Aerial bombing of cities
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The aerial bombing of cities became a common tactic in World War II.
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World War I
The first ever aerial bombardment of civilians was on January 19, 1915, in which two German Zeppelins dropped 24 fifty-kilogram high-explosive bombs and ineffective three-kilogram incendiaries on Great Yarmouth, Sheringham, Kings Lynn, and the surrounding villages. In all, four people were killed, sixteen injured, and monetary damage was estimated at Ł7,740, although the public and media reaction were out of proportion to the death toll.
London was accidentally bombed in May, and, in July 1916, the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centres. There were 23 airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691. Gradually British air defences improved. In 1917 and 1918 there were only eleven Zeppelin raids against England, and the final raid occurred on August 5, 1918, which resulted in the death of KK Peter Strasser, commander of the German Naval Airship Department. By the end of the war, 51 raids had been undertaken, in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people and injuring 1,358. It has been argued that the raids were effective far beyond material damage in diverting and hampering wartime production, and diverting twelve squadrons and over 10,000 men to air defences.
Inter war years (1919–1938)
On April 26, 1937, the German Luftwaffe (Condor Legion) bombed the Spanish city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The Germans were attacking to support the efforts of Francisco Franco to overturn the Spanish Republican government. This act caused world-wide revulsion, but was only a taste of things to come.
World War II
Ger_Ju52_Sept.jpg
During the World War II, the bombing of cities became a normal practice of the German Luftwaffe. It usually had little military purpose and was considered mainly as a psychological warfare, in order to weaken morale of civilians. In the first stage of war, the Germans carried out bombing of most towns and cities in Poland (1939), the first of the destroyed cities being Wieluń. Later the tactics was used against Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1940. The Luftwaffe also carried out intensive bombing of cities in Britain, including London and Coventry, in a bombing campaign known in Britain as "the Blitz", from September 1940 through to May 1941.
In response, the British started night air raids on Berlin and other cities. In the final stage of the war, the United Kingdom and the United States used fire-bomb attacks on Dresden during February 13-15, 1945, creating a firestorm which together with the bombing itself killed 35,000 citizens (although Nazi propaganda figures at the time, and sometimes still quoted as correct, were as high as 250,000Template:Ref). The US bombing of Tokyo killed 83,000 citizens and the nuclear weapon attacks on Hiroshima killed 70,000 citizens and Nagasaki killed 36,000 citizens during World War II.
Aerial bombing had the practical effect of equating the citizens of a country with those who made the decision to take that country to war. However, it is clear that not all citizens of Germany were Nazis; in fact there was an active German resistance which, with the help of the Abwehr, Germany's intelligence organization, carried out several attempts on Hitler's life. Similarly in Japan, although allegiance to the emperor was strong, even within the ranks of the military there were many who strongly objected to an attack on Pearl Harbor and to war with America in general.
Is aerial bombardment state terrorism?
Some argue that these acts qualify as state terrorism. Others state that there were valid military reasons for the attacks on these particular locations. For example, Nagasaki had major naval shipyard facilities and Hiroshima had bases where tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers were quartered. Some say that there is evidence that the United States attempted to warn the civilian populations of Nagasaki and Hiroshima to evacuate the target areas, but this claim is disputed. However as it was assault by aerial bombardment on defended enemy territory, no warning needed to be given under the laws of war at that time (see lower down in this section for more details).
The minutes of the meetings of the Target Committee responsible for proposing locations for the are available. According to these minutes, it was agreed "that psychological factors in the target selection were of great importance." Later, the decision was made
- (2) To neglect location of industrial areas as pin point target, since on these three targets [Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Kyoto] such areas are small, spread on fringes of cities, and quite dispersed.
- (3) to endeavor to place first gadget in center of selected city; that is, not to allow for later 1 or 2 gadgets for complete destruction.
Both of these quotes were taken from The Decision to use the Atomic Bomb by Gar Alperovitz, 1995. These statements are of course open to varying interpretations, but they call into question the notion that the target was chosen purely for its military significance.
