During World War I, the Navy's Northern Bombing Group (NBG) was one of the world's first dedicated strategic bombing programs. Despite enormous challenges, the NBG established a series of bases in France and England in 1918. Ironically, by the time the Navy was ready to commence bombing missions, the Germans had abandoned the submarine bases the NBG had been created to attack. As Geoffrey Rossano and Thomas Wildenberg reveal here, the organization's Robert Lovett would go on to become Assistant Secretary of War for Air, orchestrating bombing campaigns against Germany and Japan in World War II.