Editing Strategic bombing (section)

===World War II===
{{Main|Strategic bombing during World War II|Air warfare of World War II}}

In terms of scale, the strategic bombing conducted in World War II was unlike any before. The bombing campaigns then conducted over Europe and Asia could involve aircraft dropping thousands of tons of [[Conventional weapon|conventional bombs]] or, as happened twice in Japan in 1945, devastating much of a city all at once with an [[atomic bomb]].{{cn|date=April 2025}}

Area bombardment came to prominence during World War II, with the use by attacking forces of large numbers of unguided [[gravity bomb]]s, often mixed with a high proportion of [[incendiary device]]s to strike the target region indiscriminately: to kill war workers, to destroy [[materiel]], and to [[morale|demoralize]] the enemy. In high-enough concentration, such bombing could start a destructive [[firestorm]].<ref>{{harvnb|Harris|2005|p={{page needed|date=April 2025}}}}</ref> Often, high-explosive [[delay-action bomb]]s could kill or intimidate people fighting the fires initially caused by the incendiary bombs.<ref>{{harvnb|Overy|2013|p=329}}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2008-0415-508, Warschau, Luftaufnahme, Zerstörungen.jpg|thumb|upright|Destroyed townhouses in [[Warsaw]] after the German ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' [[Bombing of Warsaw in World War II|bombing of the city]], September 1939]]

(During WWII, such results required multiple aircraft, often returning to the target in waves. Whereas nowadays, one large bomber or missile could cause the same effect on a small area [a town or an airfield, for example] by releasing a relatively-large number of smaller bombs.){{cn|date=April 2025}}

Strategic bombing campaigns were conducted in Europe and Asia. The Germans and Japanese mostly used smaller twin-engined bombers with a typical payload of less than {{convert|5000|lb|kg}}; they did not manufacture larger aircraft to any significant extent.  By comparison, the British and American militaries (which at first used similarly-sized bombers early in the war), soon developed significantly-larger strategic bombers with four engines. The increased payloads of these big airplanes ranged from {{convert|4000|lb|kg|abbr=on}} for the [[B-17 Flying Fortress]] on long-range missions,<ref>{{harvnb|Fitzsimons|1978a|p=969}}</ref> to {{convert|8000|lb|kg|abbr=on}} for the [[B-24 Liberator]],<ref>{{harvnb |Fitzsimons|1978b|p=1736}}</ref> {{convert|14000|lb|kg|abbr=on}} for the [[Avro Lancaster]],<ref>{{harvnb |Fitzsimons|1978b|p=1697}}</ref> and {{convert|20000|lb|kg||sigfig=1|abbr=on}}<!--needs the sigfig as the source uses KG as its base unit it is the lbs are imprecise--> [[B-29 Superfortress]],<ref>{{harvnb |Lewis|1994|p=4}}: "The bombload of the B-29 eventually reached {{convert|9000|kg|lb|abbr=on}}"</ref> (also with some specialized Allied aircraft, such as the modified ''Special B'' Avro Lancaster, able to carry a gigantic [{{convert|22000|lb|kg|abbr=on}} [[Grand Slam bomb|Grand Slam]]).<ref>{{harvnb |Fitzsimons|1978b|p=1700}}</ref>

During the first year of the war in Europe, strategic bombing was developed through "trial-and-error." The ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' had been attacking both civilian and military targets from the first day of the war, when Germany [[invasion of Poland|invaded Poland]] on 1 September 1939. A strategic-bombing campaign was launched by the Germans as a precursor to the invasion of the United Kingdom to force the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] to engage the Luftwaffe and so to be destroyed either on the ground or in the air. That tactic failed, and the RAF began bombing German cities on 11 May 1940.<ref>{{harvnb|Grayling|2011|p={{page needed|date=April 2025}}}}</ref> After the [[Battle of Britain]], the Germans launched their night time [[the Blitz|Blitz]] hoping to break British morale and to have the British be cowed into making peace.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

