Bombing Germany

• 1939

  RAF Bomber Command -> 23 operational bomber squadrons with 280 aircrafts

  Strictly military targets at first

  Early raids against warships, airfields done in daylight - bomber aircrafts were an easy target - losses heavy

  Bombers flew at night - dropped propaganda leaflets
• 1 September 1939

  Franklin Roosevelt issues an appeal to confine all air raids to military targets

  French, British agreed

  British policy- to restrict bombing to military targets+ infrastructure

  Germany would cause civilian casualties

  British government renounced deliberate bombing of civilian property as a military tactic.- abandoned this at end of Phoney War
• May 1940

  Rotterdam was bombed by German 10-14 May

  711 people died

  85000 people left homeless and capital destroyed

  Hitler invaded France- RAF began night time bombing campaign against German industry

  Impractical - failed to identify individual factories
• 10-11 May 1940

  37 RAF Bombers attacked Munchen-Gladbach industrial target - led to 4 deaths

  Geman response: The Blitz
• 1941

  Bomber Command grew in strength - navigation over blacked out Europe

  Battle of the Atlantic - major effort needed against German warships and U-boats

  German night fighters and anti air craft guns were becoming effective

  Heavy losses- slump in morale
• 1942

  New leader: Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris

  War Cabinet sanctioned area bombing -> targeting wide cities to destroy both factories and workers

  Judged necessary to defeat enemy

  Sent 1000 bombers against Cologne : 30 May

  1500 tonnes of bombs dropped in 90 mins

  45000 left homeless

  469 killed
• 12 August 1942

  Meeting Churchill and Stalin

  PM said: hope to shatter 20 German cities

  Already shattered: Cologne , Lubeck , Dusseldorf
• 1943

  New tactics + technology- precise targets

  Elite Pathfinder Force guided bombers using coloured marker flares

  Major attacks on Germany's industrial heart in Ruhr Valley

  Hamburg devastated

  US 8th Air Force joined RAF
• 1944

  Combined Allied bomber force began to overwhelm German

  Successful offensive launched against German fuel supplies

  Bombers supported D-Day

  Harris continued city attacks
• 1945

  Operation Thunderclap : target Berlin - inflict many casualties

  Project never put into action

  General Laurence Kuter against British Air Ministry plan to bomb large+small cities

  RAF had 108 squadrons with 1500 aircrafts

  4851 tons of bombs dropped on Dresden , Pforzheim , Dortmund

  • > Controversy
• 13-15 February

  Killed 900000 in 18 months

  Destroyed homes

  Caused humanitarian crisis

  Harris given the name ' The Butcher '