The planned 1918 torpedo strike on Wilhelmshaven

The Royal Navy prepared Sopwith Cuckoo torpedo bombers for an attack on the German High Seas Fleet inside Wilhelmshaven. The plan aimed to damage enough ships in harbor to force a strategic response with a weapon and delivery method the defenders did not yet regard as practical. Shallow water and immature aerial torpedoes made the strike technically hazardous. German anti-torpedo nets were present but poorly maintained and organized because an air-dropped harbor attack seemed implausible. That mismatch between British experimentation and German assumptions created an opportunity for what would have been the first large carrier-style torpedo strike on a fleet base.