Editing Firebombing

{{short description|Bombing technique}}
{{about|aerial incendiary bombing as a military tactic|non-military (almost always criminal) acts|Arson}}
[[Image:Napalm.jpg|thumb|An American aircraft drops [[napalm]] on [[Viet Cong]] positions in 1965.]]
[[Image:Luftwaffe 1kg Incendiary Bomb.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Nazi Germany|German]] [[World War II]] [[incendiary device|incendiary bomb]] remnant]]

'''Firebombing''' is a [[bomb]]ing technique designed to damage a target, generally an [[urban area]], through the use of [[fire]], caused by [[incendiary device]]s, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. In popular usage, any act in which an incendiary device is used to initiate a fire is often described as a "firebombing". 

Although simple incendiary bombs have been used to destroy buildings since the start of gunpowder warfare, [[World War I]] saw the first use of [[strategic bombing]] from the air to damage the morale and economy of the enemy, such as the German [[Zeppelin]] air raids conducted on [[London]]. The Chinese wartime capital of [[Chongqing]] was [[Bombing of Chongqing|firebombed by the Imperial Japanese]] starting in early 1939 during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]. London, [[Coventry Blitz|Coventry]], and many other British cities were firebombed during [[the Blitz]] by [[Nazi Germany]]. Most large German cities were extensively firebombed starting in 1942, and [[Air raids on Japan|almost all large Japanese cities were firebombed]] during the last six months of [[World War II]].

This technique makes use of small [[incendiary bomb]]s possibly delivered by a [[cluster bomb]], such as the [[Molotov bread basket]].<ref>{{cite journal  | last= Langdon Davies  | first= John  |date=June 1940   | title= The Lessons of Finland  | journal= [[Picture Post]] }}</ref> If a fire catches, it could spread, taking in adjacent buildings that would have been largely unaffected by a high explosive bomb. This is a more effective use of the payload that a bomber could carry.

The use of incendiaries alone does not generally start uncontrollable fires where the targets are roofed with nonflammable materials such as tiles or slates. The use of a mixture of bombers carrying high explosive bombs, such as the British [[blockbuster bomb]]s, which blew out windows and roofs and exposed the interior of buildings to the incendiary bombs, is much more effective. Alternatively, a preliminary bombing with conventional bombs can be followed by subsequent attacks by incendiary carrying bombers.

A large part of the success of this particular type of bomb is because of its tendency to start [[conflagration|infernos]] and cause major damage to houses around it which would traditionally be made using wood and cardboard.

==Tactics==
{{see also|Firestorm}}
[[File:Braunschweig15101944.jpg|right|thumb|Firebombing in [[Braunschweig]], Germany, 15 October 1944]]
[[Image:Tokyo kushu 1945-3.jpg|thumb|Charred remains of Japanese civilians after a [[bombing of Tokyo]]]]

Early in World War II many British cities were firebombed. Two particularly notable raids were the [[Coventry Blitz#14 November 1940|Coventry Blitz]] on 14 November 1940, and the [[The Second Great Fire of London|blitz on London]] on the night of 29 December/30 December 1940, which was the most destructive raid on London during the war with much of the destruction caused by fires started by incendiary bombs. During the Coventry Blitz the Germans pioneered several innovations which were to influence all future strategic bomber raids during the war.<ref>Taylor, Fredrick; ''Dresden Tuesday 13 February 1945'', Pub Bloomsbury (First Pub 2004, Paper Back 2005). {{ISBN|0-7475-7084-1}}. Page 118</ref> These were: the use of pathfinder aircraft with electronic aids to navigate, to mark the targets before the main bomber raid; and the use of high explosive bombs and [[air-mine]]s coupled with thousands of incendiary bombs intended to set the city ablaze. The first wave of follow-up bombers dropped high explosive bombs, the intent of which was to knock out the utilities (the water supply, electricity network and gas mains), and to crater the road — making it difficult for the fire engines to reach fires started by the successive waves of bombers. The follow-up waves dropped a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs. There were two types of incendiary bombs: those made of [[magnesium]] and [[iron]] powders, and those made of [[petroleum]]. The high-explosive bombs and the larger air-mines were not only designed to hamper the Coventry fire brigade, they were also intended to damage roofs, making it easier for the incendiary bombs to fall into buildings and ignite them. As [[Arthur Harris|Sir Arthur Harris]], commander of [[RAF Bomber Command]], wrote after the war:

{{blockquote|In the early days of bombing our notion, like that of the Germans, was to spread an attack out over the whole night, thereby wearing down the morale of the civilian population. The result was, of course, that an efficient fire brigade could tackle a single load of incendiaries, put them out, and wait in comfort for the next to come along; they might also be able to take shelter when a few high explosives bombs were dropping. ... But it was observed that when the Germans did get an effective concentration, ... then our fire brigades had a hard time; if a rain of incendiaries is mixed with high explosives bombs there is a temptation for the fireman to keep his head down. The Germans, again and again, missed their chance, as they did during the London blitz that I watched from the roof of the Air Ministry, of setting our cities ablaze by a concentrated attack. Coventry was adequately concentrated in point of space, but all the same, there was little concentration in point of time, and nothing like the fire tornadoes of Hamburg or Dresden ever occurred in this country. But they did do us enough damage to teach us the principle of concentration, the principle of starting so many fires at the same time that no firefighting services, however efficiently and quickly they were reinforced by the fire brigades of other towns could get them under control.|[[Arthur Harris]]<ref name=Harris-83>Arthur Harris. ''Bomber Offensive'', (First edition Collins 1947), Pen & Sword military classics 2005; {{ISBN|1-84415-210-3}}. Page 83</ref>}}

The [[military tactics|tactical innovation]] of the [[bomber stream]] was developed by the RAF to overwhelm the [[Luftwaffe|German]] [[Anti-aircraft warfare|aerial defenses]] of the [[Kammhuber Line]] during World War II to increase the RAF's concentration in time over the target.  But after the lessons learned during the Blitz, the tactic of dropping a high concentration of bombs over the target in the shortest time possible became standard in the RAF as it was more effective than a longer raid.<ref name=Harris-83/> For example, during the Coventry Blitz on the night of 14/15 November 1940, 515 Luftwaffe bombers, many flying more than one [[sortie]] against Coventry, delivered their bombs over a period of time lasting more than 10 hours.  In contrast, the much more [[Bombing of Dresden|devastating raid]] on [[Dresden]] on the night of 13/14 of February 1945 by two waves of the RAF Bomber Command's main force, involved their bombs being released at 22:14, with all but one of the 254 [[Avro Lancaster|Lancaster]] bombers releasing their bombs within two minutes, and the last one released at 22:22.  The second wave of 529 Lancasters dropped all of their bombs between 01:21 and 01:45. This means that in the first raid, on average, one Lancaster dropped a full load of bombs every half a second and in the second larger raid that involved more than one RAF bomber Group, one every three seconds.

The [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) officially only bombed precision targets over Europe, but for example, when 316 [[B-17 Flying Fortress]]es bombed [[Dresden]] in a follow-up raid at around noon on 14 February 1945, because of clouds the later waves bombed using [[H2X radar]] for targeting.<ref name=Davis-504>Davis p.504</ref> The mix of bombs to be used on the Dresden raid was about 40% incendiaries, much closer to the RAF city-busting mix than the [[bomb]]-load usually used by the Americans in precision bombardments.<ref name=Taylor-366>Taylor p. 366. Taylor compares this 40% mix with the [[Bombing of Berlin in World War II#March 1944 to April 1945|raid on Berlin]] on 3 February where the ratio was 10% incendiaries</ref> This was quite a common mix when the USAAF anticipated cloudy conditions over the target.<ref name=Davis-425-504>Davis pp. 425,504</ref>

In its attacks on Japan, the USAAF abandoned its [[precision bombing]] method that was used in Europe before and adopted a policy of [[Carpetbombing|saturation bombing]], using incendiaries to burn Japanese-held cities including [[Wuhan]], and the cities of the Japanese home islands.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacKinnon |first1=Stephen R. |editor=Peter Harmsen |title=The US Firebombing of Wuhan |url=http://www.chinaww2.com/2015/09/12/the-us-firebombing-of-wuhan-part-1/ |website=China in WW2 |publisher=Peter Harmsen |access-date=2021-04-20}}</ref> These tactics were used to devastating effect with many urban areas burned out. The first incendiary raid by [[B-29 Superfortress]] bombers was against [[Kobe]] on 4 February 1945, with 69 B-29s arriving over the city at an altitude of {{convert|24500|to|27000|ft|m|abbr=on}}, dropping 152 tons of incendiaries and 14 tons of fragmentation bombs to destroy about {{convert|57.4|acre|abbr=on}}. The next mission was another high altitude daylight incendiary raid against [[Bombing of Tokyo|Tokyo]] on 25 February when 172 B-29s destroyed around {{convert|643|acre|abbr=on}} of the snow-covered city, dropping 453.7 tons of mostly incendiaries with some fragmentation bombs.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sr6nn47tDOUC&pg=PA33 |page=33 |title=No Strategic Targets Left |last=Bradley |first=F.J. |location=Paducah, Kentucky |publisher=Turner Publishing |year=1999 |isbn=9781563114830}}</ref> Changing to low-altitude night tactics to concentrate the fire damage while minimizing the effectiveness of fighter and artillery defenses, the [[Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)|Operation Meetinghouse]] raid<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_5229.htm| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071013155603/http://pbs.org/thewar/detail_5229.htm| archive-date = 2007-10-13| title = THE WAR . Search & Explore . Themes & Topics {{!}} PBS}} </ref> carried out by 279 B-29s raided Tokyo again on the night of 9/10 March, dropped 1,665 tons of incendiaries from altitudes of {{convert|5000|to|9000|ft|abbr=on}}, mostly using the {{convert|500|lb|kg|adj=on}} E-46 cluster bomb which released 38 [[M-69 Incendiary cluster bomb|M-69 oil-based incendiary bombs]] at an altitude of {{convert|2500|ft|m|abbr=on}}. A lesser number of [[M47 bomb|M-47 incendiaries]] was dropped: the M-47 was a {{convert|100|lb|kg|adj=on}} jelled-gasoline and white phosphorus bomb which ignited upon impact. In the first two hours of the raid, 226 of the attacking aircraft or 81% unloaded their bombs to overwhelm the city's fire defenses.<ref>Bradley 1999, pp. 34–35.</ref> The first to arrive dropped bombs in a large X pattern centered in Tokyo's working class district near the docks; later aircraft simply aimed near this flaming X. Approximately {{convert|15.8|sqmi|ha|-1}} of the city were destroyed and 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the resulting [[conflagration]], more than the immediate deaths of either the [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|atomic bombings]] of [[Hiroshima]] or [[Nagasaki]].<ref>[http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/17724/page5/ ''Part I: A Failure of Intelligence''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302153101/http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/17724/page5/ |date=2012-03-02 }}. [[Freeman Dyson]]. Technology Review, November 1, 2006, [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]</ref> After this raid, the USAAF continued with low-altitude incendiary raids against Japan's cities, destroying an average of 40% of the built-up area of 64 of the largest cities.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fagg|first=John E.|title=Services Around the World|editor=Craven, Wesley Frank |editor2=Cate, James Lea|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago and London|year=1983|series=The Army Air Forces in World War II. Volume VII|chapter=Aviation Engineers|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/VII/index.html|oclc=222565066|page=751}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
* The 1967 semi-autobiographical short story'' [[Grave of the Fireflies (short story)|Grave of the Fireflies]]'' follows events after the firebombing of [[Kobe]]. It was eventually adapted into a [[Grave of the Fireflies|1988 film of the same name]].
*The middle portion of [[historical fantasy]] novel ''[[Teito Monogatari]]'', is set during the period of the Allied firebombings in Japan.  This section of the novel was eventually adapted into the film ''[[Tokyo: The Last War]]''.
* [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s [[science fiction]] novel ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]'' is partially based on his personal experience of the [[Bombing of Dresden|Dresden firestorm]].
* The novel ''[[Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close]]'' by [[Jonathan Safran Foer]] contains narrative threads dealing with the Bombing of Dresden.

==See also==
*[[German Village (Dugway proving ground)]]
*[[Japanese Village (Dugway Proving Ground)]]
*[[Arthur Harris|Sir Arthur Harris]]
*[[General]] [[Curtis E. LeMay]], [[USAF]]
*[[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II]]
*[[Bombing of Dresden in World War II]]
*[[Bombing of London in World War II]]
*[[Coventry Blitz|Bombing of Coventry in World War II]]
*[[Bombing of Tokyo in World War II]]
*[[Bombing of Frampol in World War II]]
*[[Bombing of Wieluń in World War II]]
*[[Bombing of Warsaw in World War II]]
*[[Aerial bombing of cities]]
*[[Roerich Pact]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Davis, Richard G.  ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20070616115811/http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/aupress/Books/Davis_B99/Davis_B99.pdf Bombing the European Axis Powers. A Historical Digest of the Combined Bomber Offensive 1939–1945]'' [[PDF]]. Alabama: Air University Press, 2006
*Harris, Arthur. Bomber Offensive, (First edition Collins 1947), Pen & Sword military classics 2005; {{ISBN|1-84415-210-3}}.
*Taylor, Fredrick; Dresden Tuesday 13 February 1945, Pub Bloomsbury (First Pub 2004, Paper Back 2005). {{ISBN|0-7475-7084-1}}.

{{World War II city bombing}}

[[Category:Aerial bombing]]
[[Category:Aerial warfare strategy]]
[[Category:Incendiary weapons]]
[[Category:Firebombings| ]]