what was the most bombed country in ww2what was the most bombed country in ww2

[235][236] While Italian efforts mainly focused on the Mandate of Palestine, one notable mission on 19 October 1940 struck instead at refinery facilities in Bahrain. The Germans and the Italians flew a total of 3,000 bombing raids in the two-year span, making the small island unofficially the most bombed place in the world. The Army talks big, but if war came and there were large-scale air raids, there's no telling what would happen."[248]. While accuracy improved during the war, Survey studies show that, overall, only about 20% of the bombs aimed at precision targets fell within this target area. The Most Bombed Country in WW2 #460 - YouTube Every time we think of WW2, we think of Germany, UK and Japan. Accordingly, when targets are being selected, preference is to be given to those where attacks are likely to have the greatest possible effect on civilian life. They claimed that by using the B-17 and the Norden bombsight, the USAAF should be able to carry out "precision bombing" on locations vital to the German war machine: factories, naval bases, shipyards, railroad yards, railroad junctions, power plants, steel mills, airfields, etc. Goering's first chief of staff, Generalleutnant Walther Wever, was a big advocate of the Ural bomber program, but when he died in a flying accident in 1936, support for the strategic bomber program began to dwindle rapidly under Goering's influence. Other objectives specifically allotted to bomber-crews included the City of London and the governmental quarter round Whitehall. While agreeing in general with prior Just War theoretical postulates, he came to a conclusion that a grave threat to a moral order would justify the use of an indiscriminate force.[55]. Personal Grievances (suspected) The Vermilion County bombings were a series of three bombings in the towns of Danville and Oakwood, Illinois that killed at two people and injured 34. This included raids such as those on the Renault factory in Boulogne-Billancourt in March 1942 or the port facilities of Nantes in September 1943 (which killed 1,500 civilians). "[244] Further, bombs dropped from a great height were tossed about by high winds. [76] However, the operation was cancelled, according to Polish professor Tomasz Szarota due to bad weather conditions,[77] while German author Horst Boog claims it was possibly due to Roosevelt's plea to avoid civilian casualties; according to Boog the bombing of military and industrial targets within the Warsaw residential area called Praga was prohibited. Man has wonderful powers of self-deception, and of the uncritical suppression of unwelcome facts; he is still capable of believing what he wants to believe, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Heartland heroes: remembering World War II. The British Commonwealth planned that once the war in Europe was complete, a strategic bombing force of up to 1,000 heavy bombers ("Tiger Force") would be sent to the Far East. "[250], While the bombing campaign against Japan continued, the U.S. and its allies were preparing to invade the Japanese home islands, which they anticipated to be heavily costly in terms of life and property. March 26, 2014 Watch the US Drop 2.5 Million Tons of Bombs on Laos Picturing the deadly legacy of America's secret war in the world's most bombed-out country. Indeed, there are none so blind as will not see, or so deaf as will not hear. The directives issued to the Luftwaffe for the Polish Campaign were to prevent the Polish Air Force from influencing the ground battles or attacking German territory. [134][135] Throughout the battle, Hitler called for the British to accept peace, but they refused to negotiate. [162] The He 177A went into service in April 1942, despite an ongoing series of engine fires in the small batch of A-0 series production prototype aircraft. The campaign was much less destructive than the Blitz. This included cities like Marseille (2,000 dead), Lyon (1,000 dead), Saint-tienne, Rouen, Orlans, Grenoble, Nice, Paris[216] and surrounds (1000+ dead),[217] and so on. Ian Dear, Michael Richard Daniell Foot (2001). Estimates of those killed vary from 35 million to 60 million. Most bombed country in history had an average of 55 bombs - UNILAD This raid was also not particularly effective: only forty-seven of the sixty-eight bombers hit the target area. The bombs were dropped from around 30,000 feet (10,000 m) and it is estimated that only around 10% hit their targets. After . .Obote-Odora, Alex. Lord Cranborne, the British Under-Secretary of State For Foreign Affairs, expressed his indignation in his own declaration. For gallantry during the siege, the people of the island was collectively awarded the George Cross . The bomb destroyed 60% of the city. Minelaying is to be scaled down in favour of these attacks. "The judging of war criminals: individual criminal responsibility under international law". Wojciecha Fakowskiego, Naloty