In his 1908 novel War in the Air, H G Wells vividly described German airships destroying buildings and bridges in faraway New York. Yet, in the early part of the 20th century, the real threat posed by aerial warfare seemed less menacing than the literary one. Despite alarmist warnings in newspapers such as the Daily Mail, there was little belief in British government or military circles that air attacks on civilians would soon become an integral part of modern warfare.

The outbreak of the First World War quickly altered such perceptions. Just three weeks into the conflict, a German Zeppelin dropped several bombs on the Belgian city of Antwerp, killing six citizens in their homes.

First flown in 1900, these giant airships were a huge source of patriotic pride in Germany, while foreign observers feared them as harbingers of destruction. A French cartoon from the early months of the war depicted Kaiser Wilhelm II riding through the air on a Zeppelin in the company of the Angel of Death.

In early 1915 the Kaiser sanctioned an air campaign against strategic targets in Britain that included military bases and ammunitions dumps but excluded royal palaces and residential areas. On 19 January, two Zeppelins attacked the eastern coastal towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn, killing four civilians but causing little significant damage. A further seven people were killed in the first Zeppelin attack on London on 31 May. Costlier raids on the capital took place later in the year. On the night of 13/14 October 1915, for example, five Zeppelins accounted for the lives of 71 Londoners.

Although German airship attacks on England continued throughout the war, their limitations quickly became apparent. Despite their long-range bombing capabilities, Zeppelins were vulnerable to poor weather and made enticingly large targets for British fighter pilots and anti-aircraft gunners.

From the spring of 1917, the German military authorities increasingly turned their attention to long-range bombers such as the Gotha aeroplane. The daylight attack on London by 20 Gothas on 13 June 1917 killed 162 civilians, the highest death toll from a single air raid on Britain during the war. Less than a month later, on 7 July, a further raid in which 57 more people were killed raised British anti-German sentiments to fever pitch.

The government offered some guidance via information leaflets and posters about what to do during an air raid and how to differentiate between British and German aircraft. Reassurance was intermittently provided by the success of British fighter pilots in downing German airships and aeroplanes and by the development of an air defence system that included anti-aircraft artillery and the erection of barrage balloons over London.

Nonetheless, false alarms about air attacks were common. Stories appeared in the press about German planes that dropped not only bombs but also poisoned foodstuffs. The psychological impact of the air raids extended far beyond the property damage and loss of life.

Britain was not the only country to face an aerial onslaught during the First World War. Gotha planes attacked Paris, too. Although Berlin was too distant, British and French aviators bombed many other German cities. In the Ruhr and the Rhineland, the industrial heartland of western Germany, such places as Saarbrücken suffered heavy bombardments in 1918. As in Britain, civilian morale in Germany was severely shaken by these attacks.

Nevertheless, air raids provided an unprecedented means of striking at resources vital to the enemy's war effort. Many of the novel features of the war in the air between 1914 and 1918 - the lighting restrictions and blackouts, the air raid warnings and the improvised shelters - became central aspects of the Second World War less than 30 years later.