Strategic Targeting

The second major characteristic of a total war is that the conventional boundaries of war are ignored. In particular this focuses on the targeting of enemy non-combatants in order to break the will of the enemy. The clearest example of this characteristic being demonstrated by the British Empire can be seen in the utilization of strategic bombings. Strategic bombings were conducted by all of the major combatants during the war. These bombings were carried out deep within enemy territory. Their role as stated by Tilford was, “the purpose of striking at the enemy’s industrial, political and moral centers of gravity.” This goal is important in characterizing strategic bombing as an element of total war for a few reasons. First, targeting these centers …show more content…
The second noteworthy facet of the quote from Tilford is that these centers of gravity were generally located within population centers. An industrial center needs laborers and political and moral centers will be built near the people they are targeted towards. This location becomes problematic when one considers the lack of accuracy for aerial munitions during the First World War. During this war aerial munitions were generally unguided bombs dropped from high in the air using the most basic of optical targeting. The bombers would often be lucky to be able to see their target let alone accurately hit it with munitions. This means that a large portion of these strategic bombings landed on non-targeted, civilian structures. This fact was clearly understood by the British command. According to Tilford’s piece Sir Hugh Trenchard, commander of the Independent Air Force, described the bombings to the British Air Minister Lord Weir by stating, “All the pilots drop their eggs into the center of town generally.” This statement was made after Weir had assured Trenchard that he need not worry about the accuracy of the