Thread: The Bombing raids of WW2

The Bombing raids of WW2

bombing raids of World War Two

Some interesting reading here for some of the large raids of ww2.




The Germans bombed London. The next day the RAF retaliated and bombed Berlin. And so began the "indiscriminate" bombing of cities that would continue throughout the war.

In 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued a secret memorandum to his Chiefs of Staff, ordering "an absolutely devastating, exterminating attack by very heavy bombers upon the Nazi homeland."

The same year, at the Berlin Sports Palace, Fuhrer Adolph Hitler shrieked, "We will raze their cities to the ground. One of us will break, and it will not be National Socialist Germany."
In late 1942, Churchill appointed Arthur Harris Air Vice Marshall, head of Bomber Command, and charged him with carrying out the government's threat. Like the prime minister, Harris was convinced the air force could win the war; American Air Force commanders agreed. But army chiefs argued that, ultimately, only great land battles would defeat the Nazis, and so, they began preparations for an invasion of Normandy. Until the spring of 1944, these two strategies would wage war side by side, each convinced of its own logic.

Lacking accurate radio navigation equipment and flight radar, the British and Canadian bombers could only "precision" bomb in daylight. But without long' range fighter escorts to protect them during day missions, they raided by night, dropping explosives from high altitudes on industrial areas, hoping to hit something-anything-of importance. This was "indiscriminate" or "area" bombing. If they missed, well, they'd make a mess and at least destroy German morale.

In a secret memo, October, 1942, Air Marshall Sir Charles Portal framed Bomber Command's new policy: "I suppose it is clear that the new aiming points are to be the built-up areas, not for instance, the dockyards or aircraft factories."


bomber tactics the Blitz
bombing of Coventry
bombing in the Bristol area
Combined Bomber (CBO)
Bomber Command
the Dambusters
bombing of Hamburg
1000 bomber raids
bombing of Dresden
bombing of Nuremberg
the Schweinfurt raids
Enigma
German Night Fighters
the Pathfinders
Soviet bombing raids
Pearl Harbour
the Doolittle raid
the B-17 and B-29
fire bombing raids on Japan
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

Ploesti

Ploesti: Kuroki Dinner Photos