Gotha

Gotha: The generic term for the big German bombing aeroplanes which made raids over London. From the name of the "Gotha Wagen Fabrik," at Gotha, in Germany, the place of manufacture. The Germans got the model from a giant British Handley Page Bombing Machine of exceptional design, with an 80 feet wing span, the first of its kind. Sent across from England the pilot by mistake landed in the enemy's lines with his machine intact, and the raiding Gothas were copied from it. That is the popular story, on which, since the war, some doubt has been thrown. A monument, representing a model Gotha machine, stands in the town of Gotha to commemorate the bombings of London.