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Was The Allied Bombing Of German Cities Justified
Was The Bombing Of German Cities In World War II Justified?
Part A
The aim of this investigation is to discover whether or not it was justifiable for Britain to bomb German cities in World War Two. The main body discusses what Britain thought about the bombing and the effects that the bombing had on German cities. It also discusses what conditions the two countries were in at the time of the bombing. This information is taken then analysed and it is decided whether or not the bombing was necessary. Two of the sources that are used for an evaluation are a responsive letter written by a German named Dr. A.R. Wesserle about the bombing of German cities and a documentary titled “Bombing Germany” by the BBC.
Part B
In late World War Two Britain embarked upon an air campaign against Germany, hoping that this would finally crush the Third Reich and finally bring peace to Europe. This campaign was to involve major bombing campaigns on German industry and military installations. This operation was headed by Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris, Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Commander-in-Chief of the RAF Bomber Command from 1942 to 1945. At first the missions were a complete failure. This is because the RAF suffered heavy losses flying day missions over German controlled Europe, almost half of the bombers were either damaged or destroyed and also a majority of the bombs missed their targets and just hit unused ground. In an attempted strike on Nuremberg on the 30th March 1944, 545 RAF airmen were killed and 100 planes lost . This was more than the entire Battle Of Britain. There was no advantage in this strategy for Britain; they were just losing precious planes and men. The missions continued for a while after because major bombing campaigns were, for a majority of the war, the only way that Britain could reach Germany. They were also important for the morale of the British people because it made them think that they were fighting back.
It was Harris’s idea to switch to concentrated bombing on large targets, such as cities. He was convinced that strategic bombing on a large scale would crush both German industry and German morale and ultimately bring about the defeat of Germany from the inside out. This did not work. The more bombs dropped on Germany the higher the rate of industrial production and enlistment to the armed forces . Also, German armament production continued to rise until midway through 1944. Prime Mister Churchill and his Science advisor Dr. Lindemann calculated that, by using a force of 10,000 heavy bombers to attack and destroy the 58 largest German cities, one-third of the population of Germany would be made homeless. Included in this calculation was the assumption that at least 2.5 to 3 million people would be killed . This strategy was called “Area Bombing”. This idea was attractive to the British war cabinet because they would not have to waste precious soldiers trying to break through the [next page]