August 25, 1918: four men climbed into their Handley-Page 0/400 bombers for another night raid designed to demoralize the Germans and destroy their industrial might, specifically Mannheim’s Badische poison gas factory. What began as another routine bombing mission toward the end of the war really had its beginnings almost four years before.

In December 1914, the British Admiralty desperately wanted a plane capable of making Channel crossings with a heavy load of bombs; that is, a plane with two engines, two crew, six 112-pound bombs, and a maximum speed of 72 mph. Frederick Handley Page, one of England’s foremost designers, presented his biplane specifications to the Admiralty’s Air Department. Impressed, the Director asked for more, “Give me a bloody paralyser of an aeroplane.” The result was the Handley-Page 0/100—the first strategic bomber in aerial warfare history.

The Handley-Page first saw action in November 1916. In the beginning, only one would go out per night, but one 0/100, carrying sixteen 112-pound bombs and three men, could do as much damage as six de Havilland D.H.4 bombers with 12 men. Strategic bombing raids by the Handley-Page were minor disturbances when compared to similar missions of World War II, but they brought the war to the enemy. And they established the Handley-Page bomber as the “bloody paralyser” of World War I.