Transcript The Bombing Raids

The Bombing Raids
The Strategic Bombing Offensive
Topic overview
Introduction:
• What were the aims of the Strategic Bomber
Offensive ?
• How effective was it ?
Historical debates:
• Did bombing constitute a ‘second front’ against Nazi
Germany or was it a waste of resources ?
• What were the moral and ethical implications of the
Strategic Bombing Offensive ?
The Allied bombing of
Germany dwarfed any
German attempts to inflict
similar damage on the UK.
Aims
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit Sir Arthur Harris, Head
of RAF Bomber Command.
Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris
“The Germans have sown the wind.
They are about to reap the whirlwind.”
“There are those who say that a war
cannot be won from the air by bombing.
My reply is that no one has tried yet and
we shall see.”
“You destroy a factory and they will
rebuild it. Kill the factory workers and it
will take twenty years to replace them.”
Harris remains a controversial figure of WW2. A
statue of him was only unveiled recently and was
soon after splattered with red paint.
Aims of the Bomber
Offensive
• To inflict wide-scale damage on German
military and industrial targets.
• To ‘de-house’ the German industrial
workforce. Civilian deaths were seen as an
acceptable part of this strategy.
• To undermine German civilian morale with an
aim to making the government surrender
• To open a ‘second front’ against Germany
when there was no other way of striking at
Germany itself.
Early stages (1940-41)
• RAF Bomber Command had limited striking power
in the early stages of the war.
• Bomber craft were inadequate to carry heavy bomb
loads.
• Night navigation and radar devices were primitive.
• Bombing accuracy was severely limited by wind and
cloud conditions.
• Losses of bomber crews and aircraft far outweighed
damage done.
1942-45
• The RAF bomber offensive was stepped up in
1942.
• 1,000 bomber raids were launched against
civilian centres such as Cologne and Hamburg.
• Improvements in Radar technology (H2S)
made night navigation more accurate.
• Larger aircraft enabled significant bomb loads
to be dropped.
The Avro Lancaster
The RAF’s heavy bomber enabled serious bombing
raids on German targets to be carried out.
Handley-Page Halifax
Part I: city (area)
Bombing
Cologne after the RAF
raid.
Bombing raids
• Bombing raids could be so bad that firestorms could
be created whereby the flames ‘ate’ up all the oxygen
where the fire was and sucked in oxygen from the
surrounding areas at such speeds that hurricanes were
made which sucked in to them all living beings.
Hamburg was one such place that suffered a firestorm
in 1943 as did Dresden in February 1945
Bombing raids
"People jumped into the canals and waterways and
remained swimming or standing up to their necks
for hours until the heat died down. Even these
suffered burns to the head. The firestorm swept over
the water with its showers of sparks so that even
thick wooden posts burned down to the level of the
water. Children were torn away from their parents’
hands by the force of the hurricane and whirled into
the fire."
Written by Hamburg’s police chief in 1943.
Part II: pin-point
bombing
Targeting the Ruhr – Germany’s
industrial heartland
Dam-busters
‘Highball’, a cylindrical ‘bouncing bomb’ designed by
Barnes Wallace to breech the dams of the Ruhr valley.
The Bombing Raids
• Impact of a bombing raid?
• For most German civilians the
greatest worry and danger were the
bombing raids. Why?
• How could it strengthen morale?
• Lesson Objectives:
• 1) What provisions did the Nazis
provide to counter this threat and
reassure civilians?
• 2) How successful were they?
Air defences
• The Luftwaffe installed massive
batteries of anti-aircraft weaponry
called Fliegerabwehrkanone. The
Allies began calling the resulting
shells and shell fragments tearing
through their planes Flak.
• Many talked of the inadequacy of
air defences however in reality it
was difficult to shoot down aircraft
and thus a it was important to
ensure that cities were protected
effectively.
Air Raid warnings
• The Reich Association for Air-Raid precautions set up in
1933
• System of air raid warnings worked out in 1935 – warnings
were not sounded when isolated planes or small groups were
spotted so as not to cause disruption. On occasions this was a
mistake as pathfinder aircraft flying ahead of bombers were
ignored
• Sirens were confusing and a number of different alarms were
introduced throughout the war
• At times the alarm was only sounded when the bombers were
100km away – much too close to evacuate a large population
Defences
• Not really until 1940 that additional protection was made in 82
German cities
• Example Cologne – 39 million marks spent on building 500
shelters (accommodate 75,000 people), 25 bunkers built.
Although raids in 1942 caused much destruction only 460
people died – industrial production back to normal in 2 weeks
• Thousands of workers were brought in to clear up damage –
trucks brought 700,000 bars of soap – 10 million cigarettes
• Further thousand bomber raids in Essen and Bremen did little
damage
Impact
• Endless raids though did wear German civilians down – by May
1943 Duisberg had been attacked 161 times and the population
had suffered the strain of 623 alarms
• Under this strain air raid precautions were found to be
inadequate
Morale
• Range of examples as you would expect – horror and panic to
apathy and courage
• In the ruined cities the mood was critical towards authorities.
People resented Goebbels’ propaganda that painted the
offensives as attacks on Germany's cultural heritage rather than
mass slaughter of civilians – he also commented that it might
even give the regime the opportunity to build more National
Socialist buildings once the war was over
• There were examples of solidarity and the Nazis tried to make
out that the Volksgemeinshaft became a reality amid the ruins
of many cities
Morale
• By 1943 – 4.5 million were homeless - 2.5 million
lost virtually all they possessed. By the end of the
war 12 million were homeless.
• The economy was unable to meet even their basic
needs and some resorted to stealing
• Conflict between building more tanks and planes
and desire to feed the homeless.
• Some parts of Germany did escape the horrors of
bomber offensives (Black Forest and Bavaria).
• Last major raids were on Dresden.
What were the effects
of the raids?
• 61 German cities were attacked by Bomber Command between 1939 and
1945 containing a combined population of 25 million inhabitants;
3.6 million homes were destroyed (20% of the total)
7.5 million people were made homeless
• 300,000 Germans are thought to have been killed as a result of the raids,
and 800,000 were wounded
• Berlin was 70% destroyed by bombing; Dresden 75% destroyed
• BUT - were the wrong targets chosen?
• From 1939 to 1943, German cities were targeted and attacked. The more
America and Great Britain bombed German cities during these dates, the
more weapons Germany produced in their factories
• In early 1944, strategic targets were attacked (rail heads, rail lines, bridges
etc.) The destruction of such targets effectively paralysed Germany. In
1945, Germany had mined much coal but had no way of moving it from the
mines to where it was needed. When the war ended, the Allies
found several hundred King Tiger tanks at a Munich rail yard ready to be
taken to the war front - but the Germans had no way of getting them there
Towards the end – the
church
• In the final stages attempts by the Nazis to turn a war
weary and anxious people into ideologically pure
National Socialists were unsuccessful as the church
became more influential.
• Few benefited from the war in Germany – possible
positive impacts of war?
• Doubtful whether this is true for Germany – gulf
between rich and poor became wider.