures, provides a narrative that is part military history and part personal memoir. It begins in 1915 with the Zeppelin raids in London, at which point the city was almost entirely undefended, and the emergency of naval guns on lorries and searchlights, through to the Gotha raids and the overhaul of "London Air Defence Area" (LADA). Illustrated with nine pages of photographs and a folding map of London's gun stations, observation posts and searchlights.

Condition

This copy in very good condition for age. There is some light spotted foxing but the red cloth is clean and all illustrations are present. Interesting inscription to the ffep, "To the R.E.'s Officers, from Scout Regd Bonner, June 1943".