To get a bomber war in WWI you have to keep the war going till 1920 and the completion of the US mobilisation.
So, lets knock Russia out of the war in March of 1917. The overthrow of the Tsar is the result of a popular revolt. The Bolsheviks aren't able to organise because their two main avenues of appeal were bread (land redistribution) and peace (ending the war).
Germany decides to offer the Russians a decent peace where they just loose their empire but don't pay reparations, etc. Poland, the Baltics, Finland and Karelia, Moldova, etc. Belarussia and the Ukraine stay part of Russia. Maybe Russia loses the 'stans to Turkey, also. The Russian population decides that this is a good idea and the government falls. How the Germans decide to do this I leave as a POD. Maybe the Kaiser dies and his successor is smarter or something. Maybe the Germans figure that after the beat the French they can go back and rewrite the treaty or something.
So the whole German army winds up on the Western Front over the summer of 1917 and does not attack because the US pulls it's thumb out and starts shipping troops over in regiments instead of waiting until they are trained up to divisional status. They aren't good enough to attack, but they are good enough to defend the trenches.
The British and French pull their troops out of the line and use them for counterattacks after the Germans manage to overrun the American front line, which conserves the experienced troops they have that can actually do stuff like that.
Germany figures out that this is not working and starts building lots of trench lines all the way back to the Rhine. They are pushed back to the Rhine over 1918, and hold it all through 1919. That's the good news. The bad news is that the US has air bases on the Rhine, they have a huge industrial advantage over Germany in engines and oil, and the logical thing is to send up bombers at night and bomb Germany back to the stone age. So they do the logical thing.
Germany killed several hundred British people with dirigibles and bombers in the early part of the war. Now they are on the receiving end a la 1944 and 1945. What happens?
Bombing campaigns rarely break the spirit of a nation but they can make that nation seriously consider just calling the whole thing off and getting some peace and quiet. If a million German civilians are dead, the idea of occupying Eastern Europe is going to seem not particularly attractive if it means that the war will go on till 1921.
So, lets knock Russia out of the war in March of 1917. The overthrow of the Tsar is the result of a popular revolt. The Bolsheviks aren't able to organise because their two main avenues of appeal were bread (land redistribution) and peace (ending the war).
Germany decides to offer the Russians a decent peace where they just loose their empire but don't pay reparations, etc. Poland, the Baltics, Finland and Karelia, Moldova, etc. Belarussia and the Ukraine stay part of Russia. Maybe Russia loses the 'stans to Turkey, also. The Russian population decides that this is a good idea and the government falls. How the Germans decide to do this I leave as a POD. Maybe the Kaiser dies and his successor is smarter or something. Maybe the Germans figure that after the beat the French they can go back and rewrite the treaty or something.
So the whole German army winds up on the Western Front over the summer of 1917 and does not attack because the US pulls it's thumb out and starts shipping troops over in regiments instead of waiting until they are trained up to divisional status. They aren't good enough to attack, but they are good enough to defend the trenches.
The British and French pull their troops out of the line and use them for counterattacks after the Germans manage to overrun the American front line, which conserves the experienced troops they have that can actually do stuff like that.
Germany figures out that this is not working and starts building lots of trench lines all the way back to the Rhine. They are pushed back to the Rhine over 1918, and hold it all through 1919. That's the good news. The bad news is that the US has air bases on the Rhine, they have a huge industrial advantage over Germany in engines and oil, and the logical thing is to send up bombers at night and bomb Germany back to the stone age. So they do the logical thing.
Germany killed several hundred British people with dirigibles and bombers in the early part of the war. Now they are on the receiving end a la 1944 and 1945. What happens?
Bombing campaigns rarely break the spirit of a nation but they can make that nation seriously consider just calling the whole thing off and getting some peace and quiet. If a million German civilians are dead, the idea of occupying Eastern Europe is going to seem not particularly attractive if it means that the war will go on till 1921.