View source for Strategic bombing during World War II

{{Short description|Airborne warfare throughout World War II}}
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{{Full citations needed |date=November 2024}}
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{{Use Oxford spelling |date=November 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates |date= May 2019}}
{{For|a list of notable strategic bombings in the European Theater of World War II|List of air operations during the Battle of Europe}}
{{Further information|Air warfare of World War II}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Strategic bombing during World War II
| partof            = [[World War II]]
| image             = The Sandman a B-24 Liberator, piloted by Robert Sternfels.jpg
| image_size        = 300px
| caption           = A B-24 on a bomb run over the Astra Romana refinery in [[Ploiești]], Romania, during [[Operation Tidal Wave]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Duga |first1=James |last2=Stewart |first2= Carroll |title=Ploesti |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KV8Ma-VA6fIC&pg=RA1-PA180|isbn=978-1-57488-510-1 |year=2002 |publisher=Brassey's}}</ref>
| place             = [[European Theatre of World War II]]<br />[[Pacific Theatre of World War II]]
| result            = 
| combatant1        = '''[[Allies of World War II|Allied Powers]]'''<br />{{flag|United Kingdom}}<br />{{flag|United States|1912}}<br />{{flag|Canada|1921}}<br />{{flag|Australia}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Dominion of New Zealand}}<br />{{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}<br />{{flag|French Third Republic|name=FTR}} (1939–1940)<br />{{flag|Free France}} (1940–1944)<br />{{flag|Provisional Government of the French Republic|name=PGFR}} (1944–1945)<br />{{flagcountry|Second Polish Republic|name=SPR}} (1939)<br />{{flagcountry|Polish government-in-exile|name=Poland}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Czechoslovakia}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Republic of China (1912–1949)}}
| combatant2        = '''[[Axis powers]]'''<br />{{Flagcountry|Nazi Germany}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Empire of Japan}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Kingdom of Romania}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Slovak Republic (1939–1945)}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Kingdom of Bulgaria}}<br />{{Flagcountry|Finland}}
| commander1        = {{Flagicon|UK}} [[Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford|Charles Portal]]<br />{{Flagicon|UK}} [[Richard Peirse]]<br />{{Flagicon|UK}} [[Arthur Harris]]<br />{{Flagicon|UK}} [[Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder|Arthur Tedder]]<br />{{Flagicon|US|1912}} [[Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold|Henry Arnold]]<br />{{Flagicon|US|1912}} [[Carl Spaatz]]<br />{{Flagicon|US|1912}} [[Curtis LeMay]]<br />{{Flagicon|Canada|1921}} [[Clifford McEwen]]<br />{{Flagicon|Australia}} [[George Jones (RAAF officer)|George Jones]]<br />{{Flagicon|Soviet Union|1936}} [[Alexander Novikov]]<br />{{Flagicon|Soviet Union|1936}} [[Sergei Khudyakov]]<br />{{Flagicon|Soviet Union|1936}} [[Alexander Golovanov]]
| commander2        = {{Flagicon|Nazi Germany}} [[Hermann Göring]]<br />{{Flagicon|Nazi Germany}} [[Albert Kesselring]]<br />{{nowrap|{{Flagicon|Nazi Germany}} [[Wolfram von Richthofen]]}}<br />{{Flagicon|Nazi Germany}} [[Hugo Sperrle]]<br />{{Flagicon|Empire of Japan}} [[Naruhiko Higashikuni]]<br />{{Flagicon|Empire of Japan}} [[Hajime Sugiyama]]<br />{{Flagicon|Empire of Japan}} [[Masakazu Kawabe]]<br />{{Flagicon|Empire of Japan}} [[Chūichi Nagumo]]<br />{{Flagicon|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)}} [[Francesco Pricolo]]<br />{{Flagicon|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)}} [[Rino Corso Fougier]]<br />{{Flagicon|Fascist Italy (1922–1943)}} [[Ettore Muti]]<br />{{Flagicon|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}} [[Ternegg Kálmán|Kálmán Ternegg]]<br />{{Flagicon|Kingdom of Romania}} {{ill|Gheorghe Jienescu|ro}}<br />{{Flagicon|Finland}} [[Jarl Lundqvist]]
| strength1         = 
| strength2         = 
| casualties1       = '''Total: 749,940–1,305,029 dead{{Bulletedlist|248,664 military dead}}'''<hr>
'''Britain:'''
* 60,000 civilians killed<ref name=White/>
* 160,000 airmen (all Allies, Europe)<ref>{{Cite book|editor= Peter Hore |year= 2003 |first= Paul |last= Crook |title= Patrick Blackett: Sailor, Scientist, and Socialist |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7146-5317-4 |chapter=Chapter 10 "The case against Area Bombing" |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5jW14KVeYU0C&pg=RA1-PA167 |page=176}}</ref><ref>Corvisier, André (1994). ''A Dictionary of Military History and the Art of War'', Blackwell Publishing, {{ISBN|0-631-16848-6}}. "Germany, air battle (1942–45)" by P. Facon and Stephen J. Harris [https://books.google.com/books?id=nEQ7FUAdmc8C&pg=PA312 p. 312]</ref>
'''China:'''
* 260,000–351,000 Chinese civilians<ref>Lind, Jennifer M. (2010). "''[https://books.google.com/books?id=H3usRiqVp-MC Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics]''". Cornell University Press. p. 28. {{ISBN|0-8014-7628-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=China's Bloody Century: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 |first=R.J. |last=Rummel |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |date=31 August 2007}}</ref>
* At least 682 aircrew from both the regular air force ([[Development of Chinese Nationalist air force (1937–1945)|RoCAF]]) and crew members from [[List of aircraft used in China before 1937|warlord air forces]] KIA<ref>徐 (Xú), 2016, pp. 1-13. </ref> 
'''France:'''
* 67,000 civilians killed from US-UK bombing<ref name=France/>
* Half of the 2,500 French crewmen of the British RAF bomber command perished <ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.normandywarguide.com/place/memorial-to-french-bomber-crews| title= Memorial to French Bomber Crews}}</ref>
'''Netherlands:'''
* 1,250–1,350 killed (army and civilians) between 10–15 May 1940<ref name=voorouder/><ref name=niod/>
* 10,000 Dutch civilians killed by air bombings from Allied Forces alone after 15 May 1940<ref name=niod/>
'''Poland:'''
* 50,000 civilians in the 1939 campaign (including artillery bombardment and ground fighting).<ref>The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era, 1933 to 1945." Reproduced with permission in [https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/people/USHMMPOL.HTM A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust].</ref> 2,500 – 7,000 civilians killed by bombing in Warsaw in 1939.<ref>Richard Overy, ''The Bombing War. Europe 1939-1945'', Penguin Books, PDF edition, p. 79: "The claims that between 20,000 and 40,000 died is certainly an exaggeration, for fatalities on this scale would have required a firestorm on the scale of Hamburg in 1943 or Dresden in 1945, and of that there is no evidence, nor was the German Air Force at that stage capable of creating one. Current estimates suggest around 7,000 dead, on the assumption that casualty rates per ton of bombs might have equalled the Dresden raid, but a casualty rate equivalent to the Blitz on London would mean around 2,500 deaths on the basis of the limited tonnage dropped."</ref>
* 2416 airmen of bombing squadrons (Polish Airforce in the West)<ref>{{cite web | url= https://kurierhistoryczny.pl/artykul/dywizjony-bombowe-w-polskich-silach-zbrojnych-na-zachodzie,170 | title= Dywizjony bombowe w Polskich Siłach Zbrojnych na Zachodzie | access-date= 5 September 2019 | archive-date= 6 October 2021 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211006050617/https://kurierhistoryczny.pl/artykul/dywizjony-bombowe-w-polskich-silach-zbrojnych-na-zachodzie,170 | url-status= dead }}</ref>
'''Soviet Union:'''
* 51,526 – 500,000 Soviet civilians{{efn|British historian Richard Overy considers the 500,000 order of magnitude, claimed after the war in Soviet publications, to be "a rhetorical statistic, to demonstrate the level of sacrifice of the Soviet people and the wickedness of the German enemy". The figure "bears no relation to the detailed wartime documentary evidence". A much lower figure (51,526) is borne out by such evidence and "is much more consistent with the nature of the German bombing effort and the declining capability of the German bomber force as it struggled to sustain support for the ground war with dwindling resources",<ref>Overy ''The Bombing War. Europe 1939-1945'', Penguin Books, PDF edition, p. 228</ref>}}<ref name=Hawley/>
* 2,700 airmen (Japan)<ref>Kerr (1991), p. 276</ref>
'''United States:'''
* 79,265 airmen/personnel (Europe)<ref name="ussbsurvey" />
* Over 3,033 airmen (Japan)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kerr |first=E. Bartlett |url=http://archive.org/details/flamesovertokyou00kerr |title=Flames over Tokyo : the U.S. Army Air Force's incendiary campaign against Japan, 1944-1945 |date=1991 |publisher=New York : D.I. Fine |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-55611-301-7 |pages=276}}</ref>
'''Yugoslavia:'''
* [[Operation Retribution (1941)|1,500 – 17,000 civilians in Belgrade]]
| casualties2       = '''Total: 790,509–1,693,374+ dead'''<hr>
'''Germany:'''
* 353,000–635,000 civilians killed, including foreign workers<ref name=White/><ref name=Germany/>{{efn|The 353,000 estimate is from Richard Overy, who explains this figure as follows:<ref>''The Bombing War. Europe 1939-1945'', Penguin Books, PDF edition, pp. 458-459)</ref> "If it is assumed that the figure of 271,000 dead by January 1945 is a realistic, if not precise, total (and there are archive figures which suggest a lower sum), it is possible to extrapolate from the last five months of heavy raiding for which records exist (September 1944 to January 1945) in order to find a possible order of magnitude for deaths in the last three months of the war. The average death toll for these five months was 18,777, which would give an aggregate figure for the whole war period of 328,000, though it would not allow for the exceptional casualty level at Dresden, confirmed by the latest research at approximately 25,000. Adding this would produce a total figure of approximately 353,000, representing 82,000 deaths in the last months. Detailed reconstruction of deaths caused by Royal Air Force bombing from February to May 1945, though incomplete, suggests a total of at least 57,000. If casualties inflicted by the American air forces are assumed to be lower, since their bombing was less clearly aimed at cities, an overall death toll of 82,000 is again statistically realistic. In the absence of unambiguous statistical evidence, the figure of 353,000 gives an approximate scale consistent with the evidence. It is a little over half the figure of 625,000 arrived at in the 1950s."}}
* Very heavy damage to infrastructure
'''Japan:'''
* 330,000–500,000 civilians killed<ref>Matthew White ''[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Allies Twentieth Century Atlas – Death Tolls: Allies bombing of Japan]'' lists the following totals and sources
* 330,000: 1945 US Strategic Bombing Survey;
* 363,000: (not including post-war radiation sickness); [[John Keegan]] ''The Second World War'' (1989);
* 374,000: [[R. J. Rummel]], including 337,000 [[Democide|democidal]];
* 435,000: [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]] ''Modern Times'' (1983)
* 500,000: (Harper Collins Atlas of the Second World War)</ref>
* 20,000 soldiers killed<br />(in [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|Hiroshima]])
* Very heavy damage to industry
'''Italy:'''
* 60,000–100,000 civilians killed<ref name="Marco Gioannini p. 491">Marco Gioannini, Giulio Massobrio, ''Bombardate l'Italia. Storia della guerra di distruzione aerea 1940–1945'', p. 491</ref>
* 5,000 soldiers killed<ref name="Marco Gioannini p. 491"/>
* Heavy damage to industry
'''Hungary:'''
* 19,135–30,000 killed and 25,000 wounded{{sfn|Pataky|Rozsos|Sárhidai|1993|p=235}}{{sfn|Ungváry|2004|p=476}}
* Heavy damage to industry{{sfn|Pataky|Rozsos|Sárhidai|1993|pp=229–232}}
'''Romania:'''
* 7,693 civilians killed and 7,809 wounded<ref name="Axworthy"/>
* Destruction and heavy damage to infrastructure and oil refineries<ref>{{cite book|last=Zaloga |first=Steven J. |author-link=Steven J. Zaloga |title=Ploesti 1943: The great raid on Hitler's Romanian oil refineries |publisher=Osprey Publishing |place=Oxford |date=2019 |isbn=9781472831965 |page=90}}</ref>
''' [[Bombing of Sofia in World War II|Bulgaria]]:'''
* 1,374 dead and 1,743 injured<ref name=kiradzhiev>{{cite book |last= Kiradzhiev |first= Svetlin| title= Sofia 125 Years Capital 1879–2004 Chronicle |year=2006 |publisher=IK Gutenberg |location=Sofia |language=bg |isbn=954-617-011-9 |page=196 }}</ref><br />12,564 buildings damaged, of which 2,670 completely destroyed<ref name=kiradzhiev/>
''' [[Bombing of Bangkok in World War II|Thailand]]:'''
* At least 2,000 dead<ref>E. Bruce Reynolds, "Aftermath of Alliance: The Wartime Legacy in Thai-Japanese Relations", ''Journal of Southeast Asian Studies'', v21, n1, March 1990, pp. 66–87.</ref>
''' [[Bombing of Bratislava in World War II|Slovakia]]:'''
* 300–770 civilians killed<ref>{{cite web|url=https://enrsi.stvr.sk/articles/news/198563/75-years-since-bombing-of-bratislava|title=75 years since bombing of Bratislava|date=17 June 2019|website=Radio Slovakia International}}</ref>
}}
{{WWIITheatre|style=wide}}

[[World War II]] (1939–1945) involved sustained [[strategic bombing]] of railways, harbours, cities, workers' and civilian housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory. Strategic bombing as a [[military strategy]] is distinct both from [[close air support]] of ground forces and from [[Air supremacy#World War II|tactical air power]].<ref>R.J. Overy, ''The Air War. 1939–1945'' (1980) pp. 8–14</ref> During World War II, many military strategists of [[air power]] believed that air forces could win major victories by attacking industrial and political [[infrastructure]], rather than purely military targets.<ref>Tami Davis Biddle, "British and American Approaches to Strategic Bombing: Their Origins and Implementation in the World War II Combined Bomber Offensive", ''Journal of Strategic Studies'' (1995) 18#1 pp 91–144</ref> Strategic bombing often involved bombing areas inhabited by [[Non-combatant|civilians]], and some campaigns were deliberately designed to target civilian populations in order to [[terrorism|terrorize]] them or to weaken their [[morale]].{{refn|Primoratz, Igor. 2010. Terror from the Sky : The Bombing of German Cities in World War II. New York: Berghahn Books. "In World War II, the Allies bombed Germany’s cities and towns in an attempt to undermine the morale of its civilian population and force its government to halt the war and accept unconditional surrender."}} [[International law]] at the outset of World War II did not specifically forbid the aerial bombardment of cities – despite the prior occurrence of such bombing during [[World War I]] (1914–1918), the [[Spanish Civil War]] (1936–1939), and the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] (1937–1945).

Strategic bombing during World War II in Europe began on 1 September 1939 when Germany [[Invasion of Poland|invaded Poland]] and the ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' (German Air Force) [[Bombing of Wieluń|began bombing]] Polish cities and the civilian population in an [[Bombing of Warsaw in World War II|aerial bombardment campaign]].<ref>Levine 1992, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LZ99c7ZlxxQC&pg=PA21 p. 21]</ref> As the war continued to expand, bombing by both the [[Axis powers|Axis]] and the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] increased significantly. The [[Royal Air Force]], in retaliation for Luftwaffe attacks on the UK which started on 16 October 1939, began bombing military targets in Germany, commencing with the Luftwaffe seaplane air base at Hörnum on the 19–20 March 1940.<ref>{{cite web | url= http://ww2today.com/the-first-bombing-raid-on-germany | title= The first bombing raid on Germany by the RAF in World War II | access-date= 27 August 2017 | archive-date= 9 May 2021 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210509230742/https://ww2today.com/the-first-bombing-raid-on-germany | url-status= dead }}</ref> In September 1940 the Luftwaffe began targeting British civilians in [[the Blitz]].<ref name="Murray 1983, p. 52" /> After the beginning of [[Operation Barbarossa]] in June 1941, the Luftwaffe [[Axis and Soviet air operations during Operation Barbarossa|attacked Soviet cities and infrastructure]]. From February 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became even less restricted and increasingly [[Area bombing directive|targeted industrial sites and civilian areas]].<ref>Hastings 1979</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2024}}<ref name="Garrett 1993">Garrett 1993{{Page needed|date= September 2010}}</ref> When the United States began flying bombing missions against Germany, it reinforced British efforts. The Allies [[Oil campaign of World War II|attacked oil installations]], and controversial firebombings took place [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|against Hamburg]] (1943), [[Bombing of Dresden|Dresden]] (1945), and other German cities.<ref>Boog 2001, p. 408.</ref>

In the [[Pacific War]], the Japanese frequently bombed civilian populations as early as 1937–1938, such as in [[Battle of Shanghai|Shanghai]] and [[Bombing of Chongqing|Chongqing]]. US [[air raids on Japan]] escalated from October 1944,<ref>Pimlott, John. ''B-29 Superfortress'' (London: Arms and Armour Press, 1980), p.40.<!--better than nothing...--></ref> culminating in widespread [[firebombing]], and later in August 1945 with the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]]. The effectiveness of the strategic bombing campaigns is controversial.<ref name="anesi.com">{{cite web|url= http://www.anesi.com/ussbs02.htm |title= United States Strategic Bombing Survey, established by the Secretary of War on 3 November 1944, pursuant to a directive from the late President Roosevelt, 30 September 1945 |publisher= Anesi.com |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref><ref name="J.K. Galbraith 1958">J.K. Galbraith, "The Affluent Society", chapter 12 "The Illusion of National Security", first published 1958. Galbraith was a director of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey.</ref><ref name="Williamson Murray p. 319">Williamson Murray, Allan Reed Millett, "A War To Be Won: fighting the Second World War", p. 319</ref><ref name="econ.yale.edu">{{citation |url=http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp905.pdf |title= Demystifying the German "armament miracle" during World War II. New insights from the annual audits of German aircraft producers }}
</ref> Although they did not produce decisive military victories in themselves, some argue that strategic bombing of non-military targets significantly reduced enemy industrial capacity and production,<ref name="Buckley 1998, p. 165" /><ref name="Murray 1983, p. 253" /><ref name="crca51" />{{rp|pp=792,802}} and was vindicated by the [[surrender of Japan]].{{sfn|Buckley|1998|p=197}} Estimates of the death toll from strategic bombing range from hundreds of thousands to over a million. Millions of civilians were made homeless, and many major cities were destroyed, especially in Europe and Asia.

