bigpigeon.us webpage World Wars > WW II - Strategic Bombing, updated by RAC 25 Aug '20.
Before World War II, strategic bombing advocates theorized that a small number of large aircraft attacking distant targets could effectively alter warfare.
Strategic bombing was practiced on a large scale by English and American air forces against numerous targets in continental Europe and, starting in 1944, by the United States against the cities of Japan. However, factors such as massive antiaircraft fire forced conventional bombers to fly so high that accuracy with traditional dumb bombs was not possible. As WW II progressed, the strategic bombing concept of bombing a specified target with a few planes gradually shifted to that of bombing an area with hundreds of aircraft.
As practiced during World War II, tens of thousands of air crew members died in strategic bombing, along with some millions of civilians in the areas under attack.
Sources for the WW II - Strategic Bombing webpage:
Before World War II, strategic bombing advocates theorized that a small number of large aircraft attacking distant targets could effectively alter warfare.
Strategic bombing was practiced on a large scale by English and American air forces against numerous targets in continental Europe and, starting in 1944, by the United States against the cities of Japan. However, factors such as massive antiaircraft fire forced conventional bombers to fly so high that accuracy with traditional dumb bombs was not possible. As WW II progressed, the strategic bombing concept of bombing a specified target with a few planes gradually shifted to that of bombing an area with hundreds of aircraft.
As practiced during World War II, tens of thousands of air crew members died in strategic bombing, along with some millions of civilians in the areas under attack.
Sources for the WW II - Strategic Bombing webpage:
- The webpage header image Four B-24s in Formation is courtesy of wikimedia.org. Twenty five men from my roster of Pottawattamie County WW II Dead flew to their deaths in B-24s.