Firebombing
Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, 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 firebombed by the Imperial Japanese starting in early 1939 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. London, 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 almost all large Japanese cities were firebombed during the last six months of World War II.
This technique makes use of small
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 bombs, 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.
Tactics
Early in World War II many British cities were firebombed. Two particularly notable raids were the
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.
The tactical innovation of the bomber stream was developed by the RAF to overwhelm the German 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.[3] 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 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 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
In its attacks on Japan, the USAAF abandoned its
Popular culture
- The 1967 semi-autobiographical short story Grave of the Fireflies follows events after the firebombing of Kobe. It was eventually adapted into a 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 Dresden firestorm.
- The novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foercontains narrative threads dealing with the Bombing of Dresden.
See also
- German Village (Dugway proving ground)
- Japanese Village (Dugway Proving Ground)
- Sir Arthur Harris
- USAF
- Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
- Bombing of Dresden in World War II
- Bombing of London in World War II
- 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
- ^ Langdon Davies, John (June 1940). "The Lessons of Finland". Picture Post.
- ISBN 0-7475-7084-1. Page 118
- ^ ISBN 1-84415-210-3. Page 83
- ^ Davis p.504
- ^ Taylor p. 366. Taylor compares this 40% mix with the raid on Berlin on 3 February where the ratio was 10% incendiaries
- ^ Davis pp. 425,504
- ^ MacKinnon, Stephen R. Peter Harmsen (ed.). "The US Firebombing of Wuhan". China in WW2. Peter Harmsen. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
- ISBN 9781563114830.
- ^ "THE WAR . Search & Explore . Themes & Topics | PBS". Archived from the original on 2007-10-13.
- ^ Bradley 1999, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Part I: A Failure of Intelligence Archived 2012-03-02 at the Wayback Machine. Freeman Dyson. Technology Review, November 1, 2006, MIT
- OCLC 222565066.
References
- Davis, Richard G. 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.