==Legal considerations==
{{Main|Aerial bombardment and international law}}
The [[Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907]], which address the codes of wartime conduct on land and at sea, were adopted before the rise of air power. Despite repeated diplomatic attempts to update [[international humanitarian law]] to include [[aerial warfare]], it was not updated before the outbreak of World War II. The absence of specific international humanitarian law did not mean aerial warfare was not covered under the [[laws of war]], but rather that there was no general agreement of how to interpret those laws.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gómez|first=Javier Guisández|date=20 June 1998|title=The Law of Air Warfare|journal=[[International Review of the Red Cross]]|volume=38|issue=323|pages=347–363|doi=10.1017/S0020860400091075|url=http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList200/42F64C9A4212EA07C1256B66005C0BF1|url-access=subscription|archive-date=6 January 2010|access-date=18 November 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106232251/http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList200/42F64C9A4212EA07C1256B66005C0BF1|url-status=dead}}</ref> This means that aerial bombardment of civilian areas in enemy territory by all major belligerents during World War II was not prohibited by [[Positive international law|positive]] or specific [[Customary international law|customary]] international humanitarian law.<ref>{{cite book |title=Terror from the Sky: The Bombing of German Cities in World War II |year=2010 |page=167 |publisher=[[Berghahn Books]] |isbn=978-1-8454-5844-7}}</ref>

Many reasons exist for the absence of international law regarding aerial bombing in World War II.<ref>Evangeslista, Matthew. "Peace Studies, Volume 3". page 447. [[Routledge]].</ref> Most nations had refused to ratify such laws or agreements because of the vague or impractical wording in treaties such as the 1923 Hague Rules of Air Warfare. Also, the major powers' possession of newly developed advanced bombers was a great military advantage; they would be hard pressed to accept any negotiated limitations regarding this new weapon. In the absence of specific laws relating to aerial warfare, the belligerents' aerial forces at the start of World War II used the 1907 Hague Conventions — signed and ratified by most major powers — as the customary standard to govern their conduct in warfare, and these conventions were interpreted by both sides to allow the indiscriminate bombing of enemy cities throughout the war.<ref name="HARRIS">{{cite book |title=Despatch on War Operations: 23rd February 1942 to 8th May 1945 |date=30 November 1995 |author=Sir Arthur Harris |page=44 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-7146-4692-3}}</ref>

General [[Telford Taylor]], Chief Counsel for [[War Crimes]] at the [[Nuremberg Trials]], wrote that:
{{blockquote|If the first badly bombed cities — [[Bombing of Warsaw in World War II|Warsaw]], [[Rotterdam Blitz|Rotterdam]], [[Operation Retribution (1941)|Belgrade]], and [[The Blitz|London]] — suffered at the hands of the Germans and not the Allies, nonetheless the ruins of German and Japanese cities were the results not of reprisal but of deliberate policy, and bore witness that aerial bombardment of cities and factories has become a recognized part of [[modern warfare]] as carried out by all nations.<ref name="HARRIS" />}}
Article 25 of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions on Land Warfare also did not provide a clear guideline on the extent to which civilians may be spared; the same can be held for naval forces. Consequently, cyclical arguments, such as those advanced by Italian [[general]] and [[air power]] theorist [[Giulio Douhet]], do not appear to violate any of the convention's provisions.<ref>.Obote-Odora, Alex. "The judging of war criminals: individual criminal responsibility under international law". page 177.</ref> Due to these reasons, the Allies at the Nuremberg and [[Tokyo Trials]] never criminalized aerial bombardment of non-combatant targets and Axis leaders who ordered a similar type of practice were not prosecuted. Chris Jochnick and Roger Normand in their article ''The Legitimation of Violence 1: A Critical History of the Laws of War'' explains that: "By leaving out morale bombing and other attacks on civilians unchallenged, the Tribunal conferred legal legitimacy on such practices."<ref>{{cite book |title=State Crime: Current Perspectives (Critical Issues in Crime and Society) |date=28 September 2010 |page=90 |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8135-4901-9}}</ref>

==Ethical considerations==
The concept of [[strategic bombing]] and its wide-scale implementation during WWII led to a post-war debate if it was moral.<ref>Eric Roberts, Stanford University. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220526062303/https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/ww2/projects/firebombing/moral-questions.htm The Moral Dilemma of Targeting Civilians]</ref><ref>Smith, Melden E. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/260242 The Strategic Bombing Debate: The Second World War and Vietnam], ''Journal of Contemporary History'', vol. 12, no. 1, 1977, pp. 175–91.</ref><ref>Maier, Charles S. [https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/irrc_859_maier.pdf Targeting the city: Debates and silences about the aerial bombing of World War II], ''International Review of the Red Cross'', Volume 87, Number 859, September 2005</ref><ref name="Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby">Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby, Royal Air Force. [https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/Directors-Select-Articles/The-Ethics-of-Bombing/ The Ethics of Bombing], ''The Royal Air Force Quarterly'', No. 2, Summer 1967</ref>
Three separate lines of ethical reasoning emerged.<ref name="Ethics of bombing">Johnson, James Turner. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195071986.001.0001/acref-9780195071986 Bombing, Ethics of]. In Chambers, John Whiteclay. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195071986.001.0001/acref-9780195071986 ''The Oxford Companion to American Military History'']. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.</ref>

The first was based on the [[Just War theory]] and emphasized that noncombatants possess an inherent right to be spared from the harm of war and should not be intentionally targeted. [[John C. Ford]], SJ, made such an argument in an article in 1944.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Can war be just in the 21st century? ethicists engage the tradition |date=2015 |publisher=Orbis Books |isbn=978-1-62698-158-4 |editor-last=Winright |editor-first=Tobias L. |location=Maryknoll, New York |editor-last2=Johnston |editor-first2=Laurie}}</ref> Noncombatant immunity and proportionality in use of force were insisted upon.<ref name="Ethics of bombing"/>

The second approach was grounded in the so-called "industrial web theory" that proposed to concentrate on destroying enemy military, industrial, and economic infrastructure instead of forces in the field as the fastest way to win the war.<ref>Rizer, Kenneth R. [https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/ASPJ/journals/Chronicles/Rizer.pdf Bombing Dual-Use Targets: Legal, Ethical, and Doctrinal Perspectives], ''Air & Space Power Journal'', 1 May 2001</ref> Proponents of this approach argued that civilian deaths inflicted by strategic bombing of the cities during the WWII were justified in the sense that they allowed a shortening of the war and thus helped to avoid many more casualties.<ref>Holland, Edward C. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220526072443/https://media.defense.gov/2017/Dec/29/2001861995/-1/-1/0/T_HOLLAND_FIGHTING_WITH_CONSCIENCE.PDF ''Fighting with a conscience: the effects of an American sense of morality on the evolution of strategic bombing campaigns'']. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 1992</ref>

The third approach was demonstrated by [[Michael Walzer]] in his ''[[Just and Unjust Wars]]'' (1977). Walzer formulated the so-called "[[supreme emergency]]" thesis. While agreeing in general with prior Just War theoretical postulates, he came to a conclusion that a grave threat to a moral order would justify the use of an indiscriminate force.<ref name="Ethics of bombing"/>

Air Marshal Sir [[Robert Saundby]] concluded his analysis of the ethics of bombing by these words, {{blockquote|A study of the ethics of bombing cannot fail to remind one that man is an illogical creature, still far more swayed by emotion than by calm reason. Man has wonderful powers of self-deception, and of the uncritical suppression of unwelcome facts; he is still capable of believing what he wants to believe, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Indeed, there are none so blind as will not see, or so deaf as will not hear. It is, therefore, no doubt unrealistic to hope for the general acceptance of rational views about such an emotive subject as the ethics of air bombardment.<ref name="Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby"/>}}

==Europe==
===Policy at the start of the war===
Before World War II began, the rapid pace of aviation technology created a belief that groups of bombers would be capable of devastating cities. For example, British Prime Minister [[Stanley Baldwin]] warned in 1932, "[[The bomber will always get through]]."

When the war began on 1 September 1939 with Germany's [[invasion of Poland]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], President of the [[Neutral country#Terminology)|armed neutralitarian]] United States, issued an appeal to the major belligerents (Britain, France, Germany, and Poland) to confine their air raids to [[military]] targets, and "under no circumstances undertake bombardment from the air of civilian populations in unfortified cities".<ref>President Franklin D. Roosevelt [http://www.dannen.com/decision/int-law.html#E Appeal against aerial bombardment of civilian populations], 1 September 1939</ref> The British and French agreed to abide by the request, with the British reply undertaking to "confine bombardment to strictly military objectives upon the understanding that these same [[rules of war]]fare will be scrupulously observed by all their opponents".{{sfn|Taylor|2005|loc=Chapter "Call Me Meier", p. 105}} Germany also agreed to abide by Roosevelt's request and explained the bombing of Warsaw as within the agreement because it was supposedly a fortified city—Germany did not have a policy of targeting enemy civilians as part of their doctrine prior to World War II.<ref>Nelson (2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=XCKlXd2H2ykC&pg=PA104 p. 104.]</ref><ref>Corum, 1995., p. 7</ref>

The British Government's policy was formulated on 31 August 1939: if Germany initiated unrestricted air action, the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] "should attack objectives vital to Germany's war effort, and in particular her oil resources". If the ''Luftwaffe'' confined attacks to purely military targets, the RAF should "launch an attack on the German fleet at [[Wilhelmshaven]]" and "attack warships at sea when found within range".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?queryType=1&resultcount=1&Edoc_Id=7960846|title=Cabinet Office Records CAB 66/1/19 – The National Archives (United Kingdom)|work=nationalarchives.gov.uk|access-date=16 April 2017}}</ref> The government communicated to their French allies the intention "not to initiate air action which might involve the risk of civilian casualties".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?queryType=1&resultcount=1&Edoc_Id=7965267|title=Cabinet Office Records CAB 65/1/1- The National Archives (United Kingdom)|work=nationalarchives.gov.uk|access-date=16 April 2017}}</ref>

While it was acknowledged bombing Germany would cause civilian casualties, the British government renounced deliberate bombing of civilian property, outside combat zones, as a military tactic.<ref>A.C. Grayling (Bloomsbury 2006), p. 24.</ref> The British changed their policy on 15 May 1940, one day after the German bombing of Rotterdam, when the RAF was given permission to attack targets in the [[Ruhr Area]], including oil plants and other civilian [[Industrial sector|industrial]] targets which aided the German war effort, such as [[blast furnace]]s that at night were self-illuminating. The first RAF raid on the interior of Germany took place on the night of 15/16 May 1940 while the [[Battle of France]] was still continuing.{{sfn|Taylor|2005|loc=Chapter "Call Me Meier", p. 111}}

===Early war in Europe===
[[File:Zniszczenia1939 0.jpg|thumb|right|[[Bombing of Wieluń]], the first Polish city destroyed by ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' bombing, on 1 September 1939. In one of the first acts of World War II, German bombers destroyed {{cnspan|70%|date=April 2024}} of all the buildings, including a clearly marked hospital and church, killing approximately {{cnspan|127|date=April 2024}} civilians.<ref name="Grab"/>]]

====Poland====
{{Main|Invasion of Poland|Bombing of Warsaw in World War II}}
During the German invasion of Poland, the ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' engaged in massive air raids against Polish cities,<ref name="moral">Bruno Coppieters, N. Fotion, eds. (2002) ''Moral constraints on war: principles and cases'', Lexington Books, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7pOfmghKXOUC&pg=PA74 p 74.]</ref> bombing civilian infrastructure<ref name="moral"/><ref>Bob Golan, Jacob Howland, Bette Howland, (2005). ''A long way home'', University Press of America, [https://books.google.com/books?id=KOXohD-W8l4C&pg=PA11 p 11.]</ref> such as hospitals<ref name="Grab">Sylwia Słomińska, [http://www.historia.wielunia.webpark.pl/1wrzesnia2.html "Wieluń, 1 września 1939 r."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105195335/http://www.historia.wielunia.webpark.pl/1wrzesnia2.html |date=5 January 2009 }}, Z dziejów dawnego Wielunia "History of old Wielun", site by Dr Tadeusz Grabarczyk, Historical Institute at University of Lodz,</ref><ref name="moral"/> and targeting fleeing refugees.<ref name="playground">Norman Davies. (1982). ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', Columbia University Press, [https://archive.org/details/godsplaygroundhi00norm_0/page/437 p 437.]</ref><ref>George Topas, (1990). ''The iron furnace: a Holocaust survivor's story'', University Press of Kentucky, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vgzeKvRV194C&pg=PA23 p 23.]</ref><ref>Hempel, Andrew. (2000). ''Poland in World War II: An Illustrated Military History'' {{ISBN|978-0-7818-0758-6}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=9SmbqqQfp1gC&pg=PA14 p 14.]</ref><ref>Hooton 1994, p. 183.</ref> Notably, the ''Luftwaffe'' bombed the Polish capital of Warsaw, and the small towns [[Wieluń]] and [[Frampol]]. The [[bombing of Wieluń]], one of the first military acts of World War II and the first major act of bombing, was carried out on a town that had little to no military value.<ref name="Gilbertson2017">{{cite book|author=David Gilbertson|title=The Nightmare Dance: Guilt, Shame, Heroism and the Holocaust|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhU3BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|date=14 August 2017|publisher=Troubador Publishing Limited|isbn=978-1-78306-609-4|page=27}}</ref> Similarly, the [[bombing of Frampol]] has been described as an experiment to test the German tactics and weapons effectiveness. British historian [[Norman Davies]] writes in ''[[Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory]]'': "Frampol was chosen partly because it was completely defenceless, and partly because its baroque street plan presented a perfect geometric grid for calculations and measurements."<ref name="davies">{{cite book|author=Norman Davies|title=No Simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9P_uQ2qeFUkC&pg=PT262|date=26 August 2008|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4406-5112-0|page=262}}</ref>

In his book, ''Augen am Himmel'' (''Eyes on the Sky''), [[Wolfgang Schreyer]] wrote:<ref>Schreyer, Wolfgang: Die Piratenchronik. Augen am Himmel: Eine Piratenchronik 1968 {{page needed|date=May 2018}}</ref>
<blockquote>Frampol was chosen as an experimental object, because test bombers, flying at low speed, weren't endangered by AA fire. Also, the centrally placed town hall was an ideal orientation point for the crews. We watched possibility of orientation after visible signs, and also the size of village, what guaranteed that bombs nevertheless fall down on Frampol. From one side it should make easier the note of probe, from second side it should confirm the efficiency of used bombs.</blockquote>

The directives issued to the ''Luftwaffe'' for the Polish Campaign were to prevent the [[Polish Air Force]] from influencing the ground battles or attacking German territory.<ref name="Speidel, p. 18">Speidel, p. 18</ref> In addition, it was to support the advance of German ground forces through direct tactical and indirect air support with attacks against Polish mobilisation centres and thus delay an orderly Polish strategic concentration of forces and to deny mobility for Polish reinforcements through the destruction of strategic Polish rail routes.<ref name="Speidel, p. 18"/>

[[File:Julien Bryan - Look - 47218.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Polish mothers with their newborn infants in a makeshift maternity ward inside a hospital basement during the [[Bombing of Warsaw in World War II|Bombing of Warsaw]] by the German ''Luftwaffe'']]

Preparations were made for a concentrated attack (Operation Wasserkante) by all bomber forces against targets in Warsaw.<ref name="Speidel, p. 18"/> However, the operation was cancelled, according to Polish professor [[Tomasz Szarota]] due to bad weather conditions,<ref name=Szarota/> while German author [[Horst Boog]] claims it was possibly due to Roosevelt's plea to avoid civilian casualties; according to Boog the bombing of military and industrial targets within the Warsaw residential area called Praga was prohibited.<ref>Boog 2001, p. 360-361.</ref>{{request quotation|date=February 2017}} Polish reports from the beginning of September note strafing of civilians by German attacks and bombing of cemeteries and marked hospitals (marking of hospitals proved counterproductive as German aircraft began to specifically target them, until hospitals were moved into the open to avoid such targeting), and indiscriminate attacks on fleeing civilians which according to Szarota was a direct violation of the [[Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)|Hague Convention]].<ref name="Szarota">Straty Warszawy 1939–1945.Raport pod red. Wojciecha Fałkowskiego, Naloty na Warszawę podczas II wojny światowej Tomasz Szarota, pages 240–281. Warszawa: Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa 2005</ref> Warsaw was first attacked by German ground forces on 9 September and was put under siege on 13 September. German author Boog claims that with the arrival of German ground forces, the situation of Warsaw changed; under the Hague Convention, the city could be legitimately attacked as it was a defended city in the front line that refused calls to surrender.<ref name="Boog 2001, p. 361">Boog 2001, p. 361.</ref>{{request quotation|date=February 2017}}

The bombing of the rail network, crossroads, and troop concentrations played havoc on Polish mobilisation, while attacks upon civilian and military targets in towns and cities disrupted command and control by wrecking the antiquated Polish signal network.<ref>Hooton 1994, p. 182.</ref> Over a period of a few days, ''Luftwaffe'' numerical and technological superiority took its toll on the Polish Air Force. Polish Air Force bases across Poland were also subjected to ''Luftwaffe'' bombing from 1 September 1939.<ref>Hooton 1994, p. 181.</ref>

On 13 September, following orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe (German ''Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe'' (''ObdL'')) to launch an attack on Warsaw's Jewish Quarter, justified as being for unspecified crimes committed against German soldiers but probably in response to a recent defeat by Polish ground troops,<ref>Hooton 1994, p. 186.</ref> and intended as a terror attack,<ref name="Hooton 1994, p. 187">Hooton 1994, p. 187.</ref> 183 bomber [[sortie]]s were flown with 50:50 load of high explosive and incendiary bombs, reportedly set the Jewish Quarter ablaze. On 22 September, [[Wolfram von Richthofen]] messaged, "Urgently request exploitation of last opportunity for large-scale experiment as devastation terror raid ... Every effort will be made to eradicate Warsaw completely". His request was rejected.<ref name="Hooton 1994, p. 187"/> However, [[Adolf Hitler]] issued an order to prevent civilians from leaving the city and to continue with the bombing, which he thought would encourage Polish surrender.<ref name="Enc">Spencer Tucker, Priscilla Mary Roberts, (2004). ''Encyclopedia of World War II: a political, social and military history'', ABC-CLIO, [https://books.google.com/books?id=U0xblxV_pLgC&pg=RA3-PA1613 p 1613.]</ref>

On 14 September, the French [[Air attaché]] in Warsaw reported to Paris, "the German Air Force acted in accordance to the international laws of war [...] and bombed only targets of military nature. Therefore, there is no reason for French [[retorsion]]s."<ref>Poeppel-von Preußen-von Hase, 2000. p. 248.</ref> That day – the Jewish New Year – the Germans concentrated again on the Warsaw's Jewish population, bombing the Jewish quarter and targeting [[synagogue]]s.<ref name="Enc"/> According to professor Szarota the report was inaccurate – as its author Armengaud didn't know about the most barbaric bombings like those in Wieluń or Kamieniec, left Poland on 12 September, and was motivated by his personal political goal to avoid French involvement in the war, in addition the report published in 1948 rather than in 1939.<ref name=Szarota/>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-0763, Warschau, Brände.jpg|thumb|[[Warsaw]] burning after a German [[Bombing of Warsaw in World War II|bombing of the city]]. The ''Luftwaffe'' air campaign resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 – 25,000 civilians.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Polskie Radio |date=25 September 2012|title= Czarny poniedziałek|url= http://www.polskieradio.pl/39/156/Artykul/689947,Czarny-poniedzialek-i-630-ton-bomb}}</ref><ref>Der Spiegel ''Wir warden sie ausradieren'' No. 3 vol. 13, 13 January 2003, p. 123.</ref>]]

Three days later, Warsaw was surrounded by the [[Wehrmacht]], and hundreds of thousands of [[Airborne leaflet propaganda|leaflets]] were dropped on the city, instructing citizens to evacuate the city pending a possible bomber attack.<ref>Smith&Creek, 2004. p. 63</ref> On 25 September the ''Luftwaffe'' flew 1,150 sorties and dropped 560 tonnes of high explosive and 72 tonnes of incendiaries.<ref name="Enc"/><ref name="Hooton 1994, p. 92">Hooton 1994, p. 92.</ref> (Overall, incendiaries made up only three percent of the total tonnage dropped.)<ref name="Boog 2001, p. 361"/>

To conserve the strength of the bomber units for the upcoming Western campaign, the modern [[Heinkel He 111|He 111]] bombers were replaced by [[Junkers Ju 52|Ju 52]] transports using "worse than primitive methods" for the bombing.<ref name="Hooton 1994, p. 92"/><ref name="Smith&Creek, 2004. pp. 63-64">Smith&Creek, 2004. pp. 63–64</ref><ref name="Hooton 1994, p. 188">Hooton 1994, p. 188.</ref><ref name="Poeppel-von Preußen-von Hase 2000. p. 249">Poeppel-von Preußen-von Hase, 2000. p. 249.</ref><ref name="wgreen">{{cite web |url=http://www.richmond.edu/~wgreen/ECDwarsaw.html |title=Electronic Encyclopaedia of Civil Defense and Emergency Management |publisher=richmond.edu |access-date=1 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060627190249/http://www.richmond.edu/~wgreen/ECDwarsaw.html |archive-date=27 June 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Due to prevailing strong winds they achieved poor accuracy, even causing some casualties to besieging German troops.<ref name="Smith&Creek, 2004. pp. 63-64"/><ref name="Hooton 1994, p. 188"/>

The only Polish raid against a target in Germany was executed by [[PZL.23 Karaś]] light bombers against a factory in [[Oława|Ohlau]]. The Polish air force left Poland on 18 September 1939 due to the Soviet attack on 17 September 1939, and imminent capture of the Polish airstrips and aircraft stationed in eastern parts of Poland. There was no exception; even [[Pursuit Brigade]], an [[Organic (military)|organic]] part of the defences of the Polish capital, [[Warsaw]], was transferred to [[Lublin]], one week into the war.

There happened also a non-planned single bombing of the [[Free City of Danzig]]. On 7 September, at about 11 PM, a Polish Lublin R.XIII G seaplane was flying over the city, on a mission to attack the German [[SMS Schleswig-Holstein|Schleswig-Holstein battleship]]. However, the vessel had already left the city, so the seaplane flew over the center of Danzig, where it bombed and opened fire on the German troops celebrating the capitulation of the Polish garrison of Westerplatte.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://blogpublika.com/2016/09/09/7-wrzesnia-1939-r-bomby-na-parademarsch-polskie-bombardowanie-lotnicze-gdanska/ |title = 7 września 1939 r. – bomby na Parademarsch. Polskie bombardowanie lotnicze Gdańska|date = 9 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tysol.pl/a11023-7-wrzesnia-1939-r-%E2%80%93-bomby-na-Parademarsch-Polskie-bombardowanie-lotnicze-Gdanska |title = 7 września 1939 r. – bomby na Parademarsch. Polskie bombardowanie lotnicze Gdańska &#124; Tysol.pl|date = 8 September 2017}}</ref>

====The Western Front, 1939 to May 1940====
On 3 September 1939, following the German invasion of Poland, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany and the war in the West began. The RAF bombed German warships and light vessels in several harbours on 3 and 4 September.<ref name = "Richards"/> Eight German [[Kriegsmarine]] men were killed at Wilhelmshaven – the war's first casualties from British bombs;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bunkermuseum.de/angriffe_1/bomben_benachbarte_bereiche/bereiche_1939.htm |title=Attacks in 1939 |publisher=bunkermuseum.de |language=de |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111208080957/http://www.bunkermuseum.de/angriffe_1/bomben_benachbarte_bereiche/bereiche_1939.htm |archive-date=8 December 2011 }}</ref> attacks on ships at [[Cuxhaven]]<ref>Vice Admiral a. D. Prof. Friedrich Ruge, Dr. Hellmuth Günther Dahms, Dr. Ernst Schraepler, Dr. Herbert Michaelis, Dr. Walther Hubatsch, (1968). ''Der 2. Weltkrieg'', Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh, p. 657</ref> and [[Heligoland]] followed.<ref name="Richards">Richards 1953, p. 38-40</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1939/sep39/f04sep39.htm |title=RAF strikes German naval base |publisher=onwar.com |access-date=12 January 2010 |archive-date=5 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111105054519/http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1939/sep39/f04sep39.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The 1939 [[Battle of the Heligoland Bight (1939)|Battle of the Heligoland Bight]] showed the vulnerability of bombers to fighter attack.

Germany's first strikes were not carried out until 16 and 17 October 1939, against the British fleet at [[Rosyth]] and [[Scapa Flow]]. Little activity followed.<ref name="Richards V1 p67">Richards 1953, p.67.</ref> Meanwhile, attacks by the Royal Air Force dwindled to less than one a month. As the winter set in, both sides engaged in [[propaganda]] warfare, dropping leaflets on the populations below.<ref>Smith&Creek, 2004. p. 64</ref> The [[Phoney War]] continued.

