Aerial Bombing Of Cities Is Aerial Bombardment State Terrorism

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 in Poland ( 1939), the first of the destroyed cities being Wielun. Later the tactics was used against Rotterdam in the NetherlandsDutch redirects here. For other uses, see Dutch (disambiguation). The Netherlands ( Dutch: Nederland is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a constitutional monarchy. It is located in northwestern Europe and borders the North Sea, Belgium in 1940Events January-February January 5 FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time. January 6 World War II: Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the Poznan, Warthegau. January 12 World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland. February 2 F. The Luftwaffe also carried out intensive bombing of cities in Britain, including LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri and CoventryFor alternative meanings see: Coventry (disambiguation Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. With a population of 304,746 (2002 estimate), Coventry is the ninth largest city in England. General information Coventry h, in a bombing campaign known in Britain as " the BlitzThe Blitz a popular English contraction of the German word Blitzkrieg was the sustained and intensive bombing of Britain, particularly London, from September 7, 1940 through to May 1941 by the German Luftwaffe in World War II. Although the Blitz is named", from September 1940Events January-February January 5 FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time. January 6 World War II: Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the Poznan, Warthegau. January 12 World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland. February 2 F through to May 19411941 is also the title of a Steven Spielberg movie made in 1979 see 1941 (film). Events January January 6 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address. January 10 Lend-Lease is introduced into the United St.

In response, the British started night air raids on BerlinBerlin [ bɛrˈliːn ] is the national capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,387,404 inhabitants (as of September 2004); down from 4. 5 million before World War II. Berlin is located on the rivers Spree and Havel in the northea 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 German figures quoted at the time were as high as 135,000). 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.

1 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.

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.

2 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.

3 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 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, 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 is to target the Iraqi resistance, who they often refer to as terrorists. About 10,000 civilians were killed, mostly as a result of aerial bombardment of cities.

See strategic bombing for a more thorough treatment of this subject.

4 See also:

RAF strategic bombing in World War II

Overview Documents

RAF Bomber Command | Bomber Command | Strategic bombing | Aerial bombing of cities

Prominent People

Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris | Professor Lindemann | Wing Commander Guy Gibson

Bombing Campaigns and Operations

Battle of Berlin | Bombing of Dresden | Bombing of Hamburg | Bombing of Kassel

Aircraft and Technology

Lancaster | Halifax | Mosquito | Stirling | Wellington

Window | H2S | GEE | Oboe

Other

USAAF | Luftwaffe

Warfare

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