na Warszaw podczas II wojny wiatowej Tomasz Szarota, pages 240281. [142] From the night of 19/20 August night bombing targeted the aircraft industry, ports, harbours, and other strategic targets in towns and cities, including suburban areas around London. The American bombing campaign gained intensity after the surrender of Germany in May 1945, and by July Japanese defences were incapable of impeding their movement. "[122] On the night of 15/16 May, 96 bombers crossed the Rhine and attacked targets in Gelsenkirchen. Speer acknowledged that the RAF were hitting the right targets, and raids severely disrupted his plans to increase production to meet increasing attritional needs. [62] The government communicated to their French allies the intention "not to initiate air action which might involve the risk of civilian casualties"[63], While it was acknowledged bombing Germany would cause civilian casualties, the British government renounced deliberate bombing of civilian property, outside combat zones, as a military tactic. [10] In most cases there were no civilians killed but due to the damage caused by these attacks, many of the survivors were left homeless and wounded. [22] Historians Marco Gioannini and Giulio Massobrio argued in 2007 that this figure is inaccurate due to loss of documents, confusion and gaps, and estimated the total number of civilian casualties in Italy due to aerial bombing as comprised between 80,000 and 100,000. [86][90] (Overall, incendiaries made up only three percent of the total tonnage dropped. The Luftwaffe's air raids began on 9th August 1940 and ended on 23rd April 1943. The Soviets sent a total of 549 long-range bombers over German territory in all of 1941. [55], The second approach was grounded in the so-called "industrial web theory" that proposed to concentrate on destroying enemy military, industrial, and economic infrastructure instead of forces in the field as the fastest way to win the war. [219] In February 1944, they again shifted priority, this time towards terror bombing, with the goal of knocking Finland and Hungary out of the war. The effects of the Tokyo firebombing proved the fears expressed by Admiral Yamamoto in 1939: "Japanese cities, being made of wood and paper, would burn very easily. Bombing of Dresden | History, Deaths, & Facts | Britannica Major John S. Chilstrom, School of Advanced Airpower Studies. After the Altmark Incident, the Luftwaffe launched a strike against the British navy yard at Scapa Flow on 16 March 1940, leading to the first British civilian death. The twin campaignsthe USAAF by day, the RAF by nightbuilt up into massive bombing of German industrial areas, notably the Ruhr, followed by attacks directly on cities such as Hamburg, Kassel, Pforzheim, Mainz and the often-criticized bombing of Dresden. Tens of thousands were killed in the initial explosions and many more would later succumb to radiation poisoning. In the absence of specific laws relating to aerial warfare, the belligerents' aerial forces at the start of World War II used the 1907 Hague Conventions signed and ratified by most major powers as the customary standard to govern their conduct in warfare, and these conventions were interpreted by both sides to allow the indiscriminate bombing of enemy cities throughout the war.[48]. In the end, thanks in part to the dehousing paper, it was this view which prevailed and Bomber Command would remain an important component of the British war effort up to the end of World War II. [34][35] When the United States began flying bombing missions against Germany, it reinforced British efforts. Where are the world's most war-damaged cities? - The Guardian The World War Two Siege of Malta took place from 1940 to 1942. The damage inflicted was extensive. The strike killed between 800 and 1,000 civilians, wounded over 1,000, and made 78,000 homeless. On May 8 and 9 in 1941, Nottingham suffered its most serious attack of the Second World War with over 100 Nazi German bombers or Luftwaffe taking part in the raid. A British attack followed three days later against the German airbase at Hrnum on the island of Sylt,[105] hitting a hospital, although there were no casualties. Planners targeted the Luftwaffe in an operation known as 'Big Week' (2025 February 1944) and succeeded brilliantly its major attacks came during the "Baby Blitz" period for the Luftwaffe over England, while losses for the Luftwaffe's day fighter forces were so heavy that both the twin-engined Zerstrergeschwader heavy fighter wings (the intended main anti-bomber force) and their replacement, single-engined Sturmgruppen of heavily armed Fw 190As became largely ineffective, clearing each force of bomber destroyers in their turn from Germany's skies throughout most of 1944. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Quester, George "Bargaining and Bombing During World War II in Europe", World Politics, Vol. Conventionally, the air forces designated as "the target area" a circle having a radius of 1,000 feet (300m) around the aiming point of attack. It was the most destructive conventional raid, and the deadliest single bombing raid of any kind in terms of lives lost, in all of military aviation history,[246] even when the missions on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are taken as single events. After the Kursk preparations, the Soviets turned their attention to administrative and industrial targets in East Prussia in April. There Are Still Thousands of Tons of Unexploded Bombs in Germany, Left J.K. Galbraith, "The Affluent Society", chapter 12 "The Illusion of National Security", first published 1958. The Most Bombed Place on Earth - Operation Herkules vs. the - YouTube Little activity followed. Bloody Island, California, derives its name from the Clear Lake Massacre of 1850, in which Captain Nathaniel Lyon, accompanied by soldiers and local white volunteers, invaded the island and killed 60 of the 400 Pomo Indians who had taken refuge there. In March 1943 there was a strategic shift: in preparation for the Kursk Offensive, the bombers were directed against the German railroads behind the front. Pictured: A Savoia Marchetti SM.79 torpedo bombers attacks a convoy bound for Malta.During the grimmest period of World War II, the small island of Malta in . Today, Laos is the most heavily bombed nation in history. Galbraith was a director of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey. This would have accelerated the strangulation of Japan and perhaps ended the war sooner. [143] By the last week of August, over half the missions were flown under the cover of dark. [42] In fact, German aircraft production for 1945 was planned at 80,000, showing Erhard Milch and other leading German planners were pushing for even higher outputs; "unhindered by Allied bombing German production would have risen far higher". [102] The Phoney War continued. It is also stressed that every effort should be made to avoid unnecessary loss of life amongst the civilian population. [219] There were 1,114 sorties over Germany in 1942. [139][140] "He looked up the size of the large Japanese cities in the World Almanac and picked his targets accordingly. [172], During the first few months of the area bombing campaign, an internal debate within the British government about the most effective use of the nation's limited resources in waging war on Germany continued. [153] Gring at Kesselring's urging and with Hitler's support turned to a massive assault on the British capital. Despite the carnage, by the end of. [219], The main task of the 18th Air Army was to support the final offensive against Germany, but it also undertook raids against Berlin, Breslau, Danzig and Knigsberg. Subsequent efforts were directed against V-weapons launch sites in France. Attacks on strategic targets also continued in lower-level daylight raids. This deficiency, along with numerous, seriously deficient design features, led Goering to decry the He 177A's Daimler-Benz DB 606 powerplants to be nothing more than fire-prone, cumbersome "welded-together engines" in August of that year. [214] France's Atlantic ports were important bases for both German surface ships and submarines, while French industry was an important contributor to the German war effort.[215]. The worst had only one good day. A total of 2,386 tonnes of bombs were dropped. Ever. ], even within the Air Force, viewed this as a form of psychological warfare, a significant element in the decision to produce and drop them was the desire to assuage American anxieties about the extent of the destruction created by this new war tactic. Operation Abigail Rachel, the bombing of Mannheim, was one of the first revenge bombings by the British against a German city on 16 December. In the following two months, Soviet Air Forces conducted several attacks against the King Carol I Bridge, destroying one of its spans and damaging an oil pipeline. While they continued some strategic bombing, the USAAF along with the RAF turned their attention to the tactical air battle in support of the Normandy Invasion. [159] This led to the development of the bomber stream. Also, the major powers' possession of newly developed advanced bombers was a great military advantage; they would be hard pressed to accept any negotiated limitations regarding this new weapon. However, the vessel had already left the city, so the seaplane flew over the center of Danzig, where it bombed and opened fire on the German troops celebrating the capitulation of the Polish garrison of Westerplatte.