Strategic Bombing Ww2 Analysis

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This essay will assess how significant the Allied Strategic bombing was over the course of WW2 by judging key components that had major impacts on the war such as the technological developments and the effect on German economy, military and morale. It will analyse these factors and their change over time with the significance of strategic bombing varying accordingly. All these aspects link in and contributed to Allied war efforts. The strategic bombing’s significance during WW2 had a greater impact on Germany towards the end of the war as oppose to the start since the Allies had technologically advanced. This enabled the Allies to inflict greater damage on Germany due to higher accuracy and increase in production of bombs. At the start of …show more content…

At the start of WW2, the Germans had the impression that strategic bombing would cause a collapse in German morale. In May 1941 Lord Trenchard believed that morale was key to the demise of the Germans as they were prone to “hysteria and panic” and as the attacks on individual German industries were inaccurate due to heavy protection, shown by the fact that only 1/15 aircrafts got within 5 miles of its target on hazy nights, the Allies decided to target whole cities in order to demoralise factory workers. The aim was to damage morale to the extent that the civilians would resist providing for the war, thus forcing the Germans into a peace treaty but this didn’t happen. One example of this was in Lubeck on the 28th-29th of March 1942. The bombers dropped large explosive bombs and caused 50% of the town to be destroyed and over 1000 wounded or killed. This devastation left the city in a tragic state and though it did significant economic damage, its targeted significance was not achieved as morale within the city still existed. This was illustrated by the fact that the next day, shops reopened and put board signs up saying “Life goes on here”. However towards the end of the war technological advancements allowed the Allies to shatter German morale. This was shown in Dresden in 1945 where the Allies attacked a city with no military or economic worth with the sole purpose to destroy German morale. The Allies were ruthless and even until today the number of civilian deaths has not been confirmed and varies between 35,000 and 135,000. In spite of this, it didn’t have the effect the Allies had anticipated because Hitler’s concern for German civilians was extremely low and as he ran a totalitarian state, it made little difference. This was shown as the government increased working days from 254 to 352

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