The British government banned attacks on land targets and German warships in port due to the risk of civilian casualties.<ref>Middlebrook, Martin (1985). ''The Bomber Command War Diaries'' (London: Penguin Books), p.19 {{ISBN|0-670-80137-2}}</ref> For the Germans, the earliest directive from the Luftwaffe head Hermann Göring permitted restricted attacks upon warships anywhere, as well as upon troop transports at sea.<ref>Hooton 1994, p. 190.</ref> However, Hitler's ''OKW Direktive Nr 2'' and ''Luftwaffe Direktive Nr 2'', prohibited attacks upon enemy naval forces unless the enemy bombed Germany first, noting, "the guiding principle must be not to provoke the initiation of aerial warfare on the part of Germany."

After the [[Altmark incident|''Altmark'' incident]], the ''Luftwaffe'' launched a strike against the British navy base at Scapa Flow on 16 March 1940, leading to the first British civilian death. A British attack followed three days later against the German airbase at [[Hörnum]] on the island of [[Sylt]],<ref name="Richards v1 p68">Richards 1953, p.68.</ref> hitting a hospital, although there were no casualties.<ref>{{Cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885838,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090906082137/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885838,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=6 September 2009 | magazine=Time | title=IN THE AIR: Raid on Sylt | date=1 April 1940 | access-date=24 May 2010}}</ref> The Germans retaliated with a naval raid.

German bombing of France began on the night of 9/10 May. By 11 May, the French reported bombs dropped on Henin-Lietard, Bruay, Lens, La Fere, Loan, Nancy, Colmar, Pontoise, Lambersart, Lyons, Bouai, Hasebrouck, Doullens and Abbeville with at least 40 civilians killed.<ref>"The Miami Daily News, Saturday 11 May 1940"</ref>

While Allied light and medium bombers attempted to delay the German invasion by striking at troop columns and bridges, the British War Cabinet gave permission for limited bombing raids against targets such as roads and railways west of the [[Rhine]] River.<ref name="Richards V1 p114-5">Richards 1953, pp.114–115.</ref><ref name=Legro-135>{{cite book|first=Jeffrey |last=Legro|author-link=Jeffrey W. Legro|title=Cooperation Under Fire: Anglo-German Restraint During World War II|url=https://archive.org/details/cooperationunder00legr|url-access=registration |year=1995|publisher=Cornell UP|page=[https://archive.org/details/cooperationunder00legr/page/135 135]|isbn=978-0801429385}}</ref>

====Rotterdam Blitz====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2005-0003, Rotterdam, Zerstörungen.jpg|thumb|View of Rotterdam after the German bombing of the city]]
{{Main|Rotterdam Blitz}}
The Germans used the threat of bombing [[Rotterdam]], the Netherlands, to try to get the Dutch to come to terms and surrender. After a second ultimatum had been issued by the Germans, it appeared their effort had failed and on 14 May 1940, ''Luftwaffe'' bombers were ordered to bomb Rotterdam in an effort to force the capitulation of the besieged city.<ref>Rutherford, Ward, ''Blitzkrieg 1940'', G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1980, p.52.</ref> The controversial bombing targeted the centre of the besieged city, instead of providing direct tactical support for the hard-pressed German 22nd Infantry Division (under Lt. Gen. [[Hans Graf von Sponeck|von Sponeck]], which had airlanded on 10 May) in combat with Dutch forces northwest of the city, and in the eastern part of the city at the Meuse river bridge.<ref>Piekalkiewicz, Janusz, ''The Air War, 1939–1945'', Blandford Press, Poole, Dorset, UK, 1985, p.74.</ref> At the last minute, the Netherlands decided to submit and sent a plenipotentiary and other negotiators across to German lines. There was an attempt to call off the assault, but the bombing mission had already begun.<ref>[http://www.dradio.de/dlr/sendungen/merkmal/347464/ DeutschlandRadio Berlin – MerkMal – Der Bombenkrieg in Europa] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080310122030/http://www.dradio.de/dlr/sendungen/merkmal/347464/ |date=10 March 2008 }}</ref> In legal terms, the attack was performed against a defended part of a city vital for the military objectives and in the front-line, and the bombing respected Article 25 to 27 of the Hague Conventions on Land Warfare.<ref>Boog 2001, p. 361,362.</ref>

Out of 100 [[Heinkel He 111]]s, 57 dropped their ordnance, a combined 97 tons of bombs. In the resulting fire {{convert|1.1|sqmi|km2}} of the city centre were devastated, including 21 churches and 4 hospitals. The strike killed between 800 and 1,000 civilians, wounded over 1,000, and made 78,000 homeless.<ref>Hooton Vol 2 2007, p. 52.</ref> In 2022, archival research showed a total of 1,150 to 1,250 civilians, and Dutch army and Nazi army personnel were killed during the Rotterdam Blitz.<ref name=voorouder>{{Cite web |last=Voorouder |first=Stichting |date=2022-04-08 |title=Namen slachtoffers mei 1940 Rotterdam |url=https://voorouder.nl/namen-lijsten-slachtoffers-10-14-mei-1940-rotterdam/ |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=Stichting Voorouder |language=nl}}</ref> Nearly twenty-five thousand homes, 2,320 stores, 775 warehouses and 62 schools were destroyed.<ref>''Van Nul to Nu Deel 3-De vaderlandse geschiedenis van 1815 tot 1940'' Page 42, Square 2- by Thom Roep and Co Loerakker {{ISBN|90-5425-098-4}}</ref>

Whilst German historian Horst Boog says [[British propaganda during World War II|British propaganda]] inflated the number of civilian casualties by a factor of 30,<ref name="Boog 2001, p. 361" /> contemporary newspaper reports show the Dutch legation in Paris initially estimated 100,000 people were killed,<ref>The Milwaukee Journal, Monday 20 May 1940</ref> the Dutch legation in New York later issued a revised figure of 30,000.<ref>St Petersburg Times, Wednesday 17 July 1940</ref> International news agencies widely reported these figures, portraying Rotterdam as a city mercilessly destroyed by terror bombing without regard for civilian life, with 30,000 dead lying under the ruins. It has been argued that the bombing was against well-defined targets, albeit in the middle of the city, and would have assisted the advancing German Army.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} The Germans had threatened to bomb [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]] in the same fashion, and the Netherlands surrendered.<ref>Maass, Walter B., ''The Netherlands at War: 1940–1945'', Abelard-Schuman, New York, 1970, pp. 38–40.</ref><ref>Kennett, Lee, ''A History of Strategic Bombing'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1982, p.112.</ref><ref>[[Walter J. Boyne|Boyne, Walter J.]], ''Clash of Wings: World War II in the Air'', Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994, p.61.</ref>

{{Anchor|Allied bombing of Germany}}<!--This section heading is used for a redirect called "Allied bombing of Germany" don't remove it unless the redirect is an article or redirects to a different article or section heading.-->

====Allied response====
Following the attack on Rotterdam, [[RAF Bomber Command]] was authorized to attack German targets east of the Rhine on 15 May 1940; the Air Ministry authorized [[Air Marshal]] Charles Portal to attack targets in the [[Ruhr]], including [[oil]] plants and other civilian industrial targets which aided the German war effort, such as blast furnaces.<ref>Hastings 1979, p. 6</ref>{{sfn|Taylor|2005|loc=Chapter "Call Me Meier", p. 111}} The underlying motive for the attacks was to divert German air forces away from the land front.<ref name="Boog 2001, p. 362">Boog 2001, p. 362.</ref> Churchill explained the rationale of his decision to his French counterparts in a letter dated the 16th: "I have examined today with the War Cabinet and all the experts the request which you made to me last night and this morning for further fighter squadrons. We are all agreed that it is better to draw the enemy on to this Island by striking at his vitals, and thus to aid the common cause."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?queryType=1&resultcount=1&Edoc_Id=7965861 |title=National Archives 15 May 1940 CAB 65/13/9 |publisher=Nationalarchives.gov.uk |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> Due to the inadequate British [[bomb-sight]]s the strikes that followed "had the effect of terror raids on towns and villages."<ref name="Boog 2001, p. 362"/> On the night of 15/16 May, 96 bombers crossed the Rhine and attacked targets in [[Gelsenkirchen]]. 78 had been assigned oil targets, but only 24 claimed to have accomplished their objective.<ref name="Jane's, 1989. p. 34">Jane's, 1989. p. 34</ref><ref name="Richards V1 p124">Richards 1953, p.124.</ref>

On the night of 17/18 May, RAF Bomber Command bombed oil installations in [[Hamburg]] and [[Bremen]]; the H.E. and 400 incendiaries dropped caused six large, one moderately large and 29 small fires. As a result of the attack, 47 people were killed and 127 were wounded.<ref name=HA-als>[http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2003/07/21/188453.html "Als die ersten Bomben fielen"] ''Hamburger Abendblatt''</ref> Railway yards at Cologne were attacked on the same night.<ref name=HA-als/> During May, [[Essen]], [[Duisburg]], [[Düsseldorf]] and [[Hanover]] were attacked in a similar fashion by Bomber Command. In June, attacks were made on [[Dortmund]], [[Mannheim]], [[Frankfurt]] and [[Bochum]].<ref name="Jane's, 1989. p. 34"/> At the time, Bomber Command lacked the necessary navigational and bombing technical background and the accuracy of the bombings during the night attacks was abysmal. Consequently, the bombs were usually scattered over a large area, causing an uproar in Germany. On the night of 7/8 June 1940 a single [[French Naval Aviation|French Navy]] [[Farman F.223]] aircraft bombed [[Berlin]], the first Allied attack on the capital.<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Martin|title=Invisibles vainqueurs: exploits et sacrifice de l'Armée de l'air en 1939–1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ikIpAQAAMAAJ|year=1990|publisher=Y. Michelet|page=345|isbn=9782905643025}}</ref>

Despite the British attacks on German cities, the Luftwaffe did not begin to attack military and economic targets in the UK until six weeks after the campaign in France was concluded.<ref name="Boog 2001, p. 362"/>

====The Battle of Britain and the Blitz====
{{Main|Battle of Britain|the Blitz}}
[[File:Winston Churchill visiting bomb-damaged areas of the East End of London, 8 September 1940. H3978.jpg|thumb|[[Winston Churchill]] visiting bomb-damaged areas of the [[East End of London]] on 8 September 1940]]
On 22 June 1940, France signed an [[Armistice of 22 June 1940|armistice with Germany]]. Britain was determined to keep fighting. On 1 and 2 July, the British attacked the German warships {{ship|German battleship|Scharnhorst||2}}<ref>[http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/british_military/1940_4.cfm British Military Aviation in 1940 – Part 4] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110828081217/http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/british_military/1940_4.cfm |date=28 August 2011 }}</ref> and {{ship|German cruiser|Prinz Eugen||2}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4007-20JUL01.htm |title=Naval Events, 1–14 July 1940 |publisher=Naval-history.net |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> in the port of [[Kiel]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aleph99.org/etusci/ks/t2a7.htm |title=Grenzlanduniversität |publisher=Aleph99.org |access-date=1 November 2015 |archive-date=29 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929114026/http://www.aleph99.org/etusci/ks/t2a7.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the next day, 16 RAF bombers attacked German train facilities in [[Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia|Hamm]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Chronik/1940.htm |title = 1940|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807045909/http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Chronik/1940.htm |archive-date=7 August 2011|website = Lexikon der Wehrmacht|language = de }}</ref>

The [[Battle of Britain]] began in early June 1940 with small scale bombing raids on Britain. These ''Störangriffe'' ("nuisance raids") were used to train bomber crews in both day and night attacks, to test defences and try out methods. These training flights continued through July and August, and into the first week of September.{{sfn|Overy|2013|pp=71–72}} [[Hermann Göring]]'s general order, issued on 30 June 1940, stated:

{{blockquote|The war against England is to be restricted to destructive attacks against industry and air force targets which have weak defensive forces. ... The most thorough study of the target concerned, that is vital points of the target, is a pre-requisite for success. It is also stressed that every effort should be made to avoid unnecessary loss of life amongst the civilian population.|Hermann Göring<ref>Wood and Dempster, 2003. p. 117.</ref>}}

The ''[[Kanalkampf]]'' of attacks on shipping and fighter skirmishes over the English Channel started on 4 July, and escalated on 10 July, a day which Dowding later proposed as the official start date for the Battle.{{sfn|Overy|2001|pp= 61–62}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/britain/airbattle.html |title=Great Air Battles: The Battle of Britain |publisher=Info-poland.buffalo.edu |access-date=1 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151104081146/http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/britain/airbattle.html |archive-date=4 November 2015 }}</ref> Throughout the battle, Hitler called for the British to accept peace, but they refused to negotiate.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.scguard.com/museum/ww23940.html |website =SC Military Museum|title = World War II 1939 and 1940|url-status = usurped |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090331163545/http://www.scguard.com/museum/ww23940.html |archive-date=31 March 2009 }}</ref><ref>Quester, George "Bargaining and Bombing During World War II in Europe", World Politics, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Apr. 1963), pp. 421, 425. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press</ref>

Still hoping that the British would negotiate for peace, Hitler explicitly prohibited attacks on London and against civilians.<ref name="Boog 2001, p. 362"/> Any airmen who, intentionally or unintentionally, violated this order were punished.<ref name="Boog 2001, p. 362"/> Hitler's No. 17 Directive, issued 1 August 1940, established the conduct of war against Britain and specifically forbade the ''Luftwaffe'' from conducting terror raids. The [[Führer]] declared that terror attacks could only be a means of reprisal, as ordered by him.<ref>Wood and Dempster, 2003. p. 122.</ref>
[[File:The Home Front in Britain during the Second World War HU44272.jpg|thumb|[[Aldwych tube station]] being used as a bomb shelter in 1940]]
On 6 August Göring finalised plans for [[Adlertag|"Operation Eagle Attack"]] with his commanders: destruction of RAF Fighter Command across the south of England was to take four days, then bombing of military and economic targets was to systematically extend up to the Midlands until daylight attacks could proceed unhindered over the whole of Britain, then a major attack was to be made on London causing a crisis with refugees when the intended [[Operation Sea Lion]] invasion was due to begin.{{sfn|Overy|2001|pp=56–57, 61–62}}{{sfn|Overy|2013|pp=82–85}}
On 8 August 1940, the Germans switched to raids on RAF fighter bases.<ref>Royal Air Force, [http://www.raf.mod.uk/Bob1940/phase2.html "Phase 2 – Pressure grows"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419021731/http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/phase2.html |date=19 April 2009 }} ''The Battle of Britain''</ref> To reduce losses, the ''Luftwaffe'' also began to use increasing numbers of bombers at night.<ref name="John Ray">John Ray, ''The Night Blitz'', chapter "Choosing London", pages 101–102.</ref> From the night of 19/20 August night bombing targeted the aircraft industry, ports, harbours, and other strategic targets in towns and cities, including suburban areas around London.{{sfn|Overy|2013|pp=82–83}} By the last week of August, over half the missions were flown under the cover of dark. On 24 August, several off-course German bombers accidentally bombed central areas of London.<ref>Quester, George "Bargaining and Bombing During World War II in Europe", World Politics, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Apr. 1963), pp. 426. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press</ref><ref>[http://www.wairarapa.co.nz/times-age/weekly/2001/wings.html Wings Over Wairarapa] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017221217/http://www.wairarapa.co.nz/times-age/weekly/2001/wings.html |date=17 October 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/area_bombing_01.shtml#two|title=British Bombing Strategy in World War Two|last=Siebert|first=Dieter|date=17 February 2011|website=bbc.co.uk|publisher=[[BBC]]|access-date=6 October 2022}}</ref> The next day, the RAF bombed Berlin for the first time, targeting [[Tempelhof airfield]] and the [[Siemens]] factories in Siemenstadt.<ref name="Richard Overy">Richard Overy ''The Battle'' Chapter "The Battle" pages 82–83</ref> These attacks were seen by the Germans as indiscriminate due to their inaccuracy, and this infuriated Hitler;<ref>[http://www.wfg-gk.de/geschichte7c.html Der alliierte Luftkrieg – TEIL IV] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121230225318/http://www.wfg-gk.de/geschichte7c.html |date=30 December 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Luftkieg |url=http://www.nikolaiviertel-berlin.de/pages/geschichte/luftkrieg.php |language=de |date=31 May 2019 |access-date=18 April 2009 |archive-date=25 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090925065252/http://www.nikolaiviertel-berlin.de/pages/geschichte/luftkrieg.php |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/learning/resources/WWII%20Resource%20Pack.pdf|title=World War II Resource Pack|work=RAF Museum Cosford Learning Resources|access-date=18 April 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110905163154/http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/learning/resources/WWII%20Resource%20Pack.pdf|archive-date=5 September 2011}}</ref> he ordered that the 'night piracy of the British' be countered by a concentrated night offensive against the island, and especially London.<ref name="Smith 2004. p. 122">Smith&Creek, 2004. Volume II. p. 122</ref> In a public speech in Berlin on 4 September 1940, Hitler announced that:

{{blockquote|The other night the English had bombed Berlin. So be it. But this is a game at which two can play. When the British Air Force drops 2000 or 3000 or 4000 kg of bombs, then we will drop 150 000, 180 000, 230 000, 300 000, 400 000 kg on a single night. When they declare they will attack our cities in great measure, we will eradicate their cities. The hour will come when one of us will break – and it will not be [[National Socialist German Workers Party|National Socialist]] Germany!|Adolf Hitler<ref>Schmidt-Klingenberg, Michael. [http://www.spiegel.de/spiegelspecial/0,1518,290080-3,00.html "Wir werden sie ausradieren"] ''Der Spiegel''</ref>}}

[[File:Heinkel over Wapping.jpg|thumb|German ''Luftwaffe'' [[Heinkel He 111]] bomber flying over Wapping and the Isle of Dogs in the East End of [[London]] at the start of the Luftwaffe's evening raids of 7 September 1940]]

The Blitz was underway.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Air_Power/Bombing/AP27.htm |title=The Role of Bombing in World War II |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111229020627/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Air_Power/Bombing/AP27.htm |archive-date=29 December 2011 }}</ref> Göring – at [[Albert Kesselring|Kesselring]]'s urging and with Hitler's support – turned to a massive assault on the British capital.<ref name="Murray 1983, p. 52">Murray 1983, p. 52.</ref> On 7 September 318 bombers from the whole [[KG 53]] supported by eight other {{lang|de|Kampfgruppen}}, flew almost continuous sorties against London, the dock area which was already in flames from earlier daylight attacks.<ref name="Smith 2004. p. 122"/> The attack of 7 September 1940 did not entirely step over the line into a clear terror bombing effort since its primary target was the London docks, but there was clearly an assumed hope of terrorizing the London population.<ref name="Murray 1983, p. 52"/> Hitler himself hoped that the bombing of London would terrorize the population into submission. He stated that "If eight million [Londoners] go mad, it might very well turn into a catastrophe!". After that he believed "even a small invasion might go a long way".<ref>Ray, John, "The Night Blitz", Cassel & Co 1996, {{ISBN|0-304-35676-X}} p.103</ref> Another 250 bomber sorties were flown in the night. By the morning of 8 September 430 Londoners had been killed. The ''Luftwaffe'' issued a press notice announcing they had dropped more than {{convert|1,000,000|kg}} of bombs on London in 24 hours. Many other British cities were hit in the nine-month Blitz, [[Plymouth Blitz|including Plymouth]], [[Swansea Blitz|Swansea]], [[Birmingham Blitz|Birmingham]], [[Sheffield Blitz|Sheffield]], [[Liverpool Blitz|Liverpool]], [[Southampton Blitz|Southampton]], [[Manchester Blitz|Manchester]], [[Bristol Blitz|Bristol]], [[Belfast Blitz|Belfast]], [[Cardiff Blitz|Cardiff]], [[Clydebank Blitz|Clydebank]], [[Hull Blitz|Kingston upon Hull]] and [[Coventry Blitz|Coventry]]. [[Basil Collier]], author of 'The Defence of the United Kingdom', the [[HMSO]]'s official history, wrote:{{sfn |Collier |1957 |p=261}}
{{blockquote |text=Although the plan adopted by the ''Luftwaffe'' early in September had mentioned attacks on the population of large cities, detailed records of the raids made during the autumn and the winter of 1940–41 do not suggest that indiscriminate bombing of civilians was intended. The points of aim selected were largely factories and docks. Other objectives specifically allotted to bomber-crews included the [[City of London]] and the governmental quarter round [[Whitehall]].| [[Basil Collier]]}}

In addition to the conclusions of Basil Collier to that effect there are also, for example, the 1949 memoirs of General [[Henry H. Arnold]] who had been in London in 1941 and supported Collier's estimate. [[Arthur Harris|Harris]] noted in 1947 that the Germans had failed to take the opportunity to destroy English cities by concentrated incendiary bombing.<ref name="Boog 2001, p. 365">Boog 2001, p. 365.</ref>

As the war continued, an escalating [[battle of the beams|war of electronic technology]] developed. To counter German radio navigation aids, which helped their navigators find targets in the dark and through [[overcast|cloud cover]], the British raced to work out the problems with countermeasures (most notably airborne [[radar]], as well as highly effective deceptive beacons and jammers).<ref>Ray, John, "The Night Blitz", Cassel & Co 1996, {{ISBN|0-304-35676-X}} p.236-241</ref>

Despite causing a great deal of damage and disrupting the daily lives of the civilian population, the bombing of Britain failed to have an impact. British [[air defense]]s became more formidable, and attacks tapered off as Germany abandoned its efforts against Britain and focused more on the Soviet Union.