At first the Luftwaffe raids took place in daylight, but changed to night bombing attacks when losses became unsustainable. The RAF, who had preferred precision bombing, also switched to night bombing, also due to excessive losses.<ref>{{harvnb|Carter|2018a}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Carter|2018b}}</ref> Before the [[Rotterdam Blitz]] on 14 May 1940 the British restricted themselves to tactical bombing west of the Rhine and naval installations. The day after the Rotterdam Blitz a new directive was issued to the RAF to attack targets in the [[Ruhr Area|Ruhr]], including oil plants and other civilian [[Manufacturing|industrial]] targets which aided the German war effort, such as [[blast furnace]]s that at night were self-illuminating. After the [[Butt Report]] (released in September 1941) proved the inadequacy of [[RAF Bomber Command]] training methods and equipment, the RAF adopted an area-attack strategy, by which it hoped to impede Germany's war production, her powers of resistance (by destroying resources and forcing Germany to divert resources from her front lines to defend her air space), and her morale.<ref>{{harvnb|Copp|1996}}: Conclusion to the Singleton report 20 May 1942.</ref> The RAF dramatically improved its navigation so that on average its bombs hit closer to target.<ref>{{harvnb| British Bombing Survey Unit|1998|p=Chapter 9}}</ref> Accuracy never exceeded a {{convert|3|smi|km|abbr=on}} radius from point of aim in any case.<ref>{{harvnb|Hastings|1999|p=293}}</ref>

[[Image:WWII Schweinfurt Raid.jpg|thumb|upright|1943 [[United States Army Air Forces|USAAF]] raid on [[ball bearing]] works at [[Schweinfurt]], Germany]]

The [[United States Army Air Forces]] adopted a policy of daylight [[precision bombing]] for greater accuracy as, for example, during the [[Schweinfurt]] raids. That doctrine, based on the erroneous supposition that bombers could adequately defend themselves against air attack, entailed much higher American losses until long-range fighter escorts (e.g. the [[North American P-51 Mustang|Mustang]]) became available. Conditions in the European theatre made it very difficult to achieve the accuracy achieved using the top-secret [[Norden bombsight|Norden optical bombsight]] in the clear skies over the desert bombing ranges of Nevada and California. Raids over Europe commonly took place in conditions of very poor visibility, with targets partly or wholly obscured by thick cloud, smokescreens, or smoke from fires started by previous raids. As a result, bomb loads were regularly dropped "blind" using dead-reckoning methods little different from those used by the RAF night bombers. In addition, only the leading bomber in a formation actually utilized the Norden sight, the rest of the formation dropping their bombs only when they saw the lead aircraft's bombload falling away. Since even a very tight bomber formation could cover a vast area, the scatter of bombs was likely to be considerable. Add to these difficulties the disruptive effects of increasingly accurate anti-aircraft fire and head-on attacks by fighter aircraft and the theoretical accuracy of daylight bombing was often hard to achieve.<ref>{{harvnb|Ross|2003|pp=8, 52, 129–40}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|McFarland|1995|p={{page needed|date=April 2025}}}}</ref> Accuracy, described as "pinpoint", never exceeded the best British average of about a {{convert|3|smi|km|abbr=on}} radius from point of aim in any case.<ref>{{harvnb|Hastings|1999|p=293}}</ref> Postwar German engineers considered the bombing of railways, trains, canals, and roads more harmful to production than attacks on factories themselves, Sir [[Roy Fedden]] (in his report on a postwar British scientific intelligence mission) calling it "fatal" and saying it reduced aero-engine production by two thirds (from a maximum output of 5,000 to 7,000 a month).<ref>{{harvnb|Christopher|2013|pp=77, 100}}</ref>

Strategic bombing was a way of taking the war into Europe while Allied ground forces were unable to do so. Between them, Allied air forces claimed to be able to bomb "around the clock". In fact, few targets were ever hit by British and American forces the same day, the strategic isolation of Normandy on [[D-Day]] and [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|the bombing of Dresden]] in February 1945 being exceptions rather than the rule. There were generally no coordinated plans for the around-the-clock bombing of any target.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

In some cases, single missions have been considered to constitute strategic bombing. The [[Bombing of Peenemünde in World War II|bombing of Peenemünde]] was such an event, as was [[Operation Chastise|the bombing of the Ruhr dams]]. The Peenemünde mission delayed Nazi Germany's [[V-2 rocket|V-2]] program enough that it did not become a major factor in the outcome of the war.<ref>{{harvnb|Cosgrove|2003|p=135}}</ref>

