![]() These began with small targeted raids on military bases, but by June 1944 the US was able to use B-29 long range bombers to undertake a more extensive campaign. In 1942 the Allies began air raids using conventional and incendiary bombs over Japan. Atrocities were committed across Asia, and Japan fought the allies on both the land and sea. This included the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, officially bringing the US into the war. In 1941 Japan became one of the main belligerents of the war after invading Thailand and attacking British colonies and US naval bases by the air. Japan was an axis power, allied to Germany and Italy. It has been largely remembered as terror bombing. It brought Arthur Harris into conflict with Churchill, who distanced himself from bombing. Many felt these attacks had become largely irrelevant to the outcome of the war. Dresden was largely responsible for the shift in UK attitude against this type of raid. The propaganda was effective, as it influenced the attitudes of neutral countries, but also those in Britain. Nazi Minister Joseph Goebbles wanted to use it as a pretext for the abandonment of Geneva Conventions on the Western Front, but in the end he used it for propaganda purposes. As a result thousands of bodies were found piled up in houses at the end of city blocks. All the cellars were set on fire because of the incendiary bombs, so people would run from one cellar into another. Many had taken shelter in cellars, but the thick walls in cellars had been replaced with thin partition walls that could be knocked through easily as part of air raid precautions. Not many had air raid shelters, the largest was underneath the railway station but was already filled with 6000 refugees who had fled their homes as the Soviet army had advanced. Not every raid had quite a 1000 bomber aircrafts, but they were used as a propaganda tactic to bring government and public support for these kinds of raids, as Harris believed they alone could destroy Germany’s will to fight and bring an end to the war.ĭresden was horrific by the nature in which many civilians died. Industry was completely destroyed.Harris came up with the idea of the 1000 bomber raids, where the maximum number of bomber aircraft would be used at once. Many of the civilians who died, died trying to seek shelter in bomb shelters and cellars during a firestorm caused by the bombs. 42,600 people were killed and 37,000 wounded. ![]() It was later called the Hiroshima of Germany by British officials. Codenamed Operation Gomorrah, the air raids lasted 8 days and became the heaviest assault in history of aerial warfare. ![]() Hamburg was targeted in July 1943 by RAF Bomber Command (including Polish squadrons). The city was devastated with the bombs causing thousands of fires. In May 1942 Cologne was targeted with as many available bombers Harris could mobilise. But by 1942, the Luftwaffe officially adopted a policy of the deliberate bombing of civilians. The Luftwaffe took a cautious view of strategic bombing they didn’t have a policy of terror bombing but felt strategic bombing could greatly affect the balance of power on the battlefield. The Blitz was not effective as it didn’t demoralise Britain into surrender or do much damage to the economy - war production actually increased.After the Blitz, the policy of RAF bomber command became an attempt to achieve victory through destruction of civilian will, communications and industry. 40,000 civilians died as a result of The Blitz. But civilians were either directly targeted or seen as collateral damage. Ports, industry and big cities had been targeted in an attempt to break British morale, as theories of aerial bombing thought democracies would be more vulnerable to aerial attack, breaking down morale because the public could voice their opinion and leading to a surrender. On March 14th 1941 more Nazi bombers flew over Bradford. The Lingards department store was hit on the junction of Kirkgate and Westgate in the city centre. 116 bombs hit roads and buildings between Thornton Road and eastwards to Leeds road. On the night of August 31st 1940 Bradford was bombed by the Luftwaffe.
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