Operation Abigail Rachel, the [[Bombing of Mannheim in World War II|bombing of Mannheim]], was one of the first revenge bombings by the British against a German city on 16 December. The British had been waiting for the opportunity to experiment with such a raid aimed at creating a maximum of destruction in a selected town since the summer of 1940, and the opportunity was given after the German raid on Coventry. Internally it was declared to be a reprisal for Coventry and Southampton. The new bombing policy was officially ordered by Churchill at the start of December, on condition it receive no publicity and be considered an experiment.<ref name="Horst Boog p 507, 508">Edited by Horst Boog, [[Werner Rahn]], Reinhard Stumpf, and [[Bernd Wegner]], "Germany and the Second World War: Volume VI The Global War", Oxford University Press, (2001), {{ISBN|0-19-822888-0}}, pp 507–508</ref> Target marking and most bombs missed the city centre.<ref>{{harvnb|RAF staff|2005|loc=[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20070706011932/http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/diary1940_2.html Campaign Diary 1940]}}</ref> This led to the development of the [[bomber stream]]. Despite the lack of decisive success of this raid, approval was granted for further Abigails.<ref name="Horst Boog p 507, 508"/>

This was the start of a British drift away from precision attacks on military targets and towards area bombing attacks on whole cities.<ref>Horst Boog, "Germany and the Second World War: The global war", p 509</ref>

===Germany later in the war===
[[File:HE 177 ground.JPG|thumb|A captured [[Heinkel He 177]]A in French [[French Air Force|''Armee de l'Air'']] colours in 1945.]]
{{Main|Operation Steinbock|Vergeltungswaffe|Heinkel He 177|l2=Vergeltungswaffen|Bomber B|Amerika Bomber}}
Goering's first chief of staff, ''Generalleutnant'' [[Walther Wever (general)|Walther Wever]], was a big advocate of the [[Ural bomber|Ural bomber program]], but when he died in a flying accident in 1936, support for the strategic bomber program began to dwindle rapidly under Goering's influence. Under pressure from Goering, Albert Kesselring, Wever's replacement, opted for a medium, all-purpose, twin-engine tactical bomber. [[Erhard Milch]], who strongly supported Goering's conceptions, was instrumental in the Luftwaffe's future. Milch believed that the German industry (in terms of raw materials and production capacity) could only produce 1,000 four-engine heavy bombers per year, but many times that number of twin-engine bombers. In spring of 1937, just when the Luftwaffe's own Technical Office had passed the [[Junkers Ju 89|Ju-89]] and [[Dornier Do 19|Do-19]] heavy bomber models as ready for testing, Goering ordered a halt to all work on the four-engine strategic bomber program.<ref>Trigg, "The Defeat of the Luftwaffe" 2016, p. 52-56</ref>

However, in 1939 the ''[[Bomber B]]'' program sought to produce a twin-engined strategic bomber that could carry nearly-equivalent bombloads of Allied four-engined heavy bombers, but as an advanced development of the pre-war ''[[Schnellbomber]]'' concept. The ''Bomber B'' designs meant to achieve top level speeds of at least 600&nbsp;km/h (370&nbsp;mph). The ''Bomber B'' program went nowhere, as the intended designs required pairs of combat-reliable aviation engines of at least 1,500&nbsp;kW (2,000 PS) apiece,{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} something that the German aviation engine industry had [[Bomber B#High-output engines|serious problems in developing]]. A further design program was initiated in the late spring of 1942, to develop four-engine (and later six-engine) bombers with trans-Atlantic range to attack the continental United States and aptly named the ''[[Amerika Bomber]]''. This also went nowhere, with only five prototype airframes from two design competitors getting airborne for testing, before the war's end.

[[File:V-2victimAntwerp1944.jpg|thumb|One of the victims of a German [[V-2 rocket]] that struck Teniers Square, Antwerp, Belgium on 27 November 1944]]

The only heavy bomber design to see service with the ''Luftwaffe'' in World War II was the trouble-prone [[Heinkel He 177]]A. In the initial design of November 1937, the [[Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany)|RLM]] had mistakenly decided that the He 177 should also have a medium angle "dive bombing" capability. [[Ernst Heinkel]] and Milch vehemently disagreed with this, but the requirement was not rescinded until September 1942 by Goering himself.<ref>Griehl and Dressel, p 53</ref> The He 177A went into service in April 1942, despite an ongoing series of engine fires in the small batch of A-0 series production prototype aircraft. This deficiency, along with numerous, seriously deficient design features, led Goering to decry the He 177A's [[Daimler-Benz DB 606]] powerplants to be nothing more than fire-prone, cumbersome [[Heinkel He 177#Engine difficulties|"welded-together engines"]] in August of that year.<ref>Griehl and Dressel, p 52</ref> Production of the B-series by Heinkel's only subcontractor for the ''Greif'', ''[[Arado Flugzeugwerke]]'', would not have started until November 1944, because of Arado's focus on the production of its own [[Arado Ar 234]] jet-powered reconnaissance-bomber at the time.<ref>Griehl and Dressel, p 165</ref> The July 1944-initiated [[Emergency Fighter Program]] ({{lang|de|Jägernotprogramm}}), as well as the devastating effects of Allied bombing on the entire German aviation industry, prevented any production of the He 177B design.

The He 177A entered service in April 1942. At this time, after [[Bombing of Lübeck in World War II|a destructive RAF attack on Lübeck]], Adolf Hitler ordered the ''Luftwaffe'' to retaliate with the so-called [[Baedeker Blitz]]:<ref name="Price, 2005. p. 195">Price, 2005. p. 195.</ref>
{{blockquote|The Führer has ordered that the air war against England be given a more aggressive stamp. Accordingly, when targets are being selected, preference is to be given to those where attacks are likely to have the greatest possible effect on civilian life. Besides raids on ports and industry, terror attacks of retaliatory nature are to be carried out against towns other than London. Minelaying is to be scaled down in favour of these attacks.|Signal from the Führer's headquarters to the ''Luftwaffe'' High Command, 14 April 1942.<ref name="Price, 2005. p. 195"/><ref>{{in lang|cs|de}} {{cite web| author= Jakub Skalický| title=Hitlerův rozkaz k zahájení "baedekerových" náletů |url=http://www.fronta.cz/dokument/hitleruv-rozkaz-k-zahajeni-baedekerovych-naletu |publisher=fronta.cz
| date=14 October 2007 | access-date=20 April 2009 |quote= citing Collier, B.: The Defence of the United Kingdom, HMSO, London 1957}}</ref>}}

In January 1944, a beleaguered Germany tried to strike a blow to British morale with terror bombing with [[Operation Steinbock]], nicknamed the "Baby Blitz" by the British. At this stage of the war, Germany was critically short of heavy and medium bombers, with the added obstacles of a highly effective and sophisticated British air-defence system, and the increasing vulnerability of airfields in occupied Western Europe to Allied air attack making the effectiveness of German retaliation more doubtful.

British historian [[Frederick Taylor (historian)|Frederick Taylor]] asserts that "all sides bombed each other's cities during the war. Half a million [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] citizens, for example, died from German bombing during the invasion and occupation of Russia. That's roughly equivalent to the number of German citizens who died from Allied raids."<ref name=Hawley>{{Citation |first=Charles |last=Hawley |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,341239,00.html |title=Dresden Bombing Is To Be Regretted Enormously |journal=[[Der Spiegel]]|date=11 February 2005}}</ref>{{efn|British historian Richard Overy considers this order of magnitude to be "a rhetorical statistic, to demonstrate the level of sacrifice of the Soviet people and the wickedness of the German enemy". The figure "bears no relation to the detailed wartime documentary evidence". A much lower figure (51,526) is borne out by such evidence and "is much more consistent with the nature of the German bombing effort and the declining capability of the German bomber force as it struggled to sustain support for the ground war with dwindling resources".<ref>Overy ''The Bombing War. Europe 1939-1945'', Penguin Books, PDF edition, p. 228).</ref>}}
The Luftwaffe destroyed numerous Soviet cities through bombing, including [[Minsk]], [[Sevastopol]], and [[Volgograd|Stalingrad]]. 20,528 tons of bombs were dropped on Sevastopol in June 1942 alone.<ref>Hayward 2001, p. 117.</ref> German bombing efforts on the Eastern Front dwarfed its commitments in the west. From 22 June 1941 to 30 April 1944, the Luftwaffe dropped 756,773 tonnes of bombs on the Eastern Front, a monthly average of 22,000 tonnes.<ref>Groehler O. ''Geschichte des Luftkriegs 1910 bis 1980''. Berlin, 1981. p. 373.</ref>
German scientists had invented [[Vergeltungswaffe|vengeance weapons]] – [[V-1 flying bomb]]s and [[V-2 rocket|V-2 ballistic missiles]] – and these were used to launch an aerial assault on London and other cities in southern England from continental Europe. The campaign was much less destructive than the Blitz. As the Allies advanced across France and towards Germany from the West, Paris, [[Liège]], [[Lille]], and [[Antwerp]] also became targets.

The British and US directed part of their strategic bombing effort to the eradication of "wonder weapon" threats in what was later known as [[Operation Crossbow]]. The development of the V2 was hit preemptively in [[Operation Hydra (1943)|Operation Hydra]] of August 1943 against Peenemunde research facility.

===The British later in the war{{anchor |British bombing}}===
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="text-align:left; margin:1em; float:right;"
|+RAF estimates of destruction of "built up areas" of major German cities<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/worldwar2/theatres-of-war/western-europe/investigation/hamburg/sources/docs/6/ |title=Why did the RAF bomb cities? |work=World War II: Western Europe 1939–1945: Hamburg |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=2 January 2012}}</ref><ref>Max Hastings, ''Bomber Command'' (1979) pp 371–2</ref><br />'''Bold'''* = population over 500,000
! City
! percent<br />destroyed
|-
| '''[[Berlin]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|33}}
|-
| '''[[Cologne]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|61}}
|-
| '''[[Dortmund]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|54}}
|-
| '''[[Dresden]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|59}}
|-
| '''[[Düsseldorf]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|64}}
|-
| '''[[Essen]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|50}}
|-
| '''[[Frankfurt]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|52}}
|-
| '''[[Hamburg]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|75}}
|-
| '''[[Leipzig]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|20}}
|-
| '''[[Munich]]'''*||{{Percentage bar|42}}
|-
| [[Bochum]]||{{Percentage bar|83}}
|-
| [[Bremen]]||{{Percentage bar|62}}
|-
| [[Chemnitz]]||{{Percentage bar|41}}
|-
| [[Dessau]]||{{Percentage bar|61}}
|-
| [[Duisburg]]||{{Percentage bar|48}}
|-
| [[Hagen]]||{{Percentage bar|67}}
|-
| [[Hanover]]||{{Percentage bar|60}}
|-
| [[Kassel]]||{{Percentage bar|69}}
|-
| [[Kiel]]||{{Percentage bar|50}}
|-
| [[Mainz]]||{{Percentage bar|80}}
|-
| [[Magdeburg]]||{{Percentage bar|41}}
|-
| [[Mannheim]]||{{Percentage bar|64}}
|-
| [[Nuremberg]]||{{Percentage bar|51}}
|-
| [[Stettin]]||{{Percentage bar|53}}
|-
| [[Stuttgart]]||{{Percentage bar|46}}
|}

The purpose of the area bombardment of cities was laid out in a British Air Staff paper, dated 23 September 1941:<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jzzl8wUn52cC&pg=PA7 |title=Despatch on war operations, 23rd February, 1942, to 8th May, 1945 |last=Harris |first=Arthur Travers |author-link=Arthur Harris |publisher=Psychology Press |year=1995 |page=7 |series=Cass Series: Studies in Air Power |volume=3 |isbn=978-0-7146-4692-3 }}</ref>
{{blockquote|The ultimate aim of an attack on a town area is to break the morale of the population which occupies it. To ensure this, we must achieve two things: first, we must make the town physically uninhabitable and, secondly, we must make the people conscious of constant personal danger. The immediate aim, is therefore, twofold, namely, to produce (i) destruction and (ii) fear of death.}}

During the first few months of the area bombing campaign, an internal debate within the British government about the most effective use of the nation's limited resources in waging war on Germany continued. Should the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) be scaled back to allow more resources to go to the [[British Army]] and [[Royal Navy]] or should the strategic bombing option be followed and expanded? An influential paper was presented to support the bombing campaign by Professor [[Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell|Frederick Lindemann]], the British government's leading scientific adviser, justifying the use of area bombing to "[[Dehousing|dehouse]]" the German workforce as the most effective way of reducing their morale and affecting enemy war production.<ref>Levine 1992, p. 39.</ref>

[[John Edward Singleton|Mr. Justice Singleton]], a High Court Judge, was asked by the cabinet to look into the competing points of view. In his report, delivered on 20 May 1942, he concluded:<ref>Longmate 1983, p.133</ref><ref>Copp 1996.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.valourandhorror.com/BC/Issues/Singletn.php |title=Issues : Singleton – World War Two |publisher=Valourandhorror.com |access-date=1 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081227151505/http://www.valourandhorror.com/BC/Issues/Singletn.php |archive-date=27 December 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
{{blockquote |text=If Russia can hold Germany on land I doubt whether Germany will stand 12 or 18 months' continuous, intensified and increased bombing, affecting, as it must, her war production, her power of resistance, her industries and her will to resist (by which I mean morale).}}

In the end, thanks in part to the dehousing paper, it was this view which prevailed and Bomber Command would remain an important component of the British war effort up to the end of World War II. A large proportion of the industrial production of the United Kingdom was harnessed to the task of creating a vast fleet of heavy bombers. Until 1944, the effect on German production was remarkably small and raised doubts whether it was wise to divert so much effort—the response being there was nowhere else the effort could have been applied, as readily, to greater effect.

[[File:Koeln 1945.jpg|thumb|left|Cologne in 1945, despite being hit dozens of times by Allied bombs, the [[Cologne Cathedral]] survived the war.]]

Lindemann was liked and trusted by [[Winston Churchill]], who appointed him the British government's leading scientific adviser with a seat in the [[Cabinet (government)|Cabinet]]. In 1942, Lindemann presented the "[[dehousing paper]]" to the Cabinet showing the effect that intensive bombing of German cities could produce. It was accepted by the Cabinet, and [[Arthur Travers Harris|Air Marshal Harris]] was appointed to carry out the task. It became an important part of the [[total war]] waged against Germany. Professor Lindemann's paper put forward the theory of attacking major industrial centres in order to deliberately destroy as many homes and houses as possible. Working-class homes were to be targeted because they had a higher density and fire storms were more likely. This would displace the German workforce and reduce their ability to work. His calculations (which were questioned at the time, in particular by Professor [[Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett|P. M. S. Blackett]] of the Admiralty [[operations research]] department, expressly refuting Lindemann's conclusions{{sfn|Longmate|1983|p=132}}) showed the RAF's Bomber Command would be able to destroy the majority of German houses located in cities quite quickly. The plan was highly controversial even before it started, but the Cabinet thought that bombing was the only option available to directly attack Germany (as a major invasion of the continent was almost two years away), and the Soviets were demanding that the Western Allies do something to relieve the pressure on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]]. Few in Britain opposed this policy, but there were three notable opponents in Parliament, Bishop [[George Bell (bishop)|George Bell]] and the Labour [[Member of Parliament|MPs]] [[Richard Stokes (politician)|Richard Stokes]] and [[Alfred Salter]].

[[File:Frankfurt Am Main-Altstadt-Zerstoerung-Luftbild 1944.jpg|thumb|The area near the [[Frankfurt Cathedral]] after a bombing, March 1945]]
On 14 February 1942, the [[area bombing directive]] was issued to Bomber Command. Bombing was to be "focused on the morale of the enemy civil population and in particular of the industrial workers." Though it was never explicitly declared, this was the nearest that the British got to a declaration of unrestricted aerial bombing – Directive 22 said "You are accordingly authorised to use your forces without restriction", and then listing a series of primary targets which included Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, and [[Cologne]]. Secondary targets included [[Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II|Braunschweig]], [[Lübeck]], [[Rostock]], [[Bremen (city)|Bremen]], Kiel, Hanover, Frankfurt, Mannheim, [[Stuttgart]], and [[Schweinfurt]]. The directive stated that "operations should now be focused on the morale of the enemy civilian population, and in particular, the industrial workers". Lest there be any confusion, [[Sir Charles Portal]] wrote to [[Air Chief Marshal]] [[Norman Bottomley]] on 15 February,<ref>Levine 1992, p. 36.</ref>
{{blockquote|text=I suppose it is clear that the aiming points will be the built-up areas, and not, for instance, the dockyards or aircraft factories [...]. }}

The first true practical demonstrations were on the night of 28 to 29 March 1942, when 234 aircraft bombed the port of Lübeck. This target was chosen not because it was a significant military target, but because it was expected to be particularly susceptible – in Harris's words it was "built more like a fire lighter than a city". The old timber structures burned well, and the raid destroyed most of the city's centre. A few days later, Rostock suffered the same fate.

[[File:Lancaster over Hamburg.jpg|thumb|An [[Avro Lancaster]] [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|over Hamburg]]]]
At this stage of the air war, the most effective and disruptive examples of area bombing were the "thousand-bomber raids". Bomber Command was able by organization and drafting in as many aircraft as possible to assemble very large forces which could then attack a single area, overwhelming the defences. The aircraft would be staggered so that they would arrive over the target in succession: the new technique of the "bomber stream".

On 30 May 1942, between 0047 and 0225 hours, in [[Operation Millennium]] 1,046 bombers dropped over 2,000 tons of high explosive and incendiaries on Cologne, and the resulting fires burned it from end to end. The damage inflicted was extensive. The fires could be seen 600 miles away at an altitude of 20,000 feet. Some 3,300 houses were destroyed, and 10,000 were damaged. 12,000 separate fires raged destroying 36 factories, damaging 270 more, and leaving 45,000 people with nowhere to live or to work. Only 384 civilians and 85 soldiers were killed, but thousands evacuated the city. Bomber Command lost 40 bombers.

Two further thousand-bomber raids were conducted over Essen and Bremen, but neither so utterly shook both sides as the scale of the destruction at Cologne and Hamburg.{{cn |date=June 2011}} The effects of the massive raids using a combination of [[blockbuster bomb]]s (to blow off roofs) and incendiaries (to start fires in the exposed buildings) created [[firestorm]]s in some cities. The most extreme examples of which were caused by [[Operation Gomorrah]], the combined USAAF/RAF [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|attack on Hamburg]], (45,000 dead), [[Bombing of Kassel in World War II|attack on Kassel]] (10,000 dead), the [[Bombing of Darmstadt in World War II|attack on Darmstadt]] (12,500 dead), the [[Bombing of Pforzheim in World War II|attack on Pforzheim]] (21,200 dead), the attack on Swinemuende (23,000 dead) and the [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|attack on Dresden]] (25,000 dead).

According to economic historian [[Adam Tooze]], in his book ''[[The Wages of Destruction|The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy]]'', a turning point in the bomber offensive was reached in March 1943, during the [[Battle of the Ruhr]]. Over five months, 34,000 {{vague |date=November 2024 |reason=Are these short tons (ST) or long tons (LT)? |text=tons}} of bombs were dropped. Following the raids, steel production fell by 200,000 tons, making a shortfall of 400,000 tons. Speer acknowledged that the RAF were hitting the right targets, and raids severely disrupted his plans to increase production to meet increasing attritional needs. Between July 1943 and March 1944 there were no further increases in the output of aircraft.<ref>Tooze 2002, pp. 597–598.</ref>

The bombing of Hamburg in 1943 also produced impressive results. Attacks on Tiger I heavy tank production, and of that of 88{{nbsp}}mm guns, the most potent dual-purpose artillery piece in the ''Wehrmacht'', meant that output of both was "set back for months". On top of this, some 62 percent of the population was dehoused causing more difficulties. However, RAF Bomber Command allowed itself to be distracted by Harris' desire for a war winning blow, and attempted the fruitless missions to [[Battle of Berlin (air)|destroy Berlin]] and end the war by spring, 1944.<ref>Tooze 2002, p. 602.</ref>

In October 1943, Harris urged the government to be honest with the public regarding the purpose of the bombing campaign. To Harris, his complete success at Hamburg confirmed the validity and necessity of his methods, and he urged that:<ref>Denson 1999, p. 352.</ref><ref>Garret 1993, pp. 32–33.</ref>
{{blockquote |text=the aim of the Combined Bomber Offensive...should be unambiguously stated [as] the destruction of German cities, the killing of German workers, and the disruption of civilized life throughout Germany.}}
He further said,<ref>Sokolski 2004, p. 36.</ref>
{{blockquote |text=the destruction of houses, public utilities, transport and lives, the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale, and the breakdown of morale both at home and at the battle fronts by fear of extended and intensified bombing, are accepted and intended aims of our bombing policy. They are not by-products of attempts to hit factories.}}

[[File:Bomber Command footage.webm|thumb|Colorized footage of British bombing over Germany]]

By contrast, the [[Strategic bombing survey|United States Strategic Bombing Survey]] found attacks on waterways, beginning 23 September with strikes against the [[Dortmund-Ems Canal]] and [[Mittelland Canal]], produced tremendous traffic problems on the Rhine River. It had immediate effects on shipments of goods, and especially coal deliveries, upon which Germany's economy depended. With no more additional effort, by February 1945, rail transport (which competed for coal) had seen its shipments cut by more than half, and by March, "except in limited areas, the coal supply had been eliminated".<ref>[http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSBS/ETO-Summary.html#taotraw%22 Strategic Bombing Survey summary report], pp.12–13.</ref>

The devastating bombing raids of Dortmund on 12 March 1945 with 1,108 aircraft – 748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes, 68 [[de Havilland Mosquito]]s – was a record attack on a single target in the whole of World War II. More than 4,800 tons of bombs were dropped through the city centre and the south of the city and destroyed 98% of buildings.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.backtonormandy.org/the-history/air-force-operations/airplanes-in-actions/lancaster/raf-bomber-command-748-lancasters-record-attack-dortmund-12-march-1945.html|title=RAF Bomber Command 748 Lancasters record attack (Dortmund) 12 March 1945|first=Fred|last=Vogels|work=backtonormandy.org|access-date=16 April 2017|archive-date=13 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813042135/https://www.backtonormandy.org/the-history/air-force-operations/airplanes-in-actions/lancaster/raf-bomber-command-748-lancasters-record-attack-dortmund-12-march-1945.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

====Other British efforts====
[[Operation Chastise]], better known as the Dambusters raid, was an attempt to damage German industrial production by crippling its hydro-electric power and transport in the Ruhr area. The Germans also built large-scale night-time decoys like the [[Krupp decoy site]] ({{lang|de|Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage}}) which was a German decoy-site of the [[Krupp]] steel works in Essen. During World War II, it was designed to divert Allied [[airstrike]]s from the actual production site of the arms factory.

