Aerial warfare provided a mixture of peril and promise during World War II to both the Allied and Axis powers. Air warfare targeted military targets and was used to terrorize the civilian population. The bombing and destruction of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War was foreshadowing. Aerial warfare was a very inexact science and led to many casualties from anti-aircraft guns. The Allies gained control of the skies but did not crush enemy morale. Civilian destruction raised moral questions and now would be considered war crimes.
Airplanes in WWI
World War I introduced airplanes as a tool of war.
Airplanes were primarily used for reconnaissance and one-on-one “dogfights.” Nonetheless, both sides also began strategic bombing. Strategic bombing has the goal of destroying enemy military and infrastructure (factories, railways, refineries) and decreasing morale.
It is a method of total war, which harms civilians as well as the military.
Guernica
The Spanish Civil War was a battle between Republicans and the fascist Nationalists with Germany and Italy supporting the fascists. Guernica was a center of Republican control and a cultural center. The Germans attacked from the air, planning to fill the people with terror.
At about 4:30 in the afternoon on April 26, 1937, warplanes of the German Condor Legion bombed Guernica for about two hours. The bombing killed hundreds of people and destroyed large portions of the historic city. It was a successful test run for German “lightning war” tactics. Aerial bombing would be a crucial stage of their blitzkrieg campaigns.
Picasso was inspired to paint Guernica, the famous representation of the horrors of war.
Allied Goals For Aerial Bombing in WWII
Airplanes were no longer a new toy. Both sides hoped aerial warfare would serve as a deadly efficient tool to win the war. Germany tried to bomb Great Britain into submission via the Blitz, a battle for control of the skies as well as a means to provide terror to the British population.
The Allies saw air bombing raids, carefully targeted and destroying areas (“carpet bombing”), as a means to attack industrial and military targets while also terrorizing civilian populations. Total war would include destroying the will of the population to fight.
The Allies dropped hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs on Germany. Targets for the bombing offensive included anything of importance to the war effort. Ports, shipyards, railways, armaments factories, steelworks, bridges, and dams were all targeted.
The ultimate hope was that aerial bombing would win the war with limited Allied casualties.
The Bomber
A typical bomber had a crew of ten people.
The pilot and co-pilot flew the plane, commanded the crew, and ensured the plane was in working order. The navigator guided the plane during its bombing runs.
The radio operator manned the radios. They received and sent out messages in the heat of battle. The engineer was the tech guy. He needed to know about the engines and machinery.
The bombardier had the responsibility to effectively release the bombs to ensure they hit their targets. Americans bombed during the day but it was extremely hard to attack from the sky with precision from over ten thousand feet. Many bombs did not reach their targets.
There were also nose (front) gunners, waist gunners, ball-turret gunners, and tail (back) gunners. Gunners handled machine guns and had the responsibility of hitting enemy planes with seconds to shoot targets that appeared the size of a dime in the distance.
Limits of Aerial Bombing
Aerial bombing was dangerous work. Deadly “flak” or anti-aircraft guns defended key targets.
The Eighth Air Force lost 316 bombers and more than three thousand men to flak in August 1944 alone. Flyers were given 25-30 missions per combat tour. Many would not complete them.
The Allies quickly and imperfectly trained people with no flying experience. Men were not trained in combat conditions, including dropping bombs from much lower heights than bombers used. Gunners often were not familiar with their artillery.
Bombing was a very inexact science. Only 10-15 percent of the bombs early on hit within one thousand feet of the target. The result was not just limited damage to the enemy’s military efficiency. Thousands of civilians were also killed, sometimes in occupied territories.
How Successful Was Aerial Warfare?
Aerial warfare was not the panacea that some hoped it would be. It was a qualified success.
The Allies obtained supremacy in the skies. The Battle of Britain was won. The Luftwaffe was destroyed. Air supremacy was essential for a successful D-Day landing (attack on France).
German resources were diverted to air defense and bombing caused other problems to the Axis war effort. The German war machine chugged on, targets often had to be attacked repeatedly.
The Allies fought hard for these successes with many losses in men and airplanes. The aerial war was a nasty business even if much of the destruction, unlike fighting in the past, was out of view. The plane crews suffered physically and mentally on each bombing run.
Civilian Deaths
The bombing did not destroy civilian morale even with over six hundred thousand dead.
Nazi propaganda, including the promise of secret weapons, helped to limit civilian fears and depression. Civilian morale ultimately turned on Nazi defeats and enemy control of territory.
The death and destruction of civilians raised serious moral questions. Deliberate bombing of civilian targets, including the German city of Dresden, could be considered war crimes.
What was a proper military target? What limits were appropriate? These questions would be significant when formulating human rights conventions.
The dropping of two nuclear bombs, from an airplane, raised these questions and more, while entering the world into the nuclear age.