The First Air Bombing: The History of the Drones in Venice

Описание: The First Air Bombing: The History of the Drones in Venice

The war in Ukraine has shown that the rules of the game have changed. The drones have come to dominate the battlefield, even those that are commercial and recreational can carry out precision attacks. This phenomenon, surprisingly, has its roots in an event that occurred more than 175 years ago, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire carried out the first bombing with unmanned vehicles in history against the city of Venice.

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In the 19th century, Italy was not a unified country, but a collection of fragmented kingdoms. During the liberal revolutions of 1848, several of these kingdoms rebelled against the control of the Austrian Empire. Venice, for its part, was proclaimed as the ‘Republic of St. Mark’, a symbol of resistance that the Empire could not ignore.

Under the command of Marshal Radetzky, the Austro-Hungarian Empire besieged the city of Venice. However, the city had natural defenses thanks to its canals, which complicated any conventional attack. Diseases and famine threatened the population, but the urgency of the Empire to regain control was evident.

Faced with the difficulty of besieging the city, an innovative idea emerged: bombarding it using hot air balloons. This proposal, although unusual, was presented by artillery lieutenant Franz von Uchatius, who became a pioneer of the air war.

Von Uchatius devised a plan to launch 200 balloons from the ground and from Vulcan SMS, the first aircraft carrier in history. Each balloon was loaded with 15 kilos of explosives and a detonation system that included continuous combustion fuses, making it a type of drone for the time.

On July 12, 1849, the deployment of these Austro-Hungarian drones began, marking a milestone in the history of the war. However, the result was not expected by the attacking forces, as the balloons did not have a precise guiding system.

The balloons-bombers, driven by the wind, turned out to be very imprecise. Few bombs impacted the city, and the changes in the air currents ended up causing damage to the Austro-Hungarian forces themselves. In this sense, the attack was a military failure.

Despite its inefficiency, the Venetian population could not feel relieved. The possibility of being attacked from the sky by explosive balloons created a new concern among citizens. Although the city capitulated for other reasons, this new type of threat contributed to the climate of anguish.

This first attempt at drone strikes laid the foundations for future developments in the war, including the use of new technologies in later conflicts such as World War I. Although balloons with explosives are not common today, their legacy persists.

The history of hot air balloons with dangerous loads continues, and have been used even in modern conflicts, such as smuggling between North and South Korea. This shows that innovative ideas, though failed, can have a lasting impact on war and security.