[[Operation Hydra (1943)|Operation Hydra]] of August 1943 sought to destroy German work on long-range rockets but only delayed it by a few months. Subsequent efforts were directed against [[V-weapons]] launch sites in France.

{{anchor|US bombing in Europe}}<!-- Over 100 articles link to this anchor. -->

===U.S. bombing in Europe===
[[File:Ussb-1.svg|thumb|right|Summary of AAF and RAF bombing<ref name="ussbsurvey">US Strategic Bombing Survey: Statistical Appendix to Overall report (European War) (Feb 1947) table 1</ref>]]
In mid-1942, the [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) arrived in the UK and carried out a few raids across the English Channel. The USAAF [[Eighth Air Force]]'s B-17 bombers were called the "Flying Fortresses" because of their heavy defensive armament of ten to twelve machine guns — eventually comprising up to thirteen heavy 12.7&nbsp;mm calibre, [[Browning M2#AN/M2|"light barrel" Browning M2]] guns per bomber — and armor plating in vital locations. In part because of their heavier armament and armor, they carried smaller bomb loads than British bombers. With all of this, the USAAF's commanders in Washington, D.C., and in UK adopted the strategy of taking on the Luftwaffe head on, in larger and larger air raids by mutually defending bombers, flying over Germany, Austria, and France at high altitudes during the daytime. Also, both the [[U.S. Government]] and its Army Air Forces commanders were reluctant to bomb enemy cities and towns indiscriminately{{Citation needed|reason=Source needed for the claim within sentence|date=April 2021}}. They claimed that by using the B-17 and the [[Norden bombsight]], the USAAF should be able to carry out "[[precision bombing]]" on locations vital to the German war machine: factories, naval bases, shipyards, railroad yards, railroad junctions, power plants, steel mills, [[airfield]]s, etc.

In January 1943, at the [[Casablanca Conference]], it was agreed RAF Bomber Command operations against Germany would be reinforced by the USAAF in a Combined Operations Offensive plan called [[Operation Pointblank]]. Chief of the British Air Staff [[Marshal of the Royal Air Force]] [[Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford|Sir Charles Portal]] was put in charge of the "strategic direction" of both British and American bomber operations. The text of the [[Casablanca directive]] read: "Your primary object will be the progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial, and economic system and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened."<ref>Harris, Arthur Travers, ed Cox, Sebastian (1995). ''Despatch on War Operations: 23 February 1942, to 8th May, 1945'', Routledge, {{ISBN|0-7146-4692-X}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jzzl8wUn52cC&pg=PA194 p.196]</ref> At the beginning of the combined strategic bombing offensive on 4 March 1943, 669 RAF and 303 USAAF heavy bombers were available.

[[File:"Bottisham Four" - Four P-51 Mustangs fighters in flight (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|P-51 Mustangs of the 375th Fighter Squadron, Eighth Air Force mid-1944]]
In late 1943, the Pointblank attacks manifested themselves in the Schweinfurt raids ([[Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission|first]] and [[Second Raid on Schweinfurt|second]]). Despite the use of [[combat box]]es and the [[assembly ship]]s to form them, formations of unescorted bombers were no match for German fighters, which inflicted a deadly toll. In despair, the Eighth halted air operations over Germany until a long-range fighter could be found in 1944; it proved to be the [[North American P-51 Mustang]], which had the range to fly to Berlin and back.

USAAF leaders firmly held to the claim of "precision bombing" of military targets for much of the war, and dismissed claims they were simply bombing cities. However, the weather over Europe seldom left the target visible. The American Eighth Air Force received the first [[H2X radar]] sets (a derivative of the British H2S navigational radar) in December 1943. Within two weeks of the arrival of these first six sets, the Eighth command gave permission for them to area bomb a city using H2X and would continue to authorize, on average, about one such attack a week until the end of the war in Europe.<ref>{{citation |first=Richard G |last=Davis |title=American Bombardment Policy against Germany, 1942–1945 |work=Air Power Review |volume= 6 |number= 3 |pages= 49–62 |url=http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafiles/497EBDC6_1143_EC82_2E260662250E094B.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091210134151/http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafiles/497EBDC6_1143_EC82_2E260662250E094B.pdf |archive-date=10 December 2009 |accessdate= 4 March 2010}}</ref>

In reality, the [[day bombing]] of WWII was "precision bombing" only in the sense that most bombs fell somewhere near a specific designated target such as a railway yard. Conventionally, the air forces designated as "the target area" a circle having a radius of 1,000 feet (300 m) around the aiming point of attack. While accuracy improved during the war, Survey studies show that, overall, only about 20% of the bombs aimed at precision targets fell within this target area.<ref>United States Strategic Bombing Survey</ref> In the fall of 1944, only seven percent of all bombs dropped by the Eighth Air Force hit within 1,000 feet of their aim point.

Nevertheless, the sheer tonnage of explosive delivered by day and by night was eventually sufficient to cause widespread damage, and forced Germany to divert military resources to counter it. The diversion of German fighter planes and [[anti-aircraft]] [[8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41|88 mm artillery]] from the eastern and western fronts was a significant result of the Allied strategic bombing campaign.

[[File:B-24 Liberators over Bratislava, Slovakia on 16 June 1944.jpg|thumb|15th Air Force B-24s attacking the [[Slovnaft|Apollo oil refinery]] in [[Bratislava]], [[Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|Slovakia]], June 16, 1944.]]

For the sake of improving USAAF [[firebombing]] capabilities, [[German Village (Dugway proving ground)|a mock-up German Village]] was built up and repeatedly burned down. It contained full-scale replicas of German residential homes. Firebombing attacks proved quite powerful; [[Battle of Hamburg (air)|in a series of attacks launched by the RAF and US forces in July 1943 on Hamburg]], roughly 50,000 civilians were killed and large areas of the city destroyed.

With the arrival of the brand-new [[Fifteenth Air Force]] based in Italy, command of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe was consolidated into the [[United States Strategic Air Forces]] (USSTAF). With the addition of the Mustang to its strength — and a [[Jimmy Doolittle#Escort fighter tactics|major change]] in fighter tactics by the Eighth Air Force, meant to secure daylight [[air supremacy]] for the Americans over Germany from the start of 1944 onwards — the [[Combined Bomber Offensive]] was resumed. Planners targeted the ''Luftwaffe'' in an operation known as "[[Big Week]]" (20–25 February 1944) and succeeded brilliantly – its major attacks came during Operation Steinbock (the so-called "Baby Blitz") period for the Luftwaffe over England, while losses for the Luftwaffe's day fighter forces were so heavy that both the twin-engined {{lang|de|Zerstörergeschwader}} [[heavy fighter]] wings (the intended main anti-bomber force) and their replacement, single-engined {{lang|de|Sturmgruppen}} of [[Sturmböck|heavily armed Fw 190As]] became largely ineffective, clearing each force of [[bomber destroyer]]s in their turn from Germany's skies throughout most of 1944. With such heavy losses of their primary means of defense against the USAAF's tactics, German planners were forced into a hasty dispersal of industry, with the day fighter arm never being able to fully recover in time.

On 27 March 1944, the [[Combined Chiefs of Staff]] issued orders granting control of all the Allied air forces in Europe, including strategic bombers, to General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], the Supreme Allied Commander, who delegated command to his deputy in [[SHAEF]] Air Chief Marshal [[Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder|Arthur Tedder]]. There was resistance to this order from some senior figures, including Churchill, Harris, and [[Carl Spaatz]], but after some debate, control passed to SHAEF on 1 April 1944. When the Combined Bomber Offensive officially ended on 1 April, Allied airmen were well on the way to achieving air superiority over all of Europe. While they continued some strategic bombing, the USAAF along with the RAF turned their attention to the tactical air battle in support of the [[Normandy Invasion]]. It was not until the middle of September that the strategic bombing campaign of Germany again became the priority for the [[USSTAF]].<ref name="NL309-312">Norman Longmate, ''The Bombers:The RAF Offensive against Germany 1939–1945'', pp.309–312</ref>

The twin campaigns—the USAAF by day, the RAF by night—built up into massive bombing of German industrial areas, notably [[Ruhr area|the Ruhr]], followed by attacks directly on cities such as Hamburg, Kassel, Pforzheim, [[Bombing of Mainz in World War II|Mainz]] and the often-criticized bombing of Dresden.

Approximately 10% of the bombs dropped on Germany are thought to have failed to explode.

===Bombing in the Netherlands later in the war===
Eventually, the [[German invasion of the Netherlands|Netherlands surrendered]] on the 15th of May 1940, after the bombings of multiple Dutch cities by the ''Luftwaffe'' from 10 to 14 May, which had killed 1250-1350 citizens.<ref name=niod>{{Cite web |last=NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies |title=Cijfers bombardementen |url=https://www.niod.nl/nl/veelgestelde-vragen/duitse-en-geallieerde-bombardementen-op-nederland-cijfers |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=www.niod.nl |language=nl}}</ref> However, [[Battle of Zeeland|Zeeland]] continue to resist the German occupation with assistance from Belgian and French forces till the 27th of May, resulting in another bombing by the ''Luftwaffe'' in [[Middelburg, Zeeland|Middelburg]] on the 17th of May.<ref>{{Cite web |title=1940: het gevecht om Zeeland |url=https://www.oorlogzeeland.nl/index.php/zeeland-mei1940 |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=www.oorlogzeeland.nl}}</ref>

During the German [[Netherlands in World War II|occupation of the Netherlands]] from May 1940, the Allied Forces would perform approximately 600 strategic air bombings on Dutch soil.<ref name=niod/> In most cases, there were no civilians killed, but in total around 10,000 Dutch civilians were killed by airstrikes from the Allied Forces between May 1940 and May 1945. Many survivors were left homeless and wounded.<ref name=niod/>

[[File:Bezuidenhout in 1946 (The Hague, the Netherlands).jpg|thumb|The desolate landscape of the Hague neighbourhood of Bezuidenhout in 1946, after the RAF mistakenly bombed the area on 3 March 1945.]]

Most of the losses by Allied airstrikes in the Netherlands were caused by mistakenly bombing the wrong target, initially aiming at German-occupied factories, transportation facilities, population registries, {{lang|de|[[Sicherheitsdienst]]}} headquarters, or even German cities at the border. The Allies generally exercised restraint when planning bombing raids. It is mainly mistakes in implementation that have often caused the greatest damage. The cities of Amsterdam, Breskens, Den Helder, Rotterdam, and The Hague suffered immense losses in civilians and bombing damage by insufficiently accurate aiming. Sometimes the targets were too small, so the risks of 'collateral damage' were very high, as was shown by the bombing of the {{lang|de|Sicherheitsdienst}} headquarters in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the station yards of Haarlem, Utrecht, Roosendaal and Leiden, and the bridges in Zutphen and Venlo. However, the attacks on such small targets remained relatively limited. Less restraint was exercised by the Allies during the 1944–1945 bombings on the residential areas at the [[front line]], such as Huissen, Venray, Montfort, Nijverdal, Goor and Haaksbergen, resulting in preventable civilian losses.<ref name=niod/>

The occupying German forces had used the coast of the Netherlands to launch rocket attacks targeting British cities. This was another reasons for the Allies to perform airstrikes on Dutch soil, leading to one of the deadliest civilian airstrikes in the Netherlands. On 3 March 1945, the RAF mistakenly [[Bombing of the Bezuidenhout|bombed the densely populated Bezuidenhout neighbourhood]] in the city of [[The Hague]]. The British bomber crews had intended to bomb the [[Haagse Bos]] ("Forest of the Hague") district where the [[Nazi Germany|Germans]] had installed [[V-2]] launching facilities that had been used to attack British cities. However, the pilots were issued with the wrong coordinates, so the navigational instruments of the bombers had been set incorrectly. Combined with fog and clouds which obscured their vision, the bombs were instead dropped on the [[Bezuidenhout]] residential neighbourhood. At the time, the neighbourhood was more densely populated than usual with evacuees from The Hague and [[Wassenaar]]; 532 residents were killed<ref>{{Cite web |title=List with names of the victims of the 3 March 1945 bombardment. |url=https://www.bb45.nl/de-slachtoffers |access-date=2023-05-06 |website=www.bb45.nl}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=3 maart 1945 |url=https://www.wo2sporen.eu/3-maart-1945 |access-date=2023-05-06 |website=WO2 Sporen |language=nl}}</ref> and approximately 30,000 were left homeless.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tinschert |first=Carlo |title=Boodschap aan de bevolking van Den Haag : oorzaken, gevolgen en nasleep van het mislukte bombardement op het Bezuidenhout, 3 maart 1945 |date=2005 |publisher=Sdu Uitgevers |isbn=90-12-11188-9 |location=Den Haag |language=Dutch |oclc=71711568}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bombing of the Bezuidenhout: 3 March 1945 |url=https://europeremembers.com/story/bombing-of-the-bezuidenhout-3-march-1945/ |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=Europe Remembers |language=en-US}}</ref>

During the end of the war in 1944–1945, the ''Luftwaffe'' would again drop bombs on multiple Dutch cities, which were already liberated by the Allies in [[Operation Market Garden]] while the rest of the country was still under German occupation.<ref name=niod/> The Netherlands was [[End of World War II in Europe|one of the last European countries]] to eventually be liberated by the Allies on 5 May 1945.

===Bombing in Romania===
[[File:B-24D's fly over Polesti during World War II.jpg|thumb|right|15th Air Force B-24s flying through flak and over the destruction created by preceding waves of bombers ([[Ploiești]], Romania, 1944)]]
{{See also|Bombing of Romania in World War II|Western Allied campaign in Romania|Oil campaign of World War II}}
The first airstrikes against Romania occurred after Romania [[Romania in World War II|joined the Third Reich]] in June 1941 during their [[Operation Barbarossa|invasion of the Soviet Union]]. In the following two months, [[Soviet Air Forces]] conducted several attacks against the [[King Carol I Bridge]], destroying one of its spans and damaging an [[oil pipeline]]. However, after the successful Axis powers [[Crimean Campaign]] and overall deterioration of the Soviet position, Soviet attacks against Romania ceased.

The USAAF first dropped bombs on Romania on 12 June 1942 during the [[Egypt-Libya Campaign|HALPRO (Halverson project) raid]] against Ploiești (the first U.S. mission against a European target). Thirteen [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator|B-24 Liberator]] heavy bombers under the command of Col. [[Harry A. Halverson]] from Fayid, [[Egypt]] dropped eight bombs into the [[Black Sea]], two onto [[Constanța]], six onto Ploiești, six onto [[Teișani]], and several onto [[Ciofliceni]]. In all, three people were killed and damage was minor. The bombing of [[Ploiești]] on 1 August 1943 ([[Operation Tidal Wave]]) was a far more serious affair. ''Tidal Wave'' heavily damaged four refineries and more lightly affected three; it damaged the Ploiești rail station but did not have much impact on the city itself. [[Câmpina]] was more severely damaged. 660 American aircrew were killed or captured, while petroleum exports exceeded pre-Tidal Wave levels by October.<ref name=Stout>{{cite book |last=Stout |first=Jay A |date=November 2003 |title=Fortress Ploesti: The Campaign to Destroy Hitler's Oil Supply}}</ref><ref name=Dugan>{{cite book |last=Dugan |first=James |author2=Stewart, Carroll |title=Ploesti: The Great Ground-Air Battle of 1 August 1943}}</ref> Around 100 civilians were killed and 200 wounded as a result of Operation Tidal Wave.<ref name=Dugan/>

Anglo-American bombers first attacked Bucharest on 4 April 1944, aiming mainly to interrupt military transports from Romania to the Eastern Front and oil transports to Germany. Bucharest stored and distributed much of Ploiești's refined oil products.<ref name=Stout/>{{Rp|190}} The bombing campaign of Bucharest continued until August 1944, after which Romania joined the Allies following a [[1944 Romanian coup d'état|coup by King Michael I]] against [[Ion Antonescu]]. The operations against Bucharest resulted in destroying thousands of buildings and killing or injuring over 9,000 people.<ref name=Adevarul>[http://adevarul.ro/news/bucuresti/mari-dezastre-bombardarea-bucurestilor-44-mii-morti-sute-cladiri-facute-praf-fotografii-socante-1_50bde9247c42d5a663cfca00/index.html Mari Dezastre – Bombardarea Bucureştilor în '44], ''Adevărul'', 22 February 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2018.</ref> In all, the bombardments killed some 7,693 civilians and wounded another 7,809.<ref name="Axworthy">{{cite book|last=Axworthy|first=Mark|title=Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945|place=London|publisher=Arms and Armour|date=1995|page=313}}</ref>

After the 23 August 1944 coup, the Luftwaffe began [[Operation Margarethe II#1944 coup d'état and the battle of Bucharest|bombing Bucharest]] in the attempt to remove the King and Government from power. The raids lasted from 24 to 26 August and killed or wounded over 300 civilians and damaged many buildings.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.aviatori.ro/articole_details.php?id=17|title=Bombardamentele germane asupra Bucureștiului: 23-26 august 1944|author=Narcis I. Gherghina|language=ro|website=aviatori.ro|access-date=18 February 2024}}</ref>

===Bombing in Italy===
[[File:Here are the the liberators-Italian WWII Poster - Statue of Liberty.jpg|thumb|"Behold the Liberators!", propaganda poster issued by the [[Italian Social Republic]], with the [[Statue of Liberty]] having a skull.]]
Italy, first as an Axis member and later as a [[Italian Social Republic|German-occupied]] country, was heavily bombed by Allied forces for all the duration of the war. In [[Northern Italy]], after small-scale bombings which mainly targeted factories, only causing little damage and casualties, RAF Bomber Command launched a first large-scale [[area bombing]] campaign on [[Milan]], [[Turin]] and [[Bombing of Genoa in World War II|Genoa]] (the so-called 'industrial triangle') during the autumn of 1942. All three cities suffered heavy damage and hundreds of civilian casualties, although the effects were less disastrous than those suffered by German cities, mainly because Italian cities had centres made of [[brick]] and [[stone]] buildings, while German cities had centers made of wooden buildings. Milan and Turin were bombed again in February 1943; the heaviest raids were carried out in July (295 bombers dropped 763 tons of bombs on Turin, killing 792 people) and August (all three cities were bombed and a total of 843 bombers dropped 2,268 tons of bombs over Milan, causing about 900 casualties). These attacks caused widespread damage and prompted most of the cities' inhabitants to flee. The only other city in Italy to be subjected to area bombing was [[La Spezia]], heavily bombed by the Bomber Command during April 1943, with slight casualties but massive damage (45% of the buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/la-spezia_res-eb3fb1e6-87e6-11dc-8e9d-0016357eee51_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |title=SPEZIA, La in "Enciclopedia Italiana – II Appendice" – Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> and just 25–30% remained undamaged).

During 1944 and 1945 Milan, Turin and Genoa were instead bombed by [[USAAF]] bombers, which mainly targeted factories and [[marshalling yard]]s; nonetheless, imprecision in bombings caused further destruction of vast areas. By the end of the war, about 30–40% of the buildings in each of the three cities were destroyed, and both in Milan and Turin less than half of the city remained undamaged.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/milano_res-6913b8a2-87e6-11dc-8e9d-0016357eee51_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |title=MILANO in "Enciclopedia Italiana – II Appendice" – Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.torinoinguerra.it/scheda_parola.asp?ID=10 |title=Documento senza titolo |publisher=Torinoinguerra.it |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> [[Bombing of Turin in World War II|2,199 people were killed in Turin]]<ref>{{cite web |title=TORINO 1938{{!}}45. Una guida per la memoria |url=http://www.istoreto.it/torino38-45/download/torino38-45.pdf |access-date=3 July 2022}}</ref> and [[Bombing of Milan in World War II|over 2,200 in Milan]]. Several other cities in northern Italy suffered heavy damage and casualties due to USAAF bombings, usually aimed at factories and marshalling yards but often inaccurate; among them [[Bombing of Bologna in World War II|Bologna]] (2,481 casualties),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://memoriadibologna.comune.bologna.it/bombardamenti-aerei-subiti-da-bologna-95-evento |title=Bombardamenti aerei subiti da Bologna – Storia e Memoria di Bologna |publisher=Memoriadibologna.comune.bologna.it |access-date=1 November 2015 |archive-date=7 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107230437/http://memoriadibologna.comune.bologna.it/bombardamenti-aerei-subiti-da-bologna-95-evento |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Bombing of Padua in World War II|Padua]] (about 2,000 casualties),<ref>{{Cite web |title=BOMBARDAMENTI AEREI .. SULLA CITTA DI PADOVA E PROVINCIA 1943 - 1945 |trans-title=AIR BOMBING .. OVER THE CITY OF PADUA AND PROVINCE 1943 - 1945 |url=http://www.giuliocesaro.it/pdf/storici/012%20Bombardamenti%20aerei%20Padova.pdf |access-date=20 October 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304235909/http://www.giuliocesaro.it/pdf/storici/012%20Bombardamenti%20aerei%20Padova.pdf}}</ref> [[Rimini]] (98% of the city was destroyed or damaged),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/rimini_res-c2072ce3-87e6-11dc-8e9d-0016357eee51_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |title=RIMINI in "Enciclopedia Italiana – II Appendice" – Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> [[Bombing of Treviso in World War II|Treviso]] (1,600 killed in the bombing of 7 April 1944, 80% of the city destroyed or damaged),<ref>{{cite web |title=TREVISO in "Enciclopedia Italiana – II Appendice" – Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/treviso_res-0707d147-87e7-11dc-8e9d-0016357eee51_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> [[Trieste]] (463 casualties on 10 June 1944),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ilpiccolo.gelocal.it/trieste/cronaca/2014/06/14/news/cosi-il-10-giugno-44-trieste-si-sveglio-sotto-le-bombe-1.9423562 |title=Così il 10 giugno '44 Trieste si svegliò sotto le bombe – Cronaca – Il Piccolo |publisher=Ilpiccolo.gelocal.it |date=2014-06-14 |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> [[Bombing of Vicenza in World War II|Vicenza]] (317 casualties on 18 November 1944).

In [[Southern Italy]], after small-scale bombings by the RAF (more frequent than in the north), USAAF started its bombing campaign in December 1942. The bombings mostly targeted [[harbour]] facilities, marshalling yards, factories and [[airport]]s, but the inaccuracy of the attacks caused extensive destruction and civilian casualties; among the cities hit the hardest were [[Bombing of Naples in World War II|Naples]] (6,000 casualties<ref>{{cite web|author=di Gabriella Galbiati |date=2015-06-22 |title=I bombardamenti tedeschi su Napoli – 1943 |publisher=Tesionline.it |url=http://www.tesionline.it/v2/appunto-sub.jsp?p=8&id=703 |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref>), [[Messina]] (more than one third of the city was destroyed,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/messina_res-65875d60-87e6-11dc-8e9d-0016357eee51_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |title=MESSINA in "Enciclopedia Italiana – II Appendice" – Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> and only 30% remained untouched), [[Bombing of Reggio Calabria in World War II|Reggio Calabria]], [[Foggia]] ([[Bombing of Foggia|thousands of casualties]]), [[Bombing of Cagliari in World War II|Cagliari]] (416 inhabitants were killed in the bombings of February 1943, 80% of the city was damaged or destroyed), [[Bombing of Palermo in World War II|Palermo]], [[Catania]] and [[Trapani]] (70% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/trapani_res-0622ef36-87e7-11dc-8e9d-0016357eee51_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/ |title=TRAPANI in "Enciclopedia Italiana – II Appendice" – Treccani |publisher=Treccani.it |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref>).

[[Central Italy]] was left untouched for the first three years of war, but from 1943 onwards it was heavily bombed by USAAF, with heavy damage (usually due to inaccuracy in bombing) to a number of cities, including [[Bombing of Livorno in World War II|Livorno]] (57% of the city was destroyed or damaged, over 500 people were killed in June 1943), [[Civitavecchia]], [[Bombing of Grosseto in World War II|Grosseto]], [[Terni]] (1,077 casualties),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://aginox.greenconsulting.it/ita/operemonumentali.html?ID_prod=40 |title=AGinox |publisher=Aginox.greenconsulting.it |access-date=1 November 2015 |archive-date=7 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107230438/http://aginox.greenconsulting.it/ita/operemonumentali.html?ID_prod=40 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Bombing of Pisa in World War II|Pisa]] (1,738 casualties),<ref>{{cite web |title=31 August 1943 |publisher=Pisainformaflash.it |url=http://www.pisainformaflash.it/notizie/archivio/dettaglio.html?nId=1850 |access-date=1 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160210033037/http://www.pisainformaflash.it/notizie/archivio/dettaglio.html?nId=1850}}</ref> [[Bombing of Pescara in World War II|Pescara]] (between 2,200 and 3,900 casualties), [[Bombing of Ancona in World War II|Ancona]] (1,182 casualties),<ref>{{cite book|author=Massimo Coltrinari |title=Il corpo italiano di liberazione e Ancona: Il tempo delle oche verdi e del lardo rosso. Il passaggio del fronte: giugno-luglio 1944 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7fzAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA131|year=2014 |publisher=Edizioni Nuova Cultura|isbn=978-88-6812-322-2|page=131}}</ref> [[Viterbo]] (1,017 casualties)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sguario |first1=Giovanni Battista |title=Viterbo durante i periodo della Repubblica di Salò |url=http://www.bibliotecaviterbo.it/biblioteca-e-societa/1997_3/inserto.pdf |date=30 September 1997}}</ref> and [[Isernia]] (about 500 casualties on 11 September 1943).
[[Rome]] [[Bombing of Rome|was bombed on several occasions]]; the historic centre and the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] were spared, but the [[suburb]]s suffered heavy damage and between 3,000 and 5,000 casualties. [[Florence]] also suffered some bombings in the outskirts (215 people were killed on 25 September 1943), while the historical centre was not bombed. [[Venice]] proper was never bombed.

In [[Dalmatia]], the Italian [[enclave]] of [[Zadar|Zara]] [[Bombing of Zara in World War II|suffered extensive bombing]], which destroyed 60% of the city and killed about 1,000 of its 20,000 inhabitants, prompting most of the population to flee to mainland Italy (the town was later annexed to [[Yugoslavia]]).

Except for Rome, Venice, Florence, [[Urbino]] and [[Siena]], damage to [[cultural heritage]] in Italy was widespread.

===Bombing in France===
[[File:U-boat Warfare 1939-1945 CL1221.jpg|thumb|German-occupied submarine pens in Brest, France after an allied bombing raid]]
German-occupied France contained a number of important targets that attracted the attention of the British, and later American bombing. In 1940, RAF Bomber Command launched attacks against German preparations for [[Operation Sealion]], the proposed invasion of England, attacking Channel Ports in France and Belgium and sinking large numbers of barges that had been collected by the Germans for use in the invasion.<ref name="Hardest p84-7">Richards 1995, pp. 84–87.</ref> France's Atlantic ports were important bases for both German surface ships and submarines, while French industry was an important contributor to the German war effort.<ref name="exeter exhibition">[http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/wss/bombing/britainexhibition/france.htm#bombing "The Bombing of France 1940–1945 Exhibition"]. Bombing, States and Peoples in Western Europe, 1940–1945. ''University of Exeter Centre for the Study of War, State and Society''. Retrieved 15 July 2012.</ref>

Before 1944, the Allies bombed targets in France that were part of the German war industry. This included raids such as those on the [[Renault]] factory in [[Boulogne-Billancourt]] in March 1942 or the port facilities of [[Nantes]] in September 1943 (which killed 1,500 civilians). In preparation of Allied [[Invasion of Normandy|landings in Normandy]] and [[Operation Dragoon|those in the south of France]], French infrastructure (mainly rail transport) was intensively targeted by RAF and USAAF in May and June 1944. Despite intelligence provided by the [[French Resistance]], many residential areas were hit in error or lack of accuracy. This included cities like [[Marseille]] (2,000 dead), [[Lyon]] (1,000 dead), [[Saint-Étienne]], [[Rouen]], [[Orléans]], [[Grenoble]], [[Nice]], [[Paris]]<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6XWJbgTSXo Newsreel from France Actualités on Paris Bombing]</ref> and surrounds (1000+ dead),<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://quotidien-parisiens-sous-occupation.paris.fr/dossier_bombardements |title=Pictures of Bombing in Paris |access-date=30 November 2018 |archive-date=30 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181130071629/http://quotidien-parisiens-sous-occupation.paris.fr/dossier_bombardements |url-status=dead }}</ref> and so on. The [[Free French Air Force]], operational since 1941, used to opt for the more risky skimming tactic when operating in national territory, to avoid civilian casualties. On 5 January 1945, British bombers struck the "Atlantic pocket" of [[Royan]] and destroyed 85% of this city. A later raid, using [[napalm]] was carried out before it was freed from Nazi occupation in April. Of the 3,000 civilians left in the city, 442 died.

French civilian casualties due to Allied strategic bombing are estimated at half of the 67,000 French civilian dead during Allied operations in 1942–1945; the other part being mostly killed during tactical bombing in the Normandy campaign. 22% of the bombs dropped in Europe by British and American air forces between 1940 and 1945 were in France.<ref name="Florentin">Eddy Florentin, "Quand les alliés bombardaient la France, 1940–1945", Perrin, Paris, 2008.</ref> The port city of [[Le Havre]] had been destroyed by 132 bombings during the war (5,000 dead) until September 1944. It has been rebuilt by architect [[Auguste Perret]] and is now a [[World Heritage Site]].

===Soviet strategic bombing===
{{See also|Shuttle bombing|Operation Frantic}}
The first Soviet offensive bomber campaign was directed against the Romanian oilfields in the summer of 1941.<ref name=Soviet>Horst Boog; Derry Cook-Radmore, trans., "Part I: The Strategic Air War in Europe and Air Defence of the Reich, 1943–44", in ''Germany and the Second World War, Volume VII: The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia, 1943–44/5'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006 [Stuttgart: Deutsche Veralgs-Anstalt GmbH, 2005]), 153–58.</ref> In response to a German raid on Moscow on the night of 21–22 July 1941, [[Soviet Naval Aviation]] launched a series of seven raids against Germany, primarily Berlin, between the night of 7–8 August and 3–4 September. These attacks were undertaken by between four and fifteen aircraft—beginning on 11 August the new [[Tupolev TB-7]]—from the island of [[Saaremaa]], base of the [[1st Torpedo Air Regiment]].<ref name=Soviet/> (At least one raid of the [[81st Air Division]] took off from [[Pushkin Airport]].) Besides thirty tonnes of bombs, they also dropped leaflets with [[Joseph Stalin]]'s defiant speech of 3 July. The Soviets sent a total of 549 long-range bombers over German territory in all of 1941.<ref name=Soviet/>

In March 1942 the strategic bombing arm of the Soviet Union was reorganized as the [[Long Range Air Force]] (ADD). It raided Berlin from 26 to 29 August and again on the night of 9–10 September with 212 planes.<ref name=Soviet/> It raided [[Helsinki]] for the first time on 24 August, [[Budapest]] on 4–5 and 9–10 September and [[Bucharest]] on 13–14 September. The German-occupied Polish cities of [[Kraków]] and Warsaw were not exempt, but the bombers concentrated primarily on military targets.<ref name=Soviet/> There were 1,114 sorties over Germany in 1942. In March 1943 there was a strategic shift: in preparation for the [[Kursk Offensive]], the bombers were directed against the German railroads behind the front.<ref name=Soviet/> In April the Long Range Air Force expanded to eight air corps and eleven independent divisions containing 700 planes. After the Kursk preparations, the Soviets turned their attention to administrative and industrial targets in [[East Prussia]] in April. With 920 aircraft taking part, they dropped 700 tonnes of bombs there. The largest Soviet bomb of the war, [[FAB-5000|an 11,000-pound weapon]], was dropped on [[Königsberg]] during one of these raids.<ref name=Soviet/>

Throughout 1943, the Soviets attempted to give the impression of cooperation between their bombers and those of the West.<ref name=Soviet/> In February 1944, they again shifted priority with the goal of knocking Finland and Hungary out of the war.<ref name=Soviet/> Helsinki was struck by 733 bombers on the night of 6–7 February, by 367 on the 15–16th and 850 on the 25–26th. A total of 2,386 tonnes of bombs were dropped.<ref name=Soviet/> Budapest was hit four straight nights from 13 to 20 September with a total of 8,000 tonnes by 1,129 bombers. The Soviets flew 4,466 sorties into enemy territory in the year 1944. In December the Long Range Air Force was reorganized as the [[18th Air Army]].<ref name=Soviet/>

The main task of the 18th Air Army was to support the final offensive against Germany, but it also undertook raids against Berlin, [[Breslau]], [[Danzig]] and Königsberg.<ref name=Soviet/> In total, 7,158 Soviet aircraft dropped 6,700 tonnes of bombs on Germany during the war, 3.1% of Soviet bomber sorties, 0.5% of all Allied "strategic" sorties against German-occupied territory and 0.2% of all bombs dropped on it.<ref name=Soviet/>

After the war, Marxist historians in the Soviet Union and East Germany claimed that the Soviet strategic bombing campaign was limited by moral qualms over bombing civilian centres.<ref name=Soviet/> One early bombing theorist, [[Vasili Chripin]], whose theories influenced the Soviet Union's first strategic bombing guidelines (1936) and the service regulations of 26 January 1940, drew back from terror bombing as advocated by Western theorists.<ref name=Soviet/> The [[Spanish Civil War]] also convinced Soviet war planners that the air force was most effective when used in close cooperation with ground forces. Nonetheless, after the war, Marshal [[Vasili Sokolovsky]] admitted that the Soviets would have gladly launched a strategic bombing offensive had they the capability.<ref name=Soviet/> In reality, the Soviets never geared aircraft production towards long-range bombers, beyond the small force of indigenously designed and produced [[Petlyakov Pe-8]] four-engined "heavies", and so never had enough to mount an effective campaign. The land-based nature of warfare on the Eastern Front also required closer cooperation between the air forces and ground troops than did, for example, the defence of Great Britain.<ref name=Soviet/>

===Effectiveness of Allied strategic bombing===
Strategic bombing has been criticized on practical grounds because it does not work predictably. The radical changes it forces on a targeted population can backfire, including the counterproductive result of freeing non-essential labourers to fill worker shortages in war industries.<ref name="J.K. Galbraith 1958"/>

Much of the doubt about the effectiveness of the bomber war comes from the fact that German industrial production increased throughout the war.<ref name="Williamson Murray p. 319"/> A combination of factors helped increase German war material output, these included; continuing development from production lines started before the war, limiting competing models of equipment, government enforced sharing of production techniques, a change in how contracts were priced and an aggressive worker suggestion program. At the same time production plants had to deal with a loss of experienced workers to the military, assimilating untrained workers, culling workers incapable of being trained, and utilizing unwilling forced labor. Strategic bombing failed to reduce German war production. There is insufficient information to ascertain how much additional potential industrial growth the bombing campaign may have curtailed.<ref name="econ.yale.edu"/> However, attacks on the infrastructure were taking place. The attacks on Germany's canals and railroads made transportation of [[materiel]] difficult.<ref name="anesi.com"/>

The [[Oil Campaign of World War II]] was, however, extremely successful and made a very large contribution to the general collapse of Germany in 1945. In the event, the bombing of oil facilities became [[Albert Speer]]'s main concern; however, this occurred sufficiently late in the war that Germany would soon be defeated in any case.{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}}

German insiders credit the Allied bombing offensive with crippling the German war industry. Speer repeatedly said both during and after the war that it caused crucial production problems. Admiral [[Karl Dönitz]], head of the [[U-boat]] fleet (''U-waffe''), noted in his memoirs the failure to get the [[German Type XXI submarine|Type XXI]] U-boats into service was entirely the result of the air campaign. According to the [[Strategic Bombing Survey (Europe)|United States Strategic Bombing Survey (Europe)]], despite bombing becoming a major effort, between December 1942 and June 1943, "The attack on the construction yards and slipways was not heavy enough to be more than troublesome" and the delays in delivery of Type XXIs and [[German Type XXIII submarine|XXIIIs]] up until November 1944 "cannot be attributed to the air attack",<ref name="anesi.com"/> however, "The attacks during the late winter and early spring of 1945 did close, or all but close, five of the major yards, including the great Blohm and Voss plant at Hamburg".<ref name="anesi.com"/>

Adam Tooze contends that many of the sources on bombing effectiveness are "highly self-critical after-the-battle analyses" by the former Western Allies. In his book ''The Wages of Destruction'', he makes the case that the bombing was effective.<ref>{{cite web |title=Modern History: World War II, strategic bombing and the liberal-democratic mode of war. |url=https://adamtooze.com/2017/07/12/modern-history-world-war-ii-strategic-bombing-liberal-democratic-mode-war/ |website=ADAM TOOZE |access-date=17 May 2020 |date=12 July 2017}}</ref> Richard Overy argues that the bombing campaign absorbed a significant proportion of German resources that could have been used on the Eastern Front; according to Overy, in 1943 and 1944, two-thirds of German fighters were being used to fend off bomber attacks, which Overy argues was a significant hindrance for the Luftwaffe as it prevented them from conducting bombing operations against the Soviets even though such an air campaign had caused considerable damage to the Soviets early in the war. Overy also reports that by the end of 1943, 75% of Flak 88{{nbsp}}mm guns were being used in air defence, preventing them from being used for anti-tank work on the Eastern Front despite their effectiveness in such a role. Overy also estimates that Britain spent about 7% of her war effort on bombing, which he concludes was not a waste of resources.<ref>Overy, Richard, and R. J. Overy. Why the Allies won. WW Norton & Company, 1997. pp.157–158</ref>

===Effect on morale===
[[File:Effects of strategic bombing on German morale.jpg|thumb|upright|Diagram showing the effects of strategic bombing on German morale in 1945. From the United States [[Strategic Bombing Survey]], Morale Division.]]
Although designed to "break the enemy's will", the opposite often happened. The British did not crumble under the German Blitz and other air raids early in the war. British workers continued to work throughout the war and food and other basic supplies were available throughout.

The impact of bombing on German morale was significant according to Professor [[John Buckley (historian)|John Buckley]]. Around a third of the urban population under threat of bombing had no protection at all. Some of the major cities saw 55–60 percent of dwellings destroyed. Mass evacuations were a partial answer for six million civilians, but this had a severe effect on morale as German families were split up to live in difficult conditions. By 1944, absenteeism rates of 20–25 percent were not unusual and in post-war analysis 91 percent of civilians stated bombing was the most difficult hardship to endure and was the key factor in the collapse of their own morale.<ref name="Buckley 1998, p. 166">Buckley 1998, p. 166.</ref> The United States Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that the bombing was not stiffening morale but seriously depressing it; fatalism, apathy, defeatism were apparent in bombed areas. The ''Luftwaffe'' was blamed for not warding off the attacks and confidence in the Nazi regime fell by 14 percent. By the spring of 1944, some 75 percent of Germans believed the war was lost, owing to the intensity of the bombing.<ref>Kershaw 1987, pp. 206–207.</ref>

Buckley argues the German war economy did indeed expand significantly following Albert Speer's appointment as Reichsminister of Armaments, "but it is spurious to argue that because production increased then bombing had no real impact". The bombing offensive did do serious damage to German production levels. German tank and aircraft production, though reached new records in production levels in 1944, was in particular one-third lower than planned.<ref name="Buckley 1998, p. 165">Buckley 1998, p. 165.</ref> In fact, German aircraft production for 1945 was planned at 80,000, showing Erhard Milch and other leading German planners were pushing for even higher outputs; "unhindered by Allied bombing German production would have risen far higher".<ref name="Murray 1983, p. 253">Murray 1983, p. 253.</ref>

Journalist [[Max Hastings]] and the authors of the official history of the bomber offensive, [[Noble Frankland]] among them, has argued bombing had a limited effect on morale. In the words of the British Bombing Survey Unit (BBSU), "The essential premise behind the policy of treating towns as unit targets for area attack, namely that the German economic system was fully extended, was false." This, the BBSU noted, was because official estimates of German war production were "more than 100 percent in excess of the true figures". The BBSU concluded, "Far from there being any evidence of a cumulative effect on (German) war production, it is evident that, as the (bombing) offensive progressed ... the effect on war production became progressively smaller (and) did not reach significant dimensions."<ref>British Bombing Survey Unit (BBSU) Report, p.41, paras 137-8, corroborated in United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) report No.31, ''The attack on German cities'' (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1945);{{page needed|date=August 2015}} Noble, Frankland, ''The Bombing Offensive Against Germany: Outlines and Perspectives'', London: Faber 1965, p.114;</ref><ref>Hastings, p. 352, quoting German post-war Statistical Office calculations.</ref>

===Allied bombing statistics 1939–1945===
According to the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Allied bombers between 1939 and 1945 dropped 1,415,745 tons of bombs over Germany (51.1% of the total bomb tonnage dropped by Allied bombers in the European campaign), 570,730 tons over France (20.6%), 379,565 tons over Italy (13.7%), 185,625 tons over Austria, Hungary and the Balkans (6.7%), and 218,873 tons over other countries (7.9%).<ref>{{cite book|author1=Claudia Baldoli|author2=Andrew Knapp|title=Forgotten Blitzes: France and Italy Under Allied Air Attack, 1940–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CFc4K-vPfHUC&pg=PA2|year=2012|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4411-8581-5|page=2}}</ref>

{|class="wikitable"
|-
| style="text-align:center; vertical-align:top;"|
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ RAF bombing sorties and losses 1939–1945<ref name = "Humble">{{Cite book|last=Humble |first=Richard |title=War in the Air 1939–1945 |year=1975 |location=London |publisher=Salamander |oclc=4248555}}{{page needed|date=February 2024}}</ref>
!
!Sorties{{efn|A sortie was one aircraft on a single combat operation}}
!Losses
|-
! Night
|297,663
|7,449
|-
! Day
|&nbsp; 66,851
|&nbsp;&nbsp; 876
|-
! '''Total'''
|'''364,484'''
|'''8,325'''
|}
| style="text-align:center; vertical-align:top;"|
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+RAF and USAAF bomb tonnages on Germany 1939–1945<ref name = "Humble"/>{{Clarify|reason=are these the same units or a mixture of long and short tons?|date=March 2009}}
! Year
!RAF Bomber<br />Command (tons)
!US 8th Air<br />Force (tons)
|-
! 1939
|&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; 31
| —
|-
! 1940
| &nbsp; 13,033
| —
|-
! 1941
| &nbsp; 31,504
| —
|-
! 1942
| &nbsp; 45,561
| &nbsp; &nbsp; 1,561
|-
! 1943
| 157,457
| &nbsp; 44,165
|-
! 1944
| 525,518
| 389,119
|-
! 1945
| 191,540
| 188,573
|-
! Total
| 964,644
| 623,418
|}
|}

