"In the early years of the First World War, London had been subjected to sustained bombing attacks from German Zeppelins, but by late 1916 improvements in British aircraft technology had put paid to the threat they offered. The German air force took up the assault and, over the course of 1917, threatened to engulf London in firestorms - a portrait of the London Blitz and the Battle of Britain over twenty years later." "First Blitz is told in two parts, each detailing the events of a single week: The first part tells the story of the first London Blitz - six raids by German bombers in eight nights in 1917. Part two focuses on the events of August 1918 and the countdown to the incendiary raids that would have destroyed much of London and Paris had they not been called off at the very last minute."--Jacket.