Battlefields+and+Bombings

== =__The Battlefield and Bombing__= ===“'The idea of area bombing was to attack an aiming point which lay at the centre of a large area whose destruction would be useful. It was, in other words, a way of making bombs which missed the aiming point contribute to the destruction of the German war machine. Since nearly all the bombs were missing the aiming point, there was a certain logic about the idea.””=== - Noble Frankland, historian and Bomber Command veteran

Arthur Harris (Sir Arthur Harris (1892-1984), nicknamed Bomber Harris,
===the commander-in-chief of the RAF's Bomber Command) was a consistent and forthright advocate of the destruction of enemy morale through overwhelming attacks on civilian targets. The strategy predated Harris; as early as 1917 General Jan Smuts, advising Lloyd George on Britain's air defences, anticipated that the 'destruction of industrial and populous centres on a vast scale' through aerial bombing might soon become the main weapon of war.===

Between the wars there were repeated attempts, some British-led, to ban the bombing of civilian targets in accordance with the 1907 Hague Convention; none succeeded.
From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/about/siteinformation.shtml#corbis

Between the wars there were repeated attempts, some British-led, to ban the bombing of civilian targets in accordance with the 1907 Hague Convention; none succeeded.
From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/about/siteinformation.shtml#corbis

__The Bombing of Dresden, Germany__
===[|The bombing of Dresden, Germany] led by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and followed by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945, remains one of the more controversial Allied actions of World War II. Historian Frederick Taylor says:=== From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II
 * "The destruction of Dresden has an epically tragic quality to it. It was a wonderfully beautiful city and a symbol of baroque humanism and all that was best in Germany. It also contained all of the worst from Germany during the Nazi period. In that sense it is an absolutely exemplary tragedy for the horrors of 20th Century warfare."**

Other Websites to Explore:
[|Battles & Main Events] [|Battle of the Bulge At PBS] [|DDay at PBS] [|Normandy Invasion]