===Casualties===
[[File:Fotothek df ps 0000047 Eine Mutter über dem Kinderwagen ihrer Zwillinge im Tode.jpg|thumb|upright|Civilian casualties in [[Dresden]] after Allied bombing on the night of 13 February 1945]]
After the war, the U.S. [[Strategic Bombing Survey]] reviewed the available [[Casualty (person)|casualty]] records in Germany and concluded that official German statistics of casualties from air attack had been too low. The survey estimated that at a minimum 305,000 were killed in German cities due to bombing and estimated a minimum of 780,000 wounded. Roughly 7,500,000 German civilians were also rendered homeless. Overy estimated in 2014 that in all about 353,000 civilians were killed by Allies bombing raids against German cities.<ref>Richard Overy, '' The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe 1940–1945'' (2014) pp 306–7</ref> In addition to the minimum figure given in the Strategic bombing survey, the number of people killed by Allied bombing in Germany has been estimated at between 400,000 and 600,000.<ref name="Germany">German Deaths by aerial bombardment (It is not clear if these totals includes Austrians, of whom about 24,000 were killed (see {{cite web |title=Austrian Press & Information Service, Washington, D.C. |url=http://www.austria.org/history_rep.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060420214655/http://www.austria.org/history_rep.shtml |archive-date=20 April 2006 |access-date=2016-02-09}}) and other territories in the Third Reich but not in modern Germany)

* 600,000 about 80,000 were children in [http://www.spiegel.de/sptv/reportage/0,1518,258062,00.html Hamburg, Juli 1943] in ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' SPIEGEL ONLINE 2003 (in German)
* Matthew White ''[http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm Twentieth Century Atlas – Death Tolls]'' lists the following totals and sources:
* more than 305,000: (1945 [[Strategic Bombing Survey]]);
* 400,000: ''Hammond Atlas of the 20th century'' (1996)
* 410,000: [[R. J. Rummel]], 100% [[Democide|democidal]];
* 499,750: [[Micheal Clodfelter]] ''Warfare and Armed Conflict: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1618–1991'';
* 593,000: [[John Keegan]] ''The Second World War'' (1989);
* 593,000: [[J. A. S. Grenville]] citing "official Germany" in ''A History of the World in the Twentieth Century (1994)''
* 600,000: [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]] ''Modern Times'' (1983)</ref> In the United Kingdom, 60,595 Britons were killed by German bombing, and in France, 67,078 French people were killed by Allied bombing raids.<ref name="White">{{Cite book |last=White |first=Matthew |url=http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2stats.htm |title=Twentieth Century Atlas – Death Tolls: United Kingdom |access-date=4 June 2009}}

* 60,000, [[John Keegan]] ''The Second World War'' (1989); "bombing"
* 60,000: Boris Urlanis, ''Wars and Population'' (1971)
* 60,595: Harper Collins Atlas of the Second World War
* 60,600: John Ellis, World War II: a statistical survey (Facts on File, 1993) "killed and missing"
* 92,673, (incl. 30,248 merchant mariners and 60,595 killed by bombing): ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 15th edition, 1992 printing. "Killed, died of wounds, or in prison .... exclud[ing] those who died of natural causes or were suicides."
* 92,673: Norman Davies,''Europe A History'' (1998) same as Britannica's war dead in most cases
* 92,673: [[Micheal Clodfelter]] ''Warfare and Armed Conflict: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1618–1991'';
* 100,000: William Eckhardt, a three-page table of his war statistics printed in ''World Military and Social Expenditures 1987–88'' (12th ed., 1987) by [[Ruth Leger Sivard]]. "Deaths", including "massacres, political violence, and famines associated with the conflicts."
The British kept accurate records during World War II, and 60,595 people killed was the official death total with 30,248 for the British merchant mariners (most of whom are listed on the [[Tower Hill Memorial]])</ref><ref name=France>Wieviorka, Olivier (2008). ''Normandy: the landings to the liberation of Paris''. p. 131.</ref>

Belgrade was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe on 6 April 1941, when more than 17,000 people were killed.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/balkan/20_260_2.htm|title=THE GERMAN CAMPAIGN IN THE BALKANS (SPRING 1941)|chapter=Part Two the Yugoslav Campaign|publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]]|url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/balkan/intro.htm|access-date=7 July 2009|id=CMH Pub 104-4|year=1986|orig-year=1953|archive-date=19 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619234443/http://history.army.mil/books/wwii/balkan/intro.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to ''The Oxford companion to World War II'', "After Italy's surrender the Allies kept up the bombing of the northern part occupied by the Germans and more than 50,000 Italians were killed in these raids."<ref name=Oxford>Ian Dear, Michael Richard Daniell Foot (2001). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qC0OgOHAHVkC The Oxford companion to World War II]''. Oxford University Press. p. 837. {{ISBN|0-19-860446-7}}</ref> An [[National Institute of Statistics (Italy)|Istat]] study of 1957 stated that 64,354 Italians were killed by aerial bombing, 59,796 of whom were civilians.<ref name="Marco Gioannini p. 491"/> Historians Marco Gioannini and Giulio Massobrio argued in 2007 that this figure is inaccurate due to loss of documents, confusion and gaps, and estimated the total number of civilian casualties in Italy due to aerial bombing as comprised between 80,000 and 100,000.<ref>Marco Gioannini, Giulio Massobrio, ''Bombardate l'Italia. Storia della guerra di distruzione aerea 1940–1945'', p. 492</ref> Over 160,000 Allied airmen and 33,700 planes were lost in the [[European theatre of World War II|European theatre]].<ref>Kenneth K. Hatfield (2003). "''[https://books.google.com/books?id=mtxMN5NdmCsC&pg=RA1-PA91 Heartland heroes: remembering World War II.]''". p.91.</ref>{{Vague|does this mean killed, or killed plus wounded? Also the reference makes no reference to strategic bombing, e.g. how many of those were lost on tactical bombing or air superiority missions?|date=May 2010}}

==Asia==
[[File:Casualties of a mass panic - Chungking, China.jpg|thumb|upright|Chinese casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese aerial [[Bombing of Chongqing]]]]
Within Asia, the majority of strategic bombing was carried out by the Japanese and the US. The British Commonwealth planned that once the war in Europe was complete, a strategic bombing force of up to 1,000 heavy bombers ([[Tiger Force (air)|"Tiger Force"]]) would be sent to the Far East. This was never realised before the end of the Pacific War.

===Japanese bombing===
Japanese strategic bombing was independently conducted by the [[Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service]] and the [[Imperial Japanese Army Air Service]]. The first large-scale bombing raid, carried out over [[Shanghai]] on [[January 28 incident|28 January 1932]], has been called "the first [[terror bombing]] of a civilian population of an era that was to become familiar with it".<ref name=Tuchman>{{cite book|last=Tuchman|first=Barbara|title=Stilwell and the American experience of China|year=1970|location= New York|publisher = [[Macmillan & Co]]|pages=Chapter 5}}</ref> Bombing efforts mostly targeted large Chinese cities such as Shanghai, [[Wuhan]], and [[Bombing of Chongqing|Chongqing]], with around 5,000 raids from February 1938 to August 1943 in the latter case.

The bombing of [[Nanjing]] and [[Guangzhou|Canton]], which began on 22 and 23 September 1937, called forth widespread protests culminating in a resolution by the Far Eastern Advisory Committee of the [[League of Nations]]. [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury|Lord Cranborne]], the British Under-Secretary of State For Foreign Affairs, expressed his indignation in his own declaration.
{{blockquote|Words cannot express the feelings of profound horror with which the news of these raids had been received by the whole civilized world. They are often directed against places far from the actual area of hostilities. The military objective, where it exists, seems to take a completely second place. The main object seems to be to inspire terror by the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians...|Lord Cranborne<ref>The Illustrated London News, ''Marching to War 1933–1939'', Doubleday, 1989, p.135</ref>}}

The Imperial Japanese Navy also carried out a carrier-based airstrike on the [[Neutral country#Terminology|armed neutralitarian]] United States at [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor and Oahu on 7 December 1941]], resulting in almost 2,500 fatalities and plunging America into World War II the next day. There were also air raids on the [[Commonwealth of the Philippines|Philippines]], [[Bombing of Mandalay (1942)|Burma]], [[Bombing of Singapore (1941)|Singapore]], [[Easter Sunday Raid|Ceylon]], and northern Australia ([[Bombing of Darwin (February 1942)|Bombing of Darwin]], 19 February 1942).

[[File:Darwin 42.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Bombing of Darwin]] was the largest single attack ever mounted on Australian soil.]]

===Italian bombing===
In 1940 and 1941, the ''[[Regia Aeronautica]]'', seeking to disrupt Allied oil supplies, struck British targets in the Middle East, mainly using the [[CANT Z.1007]] and [[Savoia-Marchetti SM.82]] bombers. For a year starting in June 1940, Italian bombers [[Italian bombing of Mandatory Palestine in World War II|attacked Mandatory Palestine]], mainly targeting [[Haifa]] and [[Tel Aviv]] for their large refineries and port facilities. The deadliest single attack came on 9 September 1940, when an Italian raid over Tel Aviv killed 137 people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tel-aviv.millenium.org.il/NR/exeres/A90C2246-AEE0-4273-9EC7-9BD7CAEC145B,frameless.htm?NRMODE=Published |title=The Italian Bombing |publisher=Tel Aviv Municipality |language=he |access-date=17 May 2019 |archive-date=12 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912234413/http://tel-aviv.millenium.org.il/NR/exeres/A90C2246-AEE0-4273-9EC7-9BD7CAEC145B,frameless.htm?NRMODE=Published |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isracast.com/article.aspx?ID=470&t=Why-Italian-Planes-Bombed-Tel-Aviv%3F |title=Why Italian Planes Bombed Tel-Aviv? |author=Yehuda Lapidot |publisher=IsraCast |access-date=17 May 2019 |author-link=Yehuda Lapidot |archive-date=21 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921004629/http://www.isracast.com/article.aspx?ID=470&t=Why-Italian-Planes-Bombed-Tel-Aviv%3F |url-status=dead }}</ref> While Italian efforts mainly focused on the Mandate of Palestine, one notable mission on 19 October 1940 [[Bombing of Bahrain in World War II|struck instead]] at refinery facilities in [[Bahrain]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dodecaneso.org/bahrein.htm|title=Missione Bahrein|access-date=17 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802231803/http://www.dodecaneso.org/bahrein.htm|archive-date=2016-08-02|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Allied bombing of South-East Asia===
{{Main|Bombing of South-East Asia (1944–45)}}
After the [[Japanese invasion of Thailand]] (8 December 1941), the southeast Asian kingdom signed a treaty of alliance with Japan and declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom. The Allies dropped 18,583 bombs on Thailand during the war, resulting in the death of 8,711 people and the destruction of 9,616 buildings.<ref>E. Bruce Reynolds, ''Thailand's Secret War: The Free Thai, OSS, and SOE During World War II'' (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 354 n. 68.</ref> The primary target of the campaign was [[Bombing of Bangkok in World War II|Bangkok]], the Thai capital. Rural areas were almost entirely unaffected.<ref>Reynolds, ''Thailand's Secret War'', 431.</ref>

In August 1942, the United States [[Fourteenth Air Force]] based in southern China undertook the first air raids in [[French Indochina]]. The American bombing campaign gained intensity after the surrender of Germany in May 1945, and by July Japanese defences were incapable of impeding their movement. The Americans had attained complete air supremacy.<ref>David G. Marr, ''Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power'' (University of California Press, 1995), 271–74.</ref> After the [[victory over Japan]], on 19 August the denizens of [[Hanoi]] broke into the streets and removed the black coverings off the street lamps.<ref>Marr, ''Vietnam 1945'', 401.</ref>

In 1944–45, the [[Eastern Fleet]] of the Royal Navy undertook several raids on the occupied [[Netherlands East Indies]]. They also bombed the Japanese-occupied Indian territory of the [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]].

===<span class="anchor" id="United States bombing of Japan"></span>U.S. bombing of Japan===
{{Main|Air raids on Japan}}
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="text-align:left; margin:1em; float:right;"
|+Conventional bombing damage to Japanese cities in World War II<ref name=autogenerated1>Caidin, Martin. ''A Torch to the Enemy: The Fire Raid on Tokyo'', Bantam War Books, 1960. {{ISBN|0-553-29926-3}} pp.??</ref>
! City
! % area<br />destroyed
|-
| [[Yokohama]]
| {{Percentage bar|58}}
|-
| Tokyo
| {{Percentage bar|51}}
|-
| [[Toyama, Toyama|Toyama]]
| {{Percentage bar|99}}
|-
| [[Nagoya]]
| {{Percentage bar|40}}
|-
| [[Osaka]]
| {{Percentage bar|35.1}}
|-
| [[Nishinomiya]]
| {{Percentage bar|11.9}}
|-
| [[Shimonoseki]]
| {{Percentage bar|37.6}}
|-
| [[Kure, Hiroshima|Kure]]
| {{Percentage bar|41.9}}
|-
| [[Kobe]]
| {{Percentage bar|55.7}}
|-
| [[Ōmuta, Fukuoka|Ōmuta]]
| {{Percentage bar|35.8}}
|-
| [[Wakayama, Wakayama|Wakayama]]
| {{Percentage bar|50}}
|-
| [[Kawasaki, Kanagawa|Kawasaki]]
| {{Percentage bar|36.2}}
|-
| [[Okayama]]
| {{Percentage bar|68.9}}
|-
| [[Yahata, Fukuoka|Yahata]]
| {{Percentage bar|21.2}}
|-
| [[Kagoshima]]
| {{Percentage bar|63.4}}
|-
| [[Amagasaki]]
| {{Percentage bar|18.9}}
|-
| [[Sasebo, Nagasaki|Sasebo]]
| {{Percentage bar|41.4}}
|-
| [[Moji-ku, Kitakyūshū|Moji]]
| {{Percentage bar|23.3}}
|-
| [[Miyakonojō]]
| {{Percentage bar|26.5}}
|-
| [[Nobeoka]]
| {{Percentage bar|25.2}}
|-
| [[Miyazaki, Miyazaki|Miyazaki]]
| {{Percentage bar|26.1}}
|-
| [[Ube, Yamaguchi|Ube]]
| {{Percentage bar|20.7}}
|-
| [[Saga, Saga|Saga]]
| {{Percentage bar|44.2}}
|-
| [[Imabari]]
| {{Percentage bar|63.9}}
|-
| [[Matsuyama]]
| {{Percentage bar|64}}
|-
| [[Fukui, Fukui|Fukui]]
| {{Percentage bar|86}}
|-
| [[Tokushima]]
| {{Percentage bar|85.2}}
|-
| [[Sakai, Osaka|Sakai]]
| {{Percentage bar|48.2}}
|-
| [[Hachioji]]
| {{Percentage bar|65}}
|-
| [[Kumamoto]]
| {{Percentage bar|31.2}}
|-
| [[Isesaki]]
| {{Percentage bar|56.7}}
|-
| [[Takamatsu, Kagawa|Takamatsu]]
| {{Percentage bar|67.5}}
|-
| [[Akashi, Hyōgo|Akashi]]
| {{Percentage bar|50.2}}
|-
| [[Fukuyama, Hiroshima|Fukuyama]]
| {{Percentage bar|80.9}}
|-
| [[Aomori, Aomori|Aomori]]
| {{Percentage bar|30}}
|-
| [[Okazaki, Aichi|Okazaki]]
| {{Percentage bar|32.2}}
|-
| [[Ōita, Ōita|Ōita]]
| {{Percentage bar|28.2}}
|-
| [[Hiratsuka]]
| {{Percentage bar|48.4}}
|-
| [[Tokuyama, Yamaguchi|Tokuyama]]
| {{Percentage bar|48.3}}
|-
| [[Yokkaichi, Mie|Yokkaichi]]
| {{Percentage bar|33.6}}
|-
| [[Ise, Mie|Ujiyamada]]
| {{Percentage bar|41.3}}
|-
| [[Ōgaki, Gifu|Ōgaki]]
| {{Percentage bar|39.5}}
|-
| [[Gifu, Gifu|Gifu]]
| {{Percentage bar|63.6}}
|-
| [[Shizuoka, Shizuoka|Shizuoka]]
| {{Percentage bar|66.1}}
|-
| [[Himeji]]
| {{Percentage bar|49.4}}
|-
| [[Fukuoka, Fukuoka|Fukuoka]]
| {{Percentage bar|24.1}}
|-
| [[Kōchi, Kōchi|Kōchi]]
| {{Percentage bar|55.2}}
|-
| [[Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka|Shimizu]]
| {{Percentage bar|42}}
|-
| [[Ōmura, Nagasaki|Ōmura]]
| {{Percentage bar|33.1}}
|-
| [[Chiba (city)|Chiba]]
| {{Percentage bar|41}}
|-
| [[Ichinomiya]]
| {{Percentage bar|56.3}}
|-
| [[Nara, Nara|Nara]]
| {{Percentage bar|69.3}}
|-
| [[Tsu, Mie|Tsu]]
| {{Percentage bar|69.3}}
|-
| [[Kuwana]]
| {{Percentage bar|75}}
|-
| [[Toyohashi]]
| {{Percentage bar|61.9}}
|-
| [[Numazu]]
| {{Percentage bar|42.3}}
|-
| [[Choshi]]
| {{Percentage bar|44.2}}
|-
| [[Kofu]]
| {{Percentage bar|78.6}}
|-
| [[Utsunomiya]]
| {{Percentage bar|43.7}}
|-
| [[Mito, Ibaraki|Mito]]
| {{Percentage bar|68.9}}
|-
| [[Sendai]]
| {{Percentage bar|21.9}}
|-
| [[Tsuruga]]
| {{Percentage bar|65.1}}
|-
| [[Nagaoka, Niigata|Nagaoka]]
| {{Percentage bar|64.9}}
|-
| [[Hitachi, Ibaraki|Hitachi]]
| {{Percentage bar|72}}
|-
| [[Kumagaya]]
| {{Percentage bar|55.1}}
|-
| [[Hamamatsu]]
| {{Percentage bar|60.3}}
|-
| [[Maebashi]]
| {{Percentage bar|64.2}}
|}

The United States began effective strategic bombing of Japan in late 1944, when [[B-29 Superfortress|B-29s]] began operating from Guam and Tinian in the Marianas Islands. Before that, U.S. forces had mounted a [[Doolittle Raid|single raid]] from an aircraft carrier in 1942, and ineffective long-range raids from China from June to December 1944. In the last seven months of the campaign, a change to firebombing resulted in great destruction of 67 Japanese cities, as many as 500,000 Japanese deaths and some 5 million more made homeless. [[Emperor Hirohito]]'s viewing of the destroyed areas of Tokyo in March 1945 is said to have been the beginning of his personal involvement in the peace process, culminating in [[Surrender of Japan|Japan's surrender]] five months later.<ref>Bradley, F. J. ''No Strategic Targets Left''. "Contribution of Major Fire Raids Toward Ending WWII", Turner Publishing Company, limited edition. {{ISBN|1-56311-483-6}}. p. 38.</ref>

====Conventional bombing====
{{More citations needed section|date=August 2009}}
[[File:Tokyo kushu 1945-3.jpg|thumb|left|The partially incinerated remains of Japanese civilians in Tokyo, 10 March 1945]]
The first U.S. raid on the Japanese main island was the Doolittle Raid of 18 April 1942, when sixteen [[B-25 Mitchell]]s were launched from the {{USS|Hornet|CV-8}} to attack targets including [[Yokohama]] and Tokyo and then fly on to airfields in China. The raid was a military pinprick but a significant propaganda victory. Because they were launched prematurely, none of the aircraft had enough fuel to reach their designated landing sites, and so either crashed or ditched (except for one aircraft, which landed in the Soviet Union, where the crew was interned). Two crews were captured by the Japanese.

The key development for the bombing of Japan was the B-29 Superfortress, which had an operational range of 1,500 miles (2,400&nbsp;km); almost 90% of the bombs (147,000 tons) dropped on the home islands of Japan were delivered by this bomber. The [[Bombing of Yawata (June 1944)|first raid by B-29s on Japan]] was on 15 June 1944, from China. The B-29s took off from [[Chengdu]], over 1,500 miles away. This raid was also not particularly effective: only forty-seven of the sixty-eight bombers hit the target area.

[[File:Bomb damage in Tokyo.jpg|thumb|left|This postwar photograph shows the district of [[Sumida, Tokyo]] being virtually flattened.]]

Raids of Japan from mainland China, called [[Operation Matterhorn]], were carried out by the [[Twentieth Air Force]] under [[XX Bomber Command]]. Initially the commanding officer of the Twentieth Air Force was [[Hap Arnold]], and later [[Curtis LeMay]]. Bombing Japan from China was never a satisfactory arrangement because not only were the Chinese airbases difficult to supply—materiel being sent by air from India over "[[the Hump]]"—but the B-29s operating from them could only reach Japan if they traded some of their bomb load for extra fuel in tanks in the bomb-bays. When Admiral [[Chester Nimitz]]'s [[Leapfrogging (strategy)|island-hopping]] campaign captured Pacific islands close enough to Japan to be within the B-29's range, the Twentieth Air Force was assigned to [[XXI Bomber Command]], which organized a much more effective bombing campaign of the Japanese home islands. Based in the [[Mariana Islands|Marianas]] ([[Guam]] and [[Tinian]] in particular), the B-29s were able to carry their full bomb loads and were supplied by cargo ships and tankers. The first raid from the Mariana was on 24 November 1944, when 88 aircraft bombed Tokyo. The bombs were dropped from around 30,000 feet (10,000 m) and it is estimated that only around 10% hit their targets.

