The fire on the oasis of Ghariunes

Illustrated London News, 31 August 1912, 20

This must be one of the first ever photographs ever taken of an air raid, simply because it was one of the first ever air raids, during the Italian invasion of Ottoman Tripolitania of 1911-12. It appeared in the Illustrated London News on 31 August 1912 with the following caption:

PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE DIRIGIBLE WHICH CAUSED IT BY DROPPING BOMBS: THE FIRE ON THE OASIS OF GHARIUNES

The 'fire' is presumably the white smoke in the centre of the photograph. (In fact I've posted posted a version of this image before, but this one is clearer and earlier.) A short article below explains further:

At the time of the Battle of March 12 [1912] near Benghazi, two Italian dirigibles made a flight from Tripoli beyond Zanzur and over the Turkish encampment at Zavia. When at a height of 1500 metres, they dropped twenty-five bombs on to the enemy's camp, causing great loss of life and confusion.


A second image taken on the same sortie is less clear but seems to be from a greater height (or lower magnification):

Illustrated London News, 31 August 1912, 20

PHOTOGRAPHED DURING THE ACTION FROM ONE OF THE ITALIAN DIRIGIBLES WHICH DROPPED BOMBS ON TO THE TURKS FROM A HEIGHT OF 1500 METRES (ABOUT 4880 FT.) (1) THE OASIS OF THE TWO PALMS; AND (2) THE 'DEATH HOLES.'

Both are credited to 'Lieutenant Benigni of the Italian Army'.

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://airminded.org/copyright/.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *