Re: Libya: Assault on U.S. consulate in Benghazi leaves 4 dead, including U.S. Ambass
You misunderstand. The intent was to destroy the ability to make war, not to decimate the civilian population. Had we had the weaponry we have now, we wouldn't have needed to take such drastic actions.
Incorrect. The intent was to destroy the industrial capability of the enemy.
British Objectives for Strategic Bombing campaign.
The purpose of the area bombardment of cities was laid out in a British Air Staff paper, dated 23 September 1941:
"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."[
American Strategic Bombing Campiagn aim:
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 conurbations. "He looked up the size of the large Japanese cities in the World Almanac and picked his targets accordingly."[167] 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 United States strategic bombing of Japan took place between 1942 and 1945. 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 Japan's surrender five months later.[165]
No it was to hit the civilian population centers deliberately. Like I said it was to break the will of the Japanese and German people. There are plenty of War Dept. memos, and papers stating this. We actually did full scale mock ups of german towns to figure out the best way to burn em to the ground. When it comes to war a lot of americans seem to have this idea we are an honorable play by the rules dont hurt incocents intentionaly lot. We are far from that we are as ruthless and in some cases more ruthless than many other nations.
We switched to firebombs deliberately to start firestorms in the middle of populated areas. We werent after precision we were after devestaion.