[[File:Areas of principal Japanese cities destoyed by US bombing.jpg|left|thumb|Conventional bombs from [[Boeing B-29 Superfortress|B-29s]] destroyed over 40% of the urban area in Japan's six greatest industrial cities.]]
Unlike all other forces in theater, the [[Bomber Command#USAAF|USAAF Bomber Commands]] did not report to the commanders of the theaters but directly to the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]]. In July 1945, they were placed under the [[U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific]], which was commanded by Carl Spaatz.

As in Europe, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) tried daylight precision bombing. However, it proved to be impossible due to the weather around Japan, "during the best month for bombing in Japan, visual bombing was possible for [just] seven days. The worst had only one good day."<ref>{{cite book | last = Kaplan | first = Fred | author-link = Fred Kaplan (journalist) | title = The Wizards of Armageddon | publisher = Simon and Schuster | location = New York | year = 1983 | isbn = 978-0-671-42444-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/wizardsofarmaged00fred }}[https://books.google.com/books?id=yJXu7kMSc44C&pg=PA42 p.42]</ref> Further, bombs dropped from a great height were tossed about by high winds.

General LeMay, commander of XXI Bomber Command, instead switched to mass firebombing night attacks from altitudes of around 7,000 feet (2,100 m) on the major [[conurbation]]s. "He looked up the size of the large Japanese cities in the ''World Almanac'' and picked his targets accordingly."<ref>{{cite book | last = Kaplan | first = Fred | title = The Wizards of Armageddon | publisher = Simon and Schuster | location = New York | year = 1983 | isbn = 978-0-671-42444-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/wizardsofarmaged00fred }}[https://books.google.com/books?id=yJXu7kMSc44C&pg=PA43 p.43]</ref> Priority targets were Tokyo, [[Nagoya]], [[Osaka]], and [[Kobe]]. Despite limited early success, particularly against Nagoya, LeMay was determined to use such bombing tactics against the vulnerable Japanese cities. Attacks on strategic targets also continued in lower-level daylight raids.

The first successful firebombing raid was [[Bombing of Kobe in World War II|on Kobe]] on 3 February 1945, and following its relative success the USAAF continued the tactic. Nearly half of the principal factories of the city were damaged, and production was reduced by more than half at one of the port's two shipyards.

[[Bombing of Tokyo in World War II|The first raid of this type on Tokyo]] was on the night of 23–24 February when 174 B-29s destroyed around one square mile (3&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of the city. Following on that success, as [[Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)|Operation Meetinghouse]], 334 B-29s raided on the night of 9–10 March, of which 282 Superforts reached their targets, dropping around 1,700 tons of bombs. Around 16 square miles (41&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of the city was destroyed and over 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the [[fire storm]]. It was the most destructive conventional raid, and the deadliest single bombing raid of any kind in terms of lives lost, in all of military aviation history,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/03/0309incendiary-bombs-kill-100000-tokyo/ |title=9 March 1945: Burning the Heart Out of the Enemy |date=9 March 2011 |magazine=Wired |publisher=Condé Nast Digital |access-date=8 August 2011}}</ref> even when the missions on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are taken as single events.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/bombings-worse-nagasaki-hiroshima/ |title=Bombings Worse than Nagasaki and Hiroshima |author=Laurence M. Vance |date=14 August 2009 |work=The Future of Freedom Foundation |access-date=8 August 2011}}</ref> The city was made primarily of wood and paper, and the fires burned out of control. The effects of the Tokyo firebombing proved the fears expressed by Admiral [[Isoroku Yamamoto|Yamamoto]] in 1939: "Japanese cities, being made of wood and paper, would burn very easily. The Army talks big, but if war came and there were large-scale air raids, there's no telling what would happen."<ref name="Spector">Spector, Ronald (1985). "Eagle Against the Sun." New York: Vintage Books. p. 503.</ref>

In the following two weeks, there were almost 1,600 further sorties against the four cities, destroying 31 square miles (80&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) in total at a cost of 22 aircraft. By June, over forty percent of the urban area of Japan's largest six cities (Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Yokohama, and [[Kawasaki, Kanagawa|Kawasaki]]) was devastated. LeMay's fleet of nearly 600 bombers destroyed tens of smaller cities and manufacturing centres in the following weeks and months.

Leaflets were dropped over cities before they were bombed, warning the inhabitants and urging them to escape the city. Though many{{Who|date=January 2017}}, even within the Air Force, viewed this as a form of [[psychological warfare]], a significant element in the decision to produce and drop them was the desire to assuage American anxieties about the extent of the destruction created by this new war tactic. Warning leaflets were also dropped on cities not in fact targeted, to create uncertainty and absenteeism.

A year after the war, the [[Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific War)|U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey]] reported that American military officials had underestimated the power of strategic bombing combined with naval blockade and previous military defeats to bring Japan to unconditional surrender without invasion. By July 1945, only a fraction of the planned strategic bombing force had been deployed yet there were few targets left worth the effort. In hindsight, it would have been more effective to use land-based and carrier-based air power to strike merchant shipping and begin aerial mining at a much earlier date so as to link up with effective [[Allied submarines in the Pacific War|submarine anti-shipping campaign]] and completely isolate the island nation. This would have accelerated the strangulation of Japan and perhaps ended the war sooner.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anesi.com/ussbs01.htm |title=United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Summary Report (Pacific War). 1 July 1946 |publisher=Anesi.com |access-date=1 November 2015}}</ref> A postwar [[Naval Ordnance Laboratory]] survey agreed, finding naval mines dropped by B-29s had accounted for 60% of all Japanese shipping losses in the last six months of the war.<ref name=autogenerated2>Hallion, Dr. Richard P. [https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/EARS/Hallionpapers/decisiveairpower1950.htm ''Decisive Air Power Prior to 1950''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231050602/http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/EARS/Hallionpapers/decisiveairpower1950.htm |date=31 December 2007 }} Air Force History and Museums Program.</ref> In October 1945, Prince [[Fumimaro Konoe]] said the sinking of Japanese vessels by U.S. aircraft combined with the B-29 aerial mining campaign were just as effective as B-29 attacks on industry alone,<ref>Major John S. Chilstrom, School of Advanced Airpower Studies. ''Mines Away! The Significance of U.S. Army Air Forces Minelaying in World War II''. Diane Publishing, 1992.</ref> though he admitted, "the thing that brought about the determination to make peace was the prolonged bombing by the B-29s." Prime Minister Baron [[Kantarō Suzuki]] reported to U.S. military authorities it "seemed to me unavoidable that in the long run Japan would be almost destroyed by air attack so that merely on the basis of the B-29s alone I was convinced that Japan should sue for peace."<ref name=autogenerated2 />

====Nuclear bombings====
{{Main|Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki}}
[[File:Nagasakibomb.jpg|thumb|left|The [[mushroom cloud]] of the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan]], 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the [[hypocentre]].]]
While the bombing campaign against Japan continued, the U.S. and its allies were preparing to [[Operation Downfall|invade the Japanese home islands]], which they anticipated to be heavily costly in terms of life and property. On 1 April 1945, U.S. troops [[Battle of Okinawa|invaded the island of Okinawa]] and fought there fiercely against not only enemy soldiers, but also enemy civilians. After two and a half months, 12,000 U.S. servicemen, 107,000 Japanese soldiers, and over 150,000 Okinawan civilians (included those forced to fight) were killed. Given the casualty rate in Okinawa, American commanders realized a grisly picture of the intended invasion of mainland Japan. When President [[Harry S. Truman]] was briefed on what would happen during an invasion of Japan, he could not afford such a horrendous casualty rate, added to over 400,000 U.S. servicemen who had already died fighting in both the European and Pacific theaters of the war.<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Ham| title=Hiroshima Nagasaki|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J7hw0x0WEz4C&pg=PA196| year=2012| publisher=Transworld|page=196ff|isbn=9781448126279}}</ref>

Hoping to forestall the invasion, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China issued a [[Potsdam Declaration]] on 26 July 1945, demanding that the Japanese government accept an [[unconditional surrender]]. The declaration also stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would be faced with "prompt and utter destruction", a process which was already underway with the incendiary bombing raids destroying 40% of targeted cities, and by naval warfare isolating and starving Japan of imported food. The Japanese government ignored (''[[mokusatsu]]'') this ultimatum, thus signalling that they were not going to surrender.<ref>{{cite book|author=Herman S. Wolk|title=Cataclysm: General Hap Arnold and the Defeat of Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yYcGP53d0ngC&pg=PA174|year=2010|publisher=University of North Texas Press|page=174|isbn=9781574412819}}</ref>

In the wake of this rejection, Stimson and George Marshall (the Army chief of staff) and Hap Arnold (head of the Army Air Forces) set the atomic bombing in motion.<ref>Truman later said he gave the order, but there is no written evidence he did so says {{cite book|author=Tsuyoshi Hasegawa|title=Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iPju1MrqgU4C&pg=PA152|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|page=152|isbn=9780674038400}}</ref>

On 6 August 1945, the B-29 bomber [[Enola Gay]] flew over the Japanese city of Hiroshima in southwest Honshū and dropped a [[Gun-type fission weapon|gun-type]] [[uranium-235]] atomic bomb (code-named [[Little Boy]] by the U.S.) on it. Two other B-29 aircraft were airborne nearby for the purposes of instrumentation and photography. When the planes first approached Hiroshima, Japanese anti-aircraft units in the city initially thought they were [[reconnaissance aircraft]], since they were ordered not to shoot at one or few aircraft that did not pose a threat, in order to conserve their ammunition for large-scale air raids. The bomb killed roughly 90,000–166,000 people; half of these died quickly while the other half suffered lingering deaths.<ref name="rerf-deaths">{{cite web |url=http://www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa1.html |title= Frequently Asked Questions #1 |publisher=[[Radiation Effects Research Foundation]] |access-date=18 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070919143939/http://www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa1.html |archive-date=19 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The death toll included an estimated 20,000 Korean slave laborers and 20,000 Japanese soldiers and destroyed 48,000 buildings (including the [[headquarters]] of the [[Second General Army]] and [[5th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)|Fifth Division]]).<ref name="HYO">{{cite book|title = Beyond the nuclear freeze|url = https://archive.org/details/beyondnuclearfre00drin|url-access = registration| page =[https://archive.org/details/beyondnuclearfre00drin/page/145 145]|first = Robert F.|last= Drinan|publisher= Seabury Press|isbn = 978-0816424061|date = 1983}}</ref> On 9 August, three days later, the B-29 [[Bockscar]] flew over the Japanese city of Nagasaki in northwest Kyushu and dropped an [[Nuclear weapon design#Implosion-type weapon|implosion-type]], [[plutonium-239]] atomic bomb (code-named [[Fat Man]] by the U.S.) on it, again accompanied by two other B-29 aircraft for instrumentation and photography. This bomb's effects killed roughly 39,000–80,000 people,<ref name="rerf-deaths"/> including roughly 23,000–28,000 Japanese war industry employees, an estimated 2,000 Korean forced workers, and at least 150 Japanese soldiers. The bomb destroyed 60% of the city.<ref name="HYO" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Nuke-Rebuke: Writers & Artists Against Nuclear Energy & Weapons (The Contemporary anthology series) |pages=22–29 |date=1 May 1984 |publisher=The Spirit That Moves Us Press}}</ref> The industrial damage in Nagasaki was high, partly owing to the inadvertent targeting of the industrial zone, leaving 68–80% of the non-dock industrial production destroyed.<ref>{{cite book |title=Welcome To Planet Earth – 2050 – Population Zero |author= Robert Hull |date=11 October 2011 |page=215 |publisher=[[AuthorHouse]] |isbn=978-1-4634-2604-0}}</ref>

Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, [[Gyokuon-hoso|Hirohito announced]] Japan's surrender to the Allies on 15 August 1945, signing the [[Japanese Instrument of Surrender|Instrument of Surrender]] on 2 September 1945, officially ending the Pacific War and World War II. The two atomic bombings generated strong sentiments in Japan against all nuclear weapons. Japan adopted the [[Three Non-Nuclear Principles]], which forbade the nation from developing nuclear armaments. Across the world anti-nuclear activists have made Hiroshima the central symbol of what they are opposing.<ref>{{cite book|author=Philip A. Seaton|title=Japan's Contested War Memories: The 'Memory Rifts' in Historical Consciousness of World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tZVPTE424X4C&pg=PA91|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|page=91|isbn=9781134150052}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Amerika bomber]]
* [[Civilian casualties of strategic bombing]]
* [[Defense of the Reich]], the strategic defensive aerial campaign fought by the German ''Luftwaffe'' over Germany and German-occupied Europe
* [[Emergency Fighter Program]]
* [[List of Polish cities damaged in World War II]]
* [[List of strategic bombing over Germany in World War II]]
* [[Bombing of Wiener Neustadt in World War II]]
* [[The Blitz]]
* [[Air raids on Japan]]
* [[Operation Starvation]], the American naval mining of Japanese water routes and ports conducted by the [[Army Air Forces]]
* [[Bombing of Guernica]], the bombing of the Spanish city of [[Guernica]] carried out by the German [[Condor Legion]] during the [[Spanish Civil War]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist |colwidth=30em |refs=
<ref name="crca51">{{cite Q |Q131294498  |mode=cs1 |orig-year=1951 |access-date=2024-11-20 }}</ref>
}}

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{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite journal|last=Childers |first=Thomas |title=Facilis descensus averni est: The Allied Bombing of Germany and the Issue of German Suffering |doi=10.1163/1569161053623624 |issn=1569-1616 |year=2008 |journal=Central European History |volume=38 |page=75|s2cid=145726489 }}
* Clodfelter, Mark. "Aiming to Break Will: America's World War II Bombing of German Morale and its Ramifications", ''Journal of Strategic Studies'', June 2010, Vol. 33#3 pp 401–435, {{doi|10.1080/01402390903189436}}
* {{Cite book |last= Coffey |first= Thomas M. |year= 1977 |title= Decision over Schweinfurt |location= New York |publisher= Doubleday |isbn= 978-0-679-50763-5 |url= https://archive.org/details/decisionoverschw00coff }}
* {{Cite book |last= Coffey |first= Thomas M. |year= 1982 |title= HAP: The Story of the U.S. Air Force and the Man who Built It, General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold |location= New York |publisher= Viking Press |isbn= 978-0-670-36069-7 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/hapstoryofusairf0000coff }}
* {{Cite book | last = Coffey | first = Thomas M. | year = 1987 | title = Iron Eagle : The Turbulent Life of General Curtis LeMay | publisher = Random House Value publishing | isbn = 978-0-517-55188-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/ironeagleturbule00coff }}
* Crane, Conrad C. ''American Airpower Strategy in World War II: Bombs, Cities, Civilians, and Oil'' (2016).
* Crane, Conrad C. ''Bombs, Cities, and Civilians: American Airpower Strategy in World War II'' (1993).
* {{Cite book|last= Craven |first= Wesley F. |author2=Cate, James Lea |year= 1948–1958 |title= The Army Air Forces in World War II, volumes 1–8 |location= Chicago |publisher= University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-405-12137-1 }}
* {{Cite book |first1=Harry |last1=Garretsen |first2=Marc |last2=Schramm |first3=Steven |last3=Brakman |url=http://www.uu.nl/content/03-09i.pdf |title=The Strategic Bombing of German Cities during World War II and its Impact for Germany |series=Discussion Paper Series nr: 03-09 |publisher=Tjalling, C. Koopmans Research Institute, [[Utrecht School of Economics]], [[Utrecht University]] |access-date=26 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060824133327/http://www.uu.nl/content/03-09i.pdf |archive-date=24 August 2006 |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite book|last= Great Britain Air Ministry |year=1983 |title=The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force |publisher= Arms and Armour Press |isbn= 978-0-85368-560-9 }}
* {{Cite book| last = Greer | first = Ron | year = 2005 | title = Fire from the Sky: A Diary Over Japan | publisher = Greer Publishing | location = Jacksonville, Arkansas, U.S.A. | isbn= 978-0-9768712-0-0 }}
* {{Cite book| last = Guillian | first = Robert | year = 1982 | title = I Saw Tokyo Burning: An Eyewitness Narrative from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima | publisher = Jove Pubns | isbn= 978-0-86721-223-5 }}
* Hansell, Haywood S. ''The Strategic Air War Against Germany and Japan: A Memoir'' (1986) [https://archive.org/details/StrategicAirWarAgainstGermanyJapan-nsia online]
* {{Cite book|last= Harris |first= Arthur |year= 1998 |title= Bomber Offensive |publisher= Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal |isbn= 978-1-85367-314-6}}
* Hayward, Joel S.A. ''Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler's Defeat in the East, 1942–1943''. University Press of Kansas, 1998. {{ISBN|978-0-7006-1146-1}}
* {{Cite book |last= Kennet |first= Lee |year= 1982 |title= A History of Strategic Bombing |location= New York |publisher= Scribner |isbn= 978-0-684-17781-6 |url= https://archive.org/details/historyofstrateg00kenn }}
* {{Cite book| last = Lemay | first = Curtis E. |author2=Yenne, Bill | year = 1988 | title = Superfortress: The Story of the B-29 and American Air Power | publisher = McGraw-Hill | isbn= 978-0-07-037164-4 }}
* {{Cite book | last = McGowen | first = Tom | year = 2001 | title = Air Raid!:The Bombing Campaign | publisher = Twenty-First Century Books | location = Brookfield, Connecticut, U.S.A. | isbn = 978-0-7613-1810-1 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/airraidbombingca0000mcgo }}
* {{Cite book|last= Middlebrook |first= Martin |author2=Everitt, Chris |year= 1990 |title= The Bomber Command War Diaries: An Operational Reference Book, 1939–1945 |location= London |publisher= Penguin |isbn= 978-0-14-012936-6 }}
* {{Cite book |last= Mierzejewski |first= Alfred |year= 1987 |url= https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59235941 |title= The Collapse of the German War Economy, 1944–1945. |location= Chapel Hill |publisher= University of North Carolina Press |isbn= 978-0-8078-6338-1 |archive-date= 4 June 2011 |access-date= 15 September 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110604211001/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59235941 |url-status= dead }}
* {{Cite book|last= Milward |first= Alan S.|year= 1965 |title= The German Economy at War |location= London |publisher= Prometheus Books |isbn= 978-0-485-11075-3}}
* {{Cite book|last=Patler|first=Nicholas|title="Is the U.S. Haunted by Its Nuclear Past? Dropping the atomic bomb crossed a moral threshold." The Progressive Christian (Winter 2009), pp 15–19,36}}
* {{Cite book|last=Patler|first=Nicholas|title="Book Reviews/Essay: A Twentieth Century History of Bombing Civilians, and A History of Bombing." Journal of Critical Asian Studies (March 2011), 153–156}}
* {{Cite book|last= Ross |first= Stewart Halsey |year= 2003 |title= Strategic Bombing by the United States in World War II. The Myths and the Facts. |publisher= McFarland & Co. |isbn= 978-0-7864-1412-3 }}
* {{Cite book| last=Rumpf |first=Hans |author-link=Hans Rumpf |translator=Fitzgerald, Edward |title=The bombing of Germany |publisher=Holt, Rinehart & Winston |year=1963}}
* {{Cite book| last = Shannon | first = Donald H. | year = 1976 | title = United States air strategy and doctrine as employed in the strategic bombing of Japan | publisher = U.S. Air University, Air War College | oclc = 2499355 }}
* Smith, Major Phillip A. ''Bombing to Surrender: The contribution of air power to the collapse of Italy, 1943'' (Pickle Partners Publishing, 2014).
* {{Cite book|last= Verrier |first= Anthony |year= 1974 |title= The Bomber Offensive |location= New York |publisher= Pan |isbn= 978-0-330-23864-9}}
* {{Cite book|last=Spaight |first=James M |url=https://archive.org/details/BombingVindicated |title=Bombing Vindicated |publisher= G. Bles |year=1944 |oclc= 1201928}} – Spaight was Principal Assistant Secretary of the Air Ministry (U.K)
* {{Cite book|last= Webster |first= Charles |author-link= Charles Webster (historian) |author2=Frankland, Noble |author-link2=Noble Frankland |year= 1961 |title= The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany, volumes 1–4 |location= London |publisher= Her Majesty's Stationery Office |isbn=978-1-84574-437-3}}
* {{Cite book|last= Weigley |first= Russell |year= 1981 |title= Eisenhower's Lieutenants |location= Bloomington |publisher= Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-13333-5}}

==External links==
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwtwo/blitz_01.shtml The Blitz: Sorting the Myth from the Reality] by ''[[BBC History]]''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070311005143/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/nof/blitz/ Liverpool Blitz— Experience 24 hours in a city under fire in the Blitz] from [[National Museums Liverpool]]
* [http://www.familyresearcher.co.uk/BlitzDeaths.htm Coventry Blitz Resource Centre]
* [http://dmr.bsu.edu/collection.php?CISOROOT=/376OrHis/ The 376th Heavy Bombardment Group Oral Histories]{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} at [[Ball State University]]
* [http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/26102/wwii-allied-bombers-and-crewsWWII: Allied Bombers and Crews] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101127010228/http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/26102/wwii-allied-bombers-and-crewsWWII: |date=27 November 2010 }} – slideshow by ''[[Life magazine]]''
* [http://alsos.wlu.edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=warfare/Conventional%20Bombing Annotated bibliography for conventional bombing during World War II] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608004005/http://alsos.wlu.edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=warfare%2FConventional%20Bombing |date=8 June 2017 }} from the [[Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues]]
* [http://www.newstatesman.com/europe/2009/12/germany-air-bomber-war-bombing The Revenger's Tragedy] by [[Leo McKinstry]] (in ''[[New Statesman]]'')

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{{WWII city bombing|style=wide}}
{{World War II|style=wide}}
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[[Category:World War II strategic bombing| ]]