Strategic bombing theory and the bomb-supply problem

German planners considered airship raids near London as a way to cause panic and undermine the population's willingness to continue a war. The theory anticipated later claims that bombing a city at sufficient scale could break an entire state. Civilians can prove resilient, and governments can create active defenses and other forms of mitigation. The attackers also need an industrial system capable of manufacturing ammunition on an enormous scale. A thousand-bomber raid depends on a fleet of serviceable aircraft and tens of thousands of bombs for repeated missions. The logistical burden helps explain why a dramatic strategic theory could remain far more difficult to realize than its advocates expected.