The main ideas presented in Major Problems in the History of World War II: Chapter 4 revolve around the analysis of the use of strategic bombing and its effects on the war. Documents presented in this chapter focus on the importance of naval and air warfare as well as the most effective way to defeat Germany as presented by allied leaders. Historians Richard Overy and Michael S. Sherry provide their analyses of the importance of airpower in the war and how it affected all parties involved in the war. Overy discusses the importance of naval and air power and how strategic bombings were able to shape the outcome of the war, while Sherry talks more about the destruction caused by the bombings during the war was directly linked to fanaticism that
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Overy states that the bombings were vital to reducing German production and decreasing German morale in hopes of ending the war in a more timely manner. He states that "to understand what bombing has achieved it is necessary, though agonizingly difficult, to lay aside the moral issue. Its strategic merits or limitations are distinct from its ethical implications, however closely they have become entwined in the contemporary debate."147 This sentiment is reiterated in Document #3 Major Problems in the History of World War II: Chapter 4. A mother of a bomber pilot is concerned that her son 's sole job in the war will be to spread death and destruction. The letter is curtailed through a reply that justifies the necessary evils of the technology at the disposal of the Americans. American leaders believed that the ends justified the means and Sherry examines this sentiment by indicating that the use of strategic bombings was seen as a necessary evil to ensure survival and success. He equates this necessity for victory as "validating any means of means of destruction that vaguely promised to secure it, since political authority defined the path to victory as lying so substantially through production and technology."152 Sherry asserts that the Allied powers would do whatever it took to win the war even if it included bombings that were not strategically important and that was derived from technological fanaticism while Overy claims that everything done in the war effort was for the greater good of the world. These distinctions are evident with the Allied powers "overkill" approach to end the war with the bombings of the Dresden and the Japanese cities. They believed destruction would suit their
Overy states that the bombings were vital to reducing German production and decreasing German morale in hopes of ending the war in a more timely manner. He states that "to understand what bombing has achieved it is necessary, though agonizingly difficult, to lay aside the moral issue. Its strategic merits or limitations are distinct from its ethical implications, however closely they have become entwined in the contemporary debate."147 This sentiment is reiterated in Document #3 Major Problems in the History of World War II: Chapter 4. A mother of a bomber pilot is concerned that her son 's sole job in the war will be to spread death and destruction. The letter is curtailed through a reply that justifies the necessary evils of the technology at the disposal of the Americans. American leaders believed that the ends justified the means and Sherry examines this sentiment by indicating that the use of strategic bombings was seen as a necessary evil to ensure survival and success. He equates this necessity for victory as "validating any means of means of destruction that vaguely promised to secure it, since political authority defined the path to victory as lying so substantially through production and technology."152 Sherry asserts that the Allied powers would do whatever it took to win the war even if it included bombings that were not strategically important and that was derived from technological fanaticism while Overy claims that everything done in the war effort was for the greater good of the world. These distinctions are evident with the Allied powers "overkill" approach to end the war with the bombings of the Dresden and the Japanese cities. They believed destruction would suit their