During World War II the British approved city busting at he highest level. Professor Lindemann was liked and trusted by Winston Churchill. Churchill appointed him the British governments leading scientific adviser with a seat in the Cabinet. In 1942 Lindemann presented a seminal paper to the Cabinet advocating the aerial bombing of German cities by carpet bombing in a strategic bombing campaign. It was accepted by the Cabinet and Arthur Harris was appointed to carry out the task. It became an important part of the total war waged against Germany. Professor Lindemann's paper put forward the theory of attacking major industrial centrers in order to deliberately destroy as many homes and houses as possible. Working class homes were to be targeted because they had a higher density and fire storms were more likely. This would displace the German workforce and reduce their ability to work. His calculations showed that the RAF Bomber Command would be able to destroy the majority of German houses located in cities quite quickly. The plan was highly controversial even before it started, but the Cabinet thought that bombing was the only option available to directly attack Germany, (as a major invasion of the continent was years away,) and the Soviets were demanding that the Western Allies do somthing to relieve the pressure on the Eastern Front.
The legal defence for this action can be found in the "Laws and Customs of War on Land "(Hague IV); October 18, 1907Template:Ref
- 25 The attack or bombardment, by whatever means, of towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings which are undefended is prohibited.
- 26 The officer in command of an attacking force must, before commencing a bombardment, except in cases of assault, do all in his power to warn the authorities.
- 27 In sieges and bombardments all necessary steps must be taken to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not being used at the time for military purposes.
It was a bombardment of defended towns because countries had air defences. It was an arial assault so no warning need be given and All necessary steps as far as possible were taken.Template:Ref Template:Ref There were a number of legal argument against this view, but unlike Karl Dönitz, who was tried and found guily of waging "unrestricted submarine warfare" for which no one in the US Pacific submarine campaign was ever tried, (which is often cited as a case of Victors justice), as no Axis personnel were tried at the post-war Nuremberg Trials for participating in the decisions on, or execution of, "assault by aerial bombardment on defended enemy territory", it is not possible to state categorically that that aerial bombardment on defended enemy territory during World War II was or was not a war crime. However the fact that there were no prosecutions, suggests that legal opinion of the time was that it was not a crime during World War II.
The Cold War
During the Cold War, the threat of destruction of cities by nuclear weapons carried on bombers or ICBMs became the main instrument of the balance of terror that kept the United States and Soviet Union from open warfare with one another. See mutual assured destruction.
Aerial bombing since World War II
The United States also bombed Hanoi with conventional weapons during the Vietnam War.
The United States has since bombed cities in other countries on a number of occasions, specifically Tripoli and Baghdad. These attacks have used "precision bombing" using smart bombs and non-nuclear cruise missiles.
During the Kosovo War, the NATO bombed the Serbian capital Belgrade, and also deliberately bombed a television station, killing 16 civilians.
The September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed 3000 people, mostly civilians, can also be viewed as a form of kamikaze aerial bombing of New York by members of al-Qaeda.
Following the this attack the US Air Force bombed cities, military bases and Taliban soldiers and Al Qaeda militants. Approximately 5000 civilians were killed.
During the US-led invasion of Iraq and the US-led occupation of Iraq, targets in Iraqi cities have been repeatedly bombed by the US air force and British RAF. During the invasion the US and Britain's stated aim was to bomb Iraqi military and government targets and attempt to assassinate Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. During the occupation their stated aim has been to target the Iraqi insurgency, whom they refer to as terrorists. Some estimates suggest that over 10,000 civilians have been killed, mostly as a result of this bombing. Template:Ref
- See strategic bombing for a more thorough treatment of this subject.
See also:
Template:RAF WWII Strategic Bombing
Notes
- Template:Note The Dresden Raids letter to the Editor (http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/i/irving.david/ftp.py?people/i/irving.david//irving-dresden-casualties-01) from The Times 1966/07/07 a correction to "The Destruction of Dresden (http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Dresden)". By David Irving Pub: William Kimber; London 1963; In this letter Irving, who had previously used figures as high as 250,000 admitted the confirmed casualty figures were actually 18,375, expected to rise to 25,000 including when those not registered in the city were taken into account.
- Template:Note Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907 (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/hague04.htm) available from the Avalon Project at Yale Law School
- Template:Note ICRC: "The Law of Air Warfare" by Francisco Javier Guisández Gómez, a colonel in the Spanish Air Force (http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList200/42F64C9A4212EA07C1256B66005C0BF1)
- Template:Note Charles Rousseau, Le droit des conflits armés, Editions Pedone, Paris, 1983
- Template:Note The terrible human cost of Bush and Blair's military adventure: (http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=489082) 10,000 civilian deaths UK and US authorities discourage counting of deaths as a result of the conflict, reports David Randall The Independent on Sunday, 8 February 2004