[[Soviet Air Forces]] [[Bombing of Helsinki in World War II|conducted strategic bombings]] of [[Helsinki]], the capital of [[Finland]], between 1939 and 1944, with Finland being subjected to a number of bombing campaigns by the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] in that period. The largest were three raids in February 1944, which have been called ''The Great Raids Against Helsinki''.<ref>{{harvnb|Pesonen|1982|p={{page needed|date=April 2025}}}}</ref> The [[Finnish Air Force]] responded to the air raids with a series of night infiltration bombings of [[Long Range Aviation|ADD]] airfields near [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]].<ref>{{harvnb|Kauppinen| Rönkkö|2006}}</ref>

Strategic bombing in Europe never reached the decisive completeness the [[Air raids on Japan|American campaign against Japan]] achieved, helped in part by the fragility of [[Housing in Japan|Japanese housing]], which was particularly vulnerable to [[firebombing]] through the use of [[incendiary device]]s. The destruction of German infrastructure became apparent, but the Allied campaign against Germany only really succeeded when the Allies began targeting oil refineries and transportation in the last year of the war. At the same time, the strategic bombing of Germany was used as a morale booster for the Allies in the period before the land war resumed in Western Europe in June 1944.{{cn|date=April 2025}}
[[File:Toni Frissell, Abandoned boy, London, 1945.jpg|thumb|upright|Child amid ruins following German aerial bombing of London, 1945]]

In the [[Asiatic-Pacific Theater]], the [[Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service]] and the [[Imperial Japanese Army Air Service]] frequently used strategic bombing over Singaporean, Burmese, and Chinese cities such as [[battle of Shanghai|Shanghai]], [[Guangzhou]], [[Nanjing]], [[bombing of Chongqing|Chongqing]], [[Bombing of Singapore (1941)|Singapore]], and [[Bombing of Rangoon (1941–1942)|Rangoon]]. However, the Japanese military in most places advanced quickly enough that a strategic bombing campaign was unnecessary, and the Japanese aircraft industry was incapable of producing truly strategic bombers in any event. In those places where it was required, the smaller Japanese bombers (in comparison to British and American types) did not carry a bombload sufficient to inflict the sort of damage regularly occurring at that point in the war in Europe, or later in Japan.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

The development of the B-29 gave the United States a bomber with sufficient range to reach the Japanese home islands from the safety of American bases in the Pacific or western China. The capture of the Japanese island of [[Iwo Jima]] further enhanced the capabilities that the Americans possessed in their strategic bombing campaign. High-explosive and incendiary bombs were used against Japan to devastating effect, with greater indiscriminate loss of life in the [[Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)|firebombing of Tokyo]] on March 9–10, 1945 than was caused either by the [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|Dresden mission]], or the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki]]. Unlike the USAAF's strategic bombing campaign in Europe, with its avowed (if unachievable) objective of precision bombing of strategic targets, the bombing of Japanese cities involved the deliberate targeting of residential zones from the outset. Bomb loads included very high proportions of incendiaries, with the intention of igniting the highly combustible wooden houses common in Japanese cities and thereby generating firestorms.<ref>{{harvnb|Guillemin|2017|p=Chapter 2}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb| Reichhardt|2015}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Kennedy|2003|p=421}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|The Japan Times|2015}}</ref>

The final development of strategic bombing in World War II was the use of nuclear weapons. On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States exploded nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 105,000 people and inflicting a psychological shock on the Japanese nation. On August 15, Emperor [[Hirohito]] announced the [[surrender of Japan]], [[gyokuon-hoso|stating]]:{{cn|date=April 2025}}

<blockquote>Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should We continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are We to save the millions of Our subjects; or to atone Ourselves before the hallowed spirits of Our Imperial Ancestors? This is the reason why We have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the Joint Declaration of the Powers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Jewel Voice Broadcast - Nuclear Museum |url=https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/key-documents/jewel-voice-broadcast/ |access-date=2025-05-18 |website=https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ |language=en-US}}</ref></blockquote>