Bombardment
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A bombardment is an attack by
Prior to
History
In its old strict sense, the term was only applied to the bombardment of defenseless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, etc., by an assailant with the object of disheartening his opponent, and specially to force the civilian population and authorities of a besieged place to persuade their military commander to capitulate before the actual defenses of the place have been reduced to impotence.[1] The practice of employing artillery to achieve these ends was especially common up until World War I; since then long-range artillery bombardment has been joined by aerial bombardment delivered by aircraft or missiles.
Bombardment can only achieve its objective when the amount of suffering inflicted upon
The term has evolved during the twentieth century to incorporate broader massed artillery attacks by one army against another, for example the front wide bombardment prior to the 1916 attack on the Somme or the massed bombardments preceding Operation Uranus during World War II.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b c public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bombardment". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 182. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the