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- Thread starter Nilgiri
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ΣΑΝ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ - 22 Αυγούστου 1849: Πρώτη επίθεση από τον ουρανό! - Military History
Λαμβάνει χώρα η πρώτη εναέρια επιδρομή στην ιστορία, όταν η Αυστρία εξαπολύει σμήνη μικρών μη επανδρωμένων αεροστάτων κατά της πολιορκούμενης Βενετίας. Η Βενετία ήταν μια ακμαία, αυτόνομη Δημοκρατία μέχρι το 1797, που ο Ναπολέων την κατέλαβε και την κατέλυσε. Μετά τον πόλεμο ενσωματώθηκε στην...
military-history.gr
LIKE TODAY – August 22, 1849: First attack from the sky!
The first air raid in history takes place when Austria launches swarms of small unmanned balloons against besieged Venice.
Venice was a thriving, autonomous Republic until 1797, when Napoleon conquered and destroyed it. After the war, it was incorporated into Austria. When in 1848, a year of great revolutions and upheavals in Europe, it threw off the Austrian yoke, the Austrian army of Marshal Radetzky besieged the city.
Its powerful coastal artillery and the marshy lakes that surrounded it, however, prevented the Austrian troops from getting close enough. A young artillery lieutenant, Franz von Uchatius, had the idea of launching hot air balloons filled with incendiary devices with 10-13 kilograms of gunpowder against it. After an unsuccessful attempt in July, when the wind turned against them, the Austrian balloons flew 1,500 meters above the city in August.
Most of them were blown up in the air and fell into the water, while little damage was done to Venice, which surrendered a few days later after starvation and deprivation. However, von Uchatius's invention is recorded as the first official air raid.
He worked on other ideas, such as the discovery of high-strength metal alloys and the creation of smokeless powder, and after the end of the war he completed the kinetoscope, a device for displaying moving images. He had worked on this during the war to give training lectures on ballistics to young officers.
