Editing Luftwaffe (section)

===Aerial bombing of non-military targets===
{{See also|Bombing of Wieluń|Operation Retribution (1941)}}
[[Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 141-1005, Belgrad, Zerstörungen.jpg|Bomb-damaged buildings in Belgrade in April 1941|thumb]]
No [[Positive law|positive]] or specific [[Customary international law|customary]] [[international humanitarian law]] with respect to aerial warfare existed prior to or during World War II.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Law of Air Warfare |journal=International Review of the Red Cross |number=323 |pages=347–363 |date=30 June 1998 |url=http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/57jpcl.htm |author=Javier Guisández Gómez |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425044944/http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/57jpcl.htm |archive-date=25 April 2013}}</ref> This is also why no Luftwaffe officers were prosecuted at the post-World War II Allied war crime trials for the aerial raids.<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>

The [[bombing of Wieluń]] was an air raid on the Polish town of [[Wieluń]] by the Luftwaffe on 1 September 1939. The Luftwaffe started bombing Wieluń at 04:40, five minutes before the shelling of [[Westerplatte]], which has traditionally been considered the beginning of World War II in Europe. The air raid on the town was one of the first aerial bombings of the war.<ref name=commentators/> About 1,300 civilians were killed, hundreds were injured, and 90 percent of the town centre was destroyed. The casualty rate was more than twice as high as Guernica.<ref name=commentators>{{cite news |first=Norman |last=Davies |author-link=Norman Davies |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/we-must-not-forget-the-real-causes-of-the-war-1778973.html |title=We must not forget the real causes of the war |newspaper=The Independent |date=29 August 2009 |access-date=25 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126094650/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/we-must-not-forget-the-real-causes-of-the-war-1778973.html |archive-date=26 January 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> A 1989 [[Sender Freies Berlin]] documentary stated that there were no military or industrial targets in the area,<ref name="Słomińska">{{Cite web |first=Sylwia |last=Słomińska |url=http://www.historia.wielunia.webpark.pl/1wrzesnia2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105195335/http://www.historia.wielunia.webpark.pl/1wrzesnia2.html |archive-date=5 January 2009 |title=Wieluń, 1 września 1939 r |language=pl}}</ref><ref name="Trenkner">{{Cite web |last=Trenkner |first=Joachim |url=http://www.schron.szczecin.pl/files/artykul-wielun.pdf |title=Wieluń, czwarta czterdzieści |trans-title=Wieluń, four forty am |date=29 August 2008 |language=pl |quote=file, direct download 67.9 KB |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317212148/http://schron.szczecin.pl/files/artykul-wielun.pdf |archive-date=17 March 2012}}</ref> except for a small sugar factory in the outskirts of the town. Furthermore, Trenkner stated that German bombers first destroyed the town's hospital.<ref name="Trenkner"/> Two attempts, in 1978 and 1983, to prosecute individuals for the bombing of the Wieluń hospital were dismissed by West German judges when prosecutors stated that the pilots had been unable to make out the nature of the structure due to fog.<ref name="Trenkner1">{{cite journal |last=Trenkner |first=Joachim |date=1 September 2009 |title=Ziel vernichtet |trans-title=Target destroyed |journal=Die Zeit| volume =2003 |issue=7 |url =http://www.zeit.de/2003/07/A-Wielun?page=all |language=de |access-date=4 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090908034445/http://www.zeit.de/2003/07/A-Wielun?page=all |archive-date=8 September 2009 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all}}</ref>{{sfn|Jolly|2010|p=501}}

[[Operation Retribution (1941)|Operation Retribution]] was the April 1941 German bombing of [[Belgrade]], the capital of [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. The bombing deliberately targeted the killing of civilians as punishment and resulted in 17,000 civilian deaths.{{sfn|Morrow|2014|p=255}} It occurred in the first days of the German-led Axis [[invasion of Yugoslavia]]. The operation commenced on 6 April and concluded on 7 or 8 April, resulting in the paralysis of Yugoslav civilian and military command and control, widespread destruction in the centre of the city and many civilian casualties. Following the Yugoslav capitulation, Luftwaffe engineers conducted a bomb damage assessment in Belgrade. The report stated that {{convert|218.5|MT}} of bombs were dropped, with 10 to 14 percent being incendiaries. It listed all the targets of the bombing, which included: the royal palace, the war ministry, military headquarters, the central post office, the telegraph office, passenger and goods railway stations, power stations, and barracks. It also mentioned that seven aerial mines were dropped and that areas in the centre and northwest of the city had been destroyed, comprising 20 to 25 percent of its total area. Some aspects of the bombing remain unexplained, particularly the use of aerial mines.{{sfn|Boog|Krebs|Vogel|2006|p=366}} In contrast, Pavlowitch states that almost 50 percent of housing in Belgrade was destroyed.{{sfn|Pavlowitch|2007|pp=17–18}} After the invasion, the Germans forced between 3,500 and 4,000 Jews to collect rubble that was caused by the bombing.{{sfn|Ramet|2006|p=131}}

The biggest attacks at civilian targets occurred in the Battle of Britain when the Luftwaffe attacked the British Isles and primarily hit non military targets. This resulted in over 22,000 civilians being killed and over 30,000 being wounded.