The archive photo of one the way Germans assisted Turkey during WWI. The vast empty spaces that comprised the Ottoman Empire made the aircraft an invaluable reconnaissance tool. This aircraft has been transported to Turkey along the famous Berlin to Bagdad railway and is being unloaded for reassembly. Germany thus gave Turkey the power to tie down hundreds of thousands of Allied troops.

The archive photo of the other end of the conflict and the other side. A French Farman MF11 early bomber returning from a raid over Smyrna to it base on the Island of Chios, 16 March 1916. The bomb loads of these aircraft were tiny and accuracy haphazard, but they had a great psychological effect on both sides.

Bombing of Constantinople by the British April 1916 (La Tribuna Illustrata, 30 April 7 May, 1916) - ‘The first air raid on Istanbul came on 12 April 1916, when two British aircrafts departing from Imbros dropped a total of 11 firebombs on the munitions plant in Zeytinburnu and on the aircraft hangars in Yesilköy, as well as propaganda leaflets on the city itself. It was a small squadron, with limited armament capacity and apparently its aim was not inflict damage on the city, but to give the message that Istanbul was not untouchable’.