Frederick Handley Page
and his company based in Barking, Essex, produced the Handley Page
bomber in 1916. Later that year in November, the Handley Page carried
out their first large-scale bombing raids on enemy military installations
and submarine bases.
By 1918 Handley Page
had produced a four-engine bomber that could attack the industrial
zones of the Saar and the Ruhr in Germany. In the last months of
the war they began using a new giant 1,650 pound (748 kg) bomb.
When the Armistice was signed the Royal Air Force had 258 Handley
Page aircraft on active service. After the war some of these aircraft
were modified for passenger transport.