[95][96]. Initially the commanding officer of the Twentieth Air Force was Hap Arnold, and later Curtis LeMay. BERLIN (1940-1945) - 20,000 to 50,000 deaths. The most heavily bombed country in the world has been Laos. [76], Preparations were made for a concentrated attack (Operation Wasserkante) by all bomber forces against targets in Warsaw. Warszawa: Miasto Stoeczne Warszawa 2005. [255] The death toll included an estimated 20,000 Korean slave laborers and 20,000 Japanese soldiers and destroyed 48,000 buildings (including the headquarters of the Second General Army and Fifth Division). [219] In response to a German raid on Moscow on the night of 2122 July 1941, Soviet Naval Aviation launched a series of seven raids against Germany, primarily Berlin, between the night of 78 August and 34 September. Eight bombs a minute were dropped on average during the Vietnam war between 1964 and 1973 . World War II. With 920 aircraft taking part, they dropped 700 tonnes of bombs there. Across the world anti-nuclear activists have made Hiroshima the central symbol of what they are opposing.[259]. It has been estimated that between May 1964 and 26 February 1973 some 2.26 million tonnes (5 billion lb) of bombs of all kinds were dropped along the North to South Ho Chi Minh Trail supply route to South Vietnam. The Luftwaffe destroyed numerous Soviet cities through bombing, including Minsk, Sevastopol, and Stalingrad. In December the Long Range Air Force was reorganized as the 18th Air Army. Also, the centrally placed town hall was an ideal orientation point for the crews. Based in the Marianas (Guam and Tinian in particular), the B-29s were able to carry their full bomb loads and were supplied by cargo ships and tankers. [85] However, Adolf Hitler issued an order to prevent civilians from leaving the city and to continue with the bombing, which he thought would encourage Polish surrender. [151] In a public speech in Berlin on 4 September 1940, Hitler announced that: The other night the English had bombed Berlin. The Japanese government ignored (mokusatsu) this ultimatum, thus signalling that they were not going to surrender. In Dalmatia, the Italian enclave of Zara suffered extensive bombing, which destroyed 60% of the city and killed about 1,000 of its 20,000 inhabitants, prompting most of the population to flee to mainland Italy (the town was later annexed to Yugoslavia). During 1944 and 1945 Milan, Turin and Genoa were instead bombed by USAAF bombers, which mainly targeted factories and marshalling yards; nonetheless, imprecision in bombings caused further destruction of vast areas. This documentary covers the story of the most bombed country in the history of the world: how a small, unassuming nation in Southeast Asia received two milli. "[123] Due to the inadequate British bomb-sights the strikes that followed "had the effect of terror raids on towns and villages. Speer repeatedly said both during and after the war that it caused crucial production problems. [136][137], Still hoping that the British would negotiate for peace, Hitler explicitly prohibited attacks on London and against civilians. (2004). German scientists had invented vengeance weapons V-1 flying bombs and V-2 ballistic missiles and these were used to launch an aerial assault on London and other cities in southern England from continental Europe. While a perfect strategic location, it was also a difficult place . [9] Nearly twenty-five thousand homes, 2,320 stores, 775 warehouses and 62 schools were destroyed. A few days later, Rostock suffered the same fate. October 2, 1935-May 1936 invades, conquers, and annexes Ethiopia. His calculations (which were questioned at the time, in particular by Professor P. M. S. Blackett of the Admiralty operations research department, expressly refuting Lindemann's conclusions[177]) showed the RAF's Bomber Command would be able to destroy the majority of German houses located in cities quite quickly. Best Answer. 5 Attacks on U.S. Soil During World War II | HISTORY On 7 September, at about 11 PM, a Polish Lublin R.XIII G seaplane was flying over the city, on a mission to attack the German Schleswig-Holstein battleship. the wickedness of the German enemy". The declaration also stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would be faced with "prompt and utter destruction", a process which was already underway with the incendiary bombing raids destroying 40% of targeted cities, and by naval warfare isolating and starving Japan of imported food. "[186] At the beginning of the combined strategic bombing offensive on 4 March 1943, 669 RAF and 303 USAAF heavy bombers were available. In the event, the bombing of oil facilities became Albert Speer's main concern; however, this occurred sufficiently late in the war that Germany would soon be defeated in any case. Bombs fell all across the Pacific from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii . Laos - The Most Heavily Bombed Country On Earth - WorldAtlas A researcher from the University of York used wartime intelligence reports to compile the . [238] The primary target of the campaign was Bangkok, the Thai capital. How much of England was destroyed in ww2? - TimesMojo [219] One early bombing theorist, Vasili Chripin, whose theories influenced the Soviet Union's first strategic bombing guidelines (1936) and the service regulations of 26 January 1940, drew back from terror bombing as advocated by Western