From 1914 to 1918, The First World War raged in the four corners of the globe. It brought death and destruction on an unprecedented scale and in many new ways, dramatic at the time and psychologically gruelling in its lasting effects. This first modern conflict witnessed the beginnings of air warfare and the increasing use of cinematographic images as propaganda media.
 
London was first subjected to German bombings in 1915, initially by Zeppelins. After these airships became more and more vulnerable to British countermeasures, from 1917 the German army increasingly turned to faster, more manoeuvrable long range bomber aircraft such as the Gotha.  This new form of modern attack was the subject of this "official British film", preserved by the Imperial War Museum. The strategic bombing that was supposed to annihilate London's political and economic structure was front page news in the German press with successful attacks claimed on the very nerve centres of the island's capital:  from the Tower of London via  Westminster bridge to Saint Paul’s Cathedral, nowhere escaped the German strike force!

The First World War helped to inspire cinema by strengthening the argument that film had a particular power to convey reality: the film of the Battle of the Somme was hailed in the British press in 1916 as “the real thing at last”. In the same way, the images in this British film are announced as systematic refutations of German words and unquestionable witnesses of events.  From its first moments, the film's argument lay in refuting through images what had been written in words:  the pictures showed that there had been few victims and that the symbols of the Empire were spared.  The camera swept over the intact City providing panoramic views to contradict assertions credited to a German newspaper (whose identity it is, however, difficult to establish).  The reality of the occasionally unsteady image was guaranteed by the practically burlesque character of a policeman who carries a sign that provides proof of the circumstances of shooting.  If newspapers and posters remained the main conveyors of propaganda between 1914 and 1918, technological progress meant that radio and cinema were quickly gaining ground.

The original music for this film was composed by Xavier Bussy in 2009 and played by Eric Poirier.