Of all of the aims of strategic bombing throughout the course of World War II, many of them were never reached. Several of the most well-known attempts to bomb large cities are the London Blitz, the bombing of Dresden and Hamburg among other German cities, and the fire-bombing of Tokyo, as well as the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The preliminary aim of strategic bombing was to destroy infrastructure, however this failed due to the lack of accuracy of these bombs. Aims evolved into attempts to destroy the moral of citizens, yet the insistent bombings failed to achieve this, instead sparking the opposite reaction. Other aims of strategic bombing were to speed up the end of the war and the USA’s attempts to demonstrate their power to the USSR.
The preliminary reason that countries were involved in strategic …show more content…
As Russia, then the USSR, were gaining power in Europe and preparing to take over Germany and Poland (among others), the US knew that the only way to stop their growth was to intimidate them through having superior power. Academic A.C Grayling explains that "the frisson of dread created by the thought of what atomic weaponry can do affects those who contemplate it more than those who actually suffer from it." (Japan Focus: The Forgotten Holocaust, 2007). In this case, it was the USSR who the US aimed to fill with "the frisson of dread", and thus began the development of the two atomic bombs, 'Little Boy ' and 'Fat Man ' that were dropped on Japan in 1945. Dropping these bombs, while arguable in terms of necessity for the war effort, certainly were extremely successful in intimidating the USSR. While perhaps this intimidation aim lead to the Cold War, strategic bombing most certainly succeeded in its aim to demonstrate the USA 's arms power to the
The preliminary reason that countries were involved in strategic …show more content…
As Russia, then the USSR, were gaining power in Europe and preparing to take over Germany and Poland (among others), the US knew that the only way to stop their growth was to intimidate them through having superior power. Academic A.C Grayling explains that "the frisson of dread created by the thought of what atomic weaponry can do affects those who contemplate it more than those who actually suffer from it." (Japan Focus: The Forgotten Holocaust, 2007). In this case, it was the USSR who the US aimed to fill with "the frisson of dread", and thus began the development of the two atomic bombs, 'Little Boy ' and 'Fat Man ' that were dropped on Japan in 1945. Dropping these bombs, while arguable in terms of necessity for the war effort, certainly were extremely successful in intimidating the USSR. While perhaps this intimidation aim lead to the Cold War, strategic bombing most certainly succeeded in its aim to demonstrate the USA 's arms power to the