The United States and Britain were not justified in bombing cities such as Hamburg, Dresden, Berlin, Pforzheim, Darmstadt, and Kassel which were bombed in Germany with a casualty rate anywhere from 10,000 in Kassel to 42,600 in Hamburg(OME).
The USAAF and the RAF used strategic bombing in destroying what they believed to be military strong points, like industrial factories and military bases. The U.S believed that this would shorten the war by destroying all of there resources, the British however, decided on using area bombing to take out towns and cities to wipe out the civilian population working in the factories. "The USAAF in effect pursued a targeted, precision bombing policy…to the Americans it was critical that air power be used to …show more content…
Lieutenant Colonel Giulio Douhet was among the most famous military masterminds of his time, creating many concepts about fighting in the war. For example "It was the...British in particular, who would adopt the concept of using massive bomber formations offensively to deliberately target German civilians and cities. The immediate effect of this doctrine would be to cause an appalling loss of life”(WFF). Douhet was right because throughout Germany the casualty rate is that of “300,000 Germans are thought to have been killed as a result of the raids, and 800,000 were wounded(Truman).” "One week after the area bombing directive was issued, Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris was appointed as the new head of Bomber Command. Harris believed that air power could be decisive in winning modern wars, and could help to prevent the slaughter of ground forces that he had witnessed in the trenches of World War One... the process of bombing through cloud, relying on radar, was not accurate enough to hit specific targets.In October and November 1944, Harris's force dropped more than 60% of their bomb tonnage on German cities(BBC).” The population of Germany before the war in 1939 was 79.7 million people, then in 1950 is was about 50 million. This just shows how much these bombings affected Germany by their population now being so
The USAAF and the RAF used strategic bombing in destroying what they believed to be military strong points, like industrial factories and military bases. The U.S believed that this would shorten the war by destroying all of there resources, the British however, decided on using area bombing to take out towns and cities to wipe out the civilian population working in the factories. "The USAAF in effect pursued a targeted, precision bombing policy…to the Americans it was critical that air power be used to …show more content…
Lieutenant Colonel Giulio Douhet was among the most famous military masterminds of his time, creating many concepts about fighting in the war. For example "It was the...British in particular, who would adopt the concept of using massive bomber formations offensively to deliberately target German civilians and cities. The immediate effect of this doctrine would be to cause an appalling loss of life”(WFF). Douhet was right because throughout Germany the casualty rate is that of “300,000 Germans are thought to have been killed as a result of the raids, and 800,000 were wounded(Truman).” "One week after the area bombing directive was issued, Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris was appointed as the new head of Bomber Command. Harris believed that air power could be decisive in winning modern wars, and could help to prevent the slaughter of ground forces that he had witnessed in the trenches of World War One... the process of bombing through cloud, relying on radar, was not accurate enough to hit specific targets.In October and November 1944, Harris's force dropped more than 60% of their bomb tonnage on German cities(BBC).” The population of Germany before the war in 1939 was 79.7 million people, then in 1950 is was about 50 million. This just shows how much these bombings affected Germany by their population now being so