theorists. On 27 March 1944, the Combined Chiefs of Staff issued orders granting control of all the Allied air forces in Europe, including strategic bombers, to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, who delegated command to his deputy in SHAEF Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder. [122] Churchill explained the rationale of his decision to his French counterparts in a letter dated the 16th: "I have examined today with the War Cabinet and all the experts the request which you made to me last night and this morning for further fighter squadrons. p. 503. When the British Air Force drops 2000 or 3000 or 4000 kg of bombs, then we will drop 150 000, 180 000, 230 000, 300 000, 400 000 kg on a single night. [254], On 6 August 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay flew over the Japanese city of Hiroshima in southwest Honsh and dropped a gun-type uranium-235 atomic bomb (code-named Little Boy by the U.S.) on it. [183], By contrast, the United States Strategic Bombing Survey found attacks on waterways, beginning 23 September with strikes against the Dortmund-Ems Canal and Mittelland Canal, produced tremendous traffic problems on the Rhine River. [45] This means that aerial bombardment of civilian areas in enemy territory by all major belligerents during World War II was not prohibited by positive or specific customary international humanitarian law. The largest Soviet bomb of the war, an 11,000-pound weapon, was dropped on Knigsberg during one of these raids. British Bombing Survey Unit (BBSU) Report, p.41, paras 137-8, corroborated in United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) report No.31. The bombing of Wielu, one of the first military acts of World War II and the first major act of bombing, was carried out on a town that had little to no military value. "The Miami Daily News, Saturday 11 May 1940", The Milwaukee Journal, Monday 20 May 1940, St Petersburg Times, Wednesday 17 July 1940, Quester, George "Bargaining and Bombing During World War II in Europe", World Politics, Vol. 426. the Blitz, (September 7, 1940-May 11, 1941), intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against the United Kingdom during World War II. Poeppel-von Preuen-von Hase, 2000. p. 248. Venice proper was never bombed. The attacks on Germany's canals and railroads made transportation of materiel difficult. With such heavy losses of their primary means of defense against the USAAF's tactics, German planners were forced into a hasty dispersal of industry, with the day fighter arm never being able to fully recover in time. In Southern Italy, after small-scale bombings by the RAF (more frequent than in the north), USAAF started its bombing campaign in December 1942. The figure "bears no relation to the detailed wartime documentary evidence". However, after the successful Axis powers Crimean Campaign and overall deterioration of the Soviet position, Soviet attacks against Romania ceased. HISTORY There Are Still Thousands of Tons of Unexploded Bombs in Germany, Left Over From World War II More than 70 years after being dropped in Europe, the ordnance is still inflicting harm and. The immediate aim, is therefore, twofold, namely, to produce (i) destruction and (ii) fear of death. Records change on a daily basis and are not immediately published online. In addition to the conclusions of Basil Collier to that effect there are also, for example, the 1949 memoirs of General Henry H. Arnold who had been in London in 1941 and supported Collier's estimate. [86], On 14 September, the French Air attach in Warsaw reported to Paris, "the German Air Force acted in accordance to the international laws of war [] and bombed only targets of military nature. [19] In the United Kingdom, 60,595 Britons were killed by German bombing, and in France, 67,078 French people were killed by Allied bombing raids. Bomber Command lost 40 bombers. French civilian casualties due to Allied strategic bombing are estimated at about half of the 67,000 French civilian dead during Allied operations in 19421945; the other part being mostly killed during tactical bombing in the Normandy campaign. [219] In reality, the Soviets never geared aircraft production towards long-range bombers, beyond the small force of indigenously designed and produced Petlyakov Pe-8 four-engined "heavies", and so never had enough to mount an effective campaign. With the addition of the Mustang to its strength and a major change in fighter tactics by the Eighth Air Force, meant to secure daylight air supremacy for the Americans over Germany from the start of 1944 onwards the Combined Bomber Offensive was resumed. [76] In addition, it was to support the advance of German ground forces through direct tactical and indirect air support with attacks against Polish mobilisation centres and thus delay an orderly Polish strategic concentration of forces and to deny mobility for Polish reinforcements through the destruction of strategic Polish rail routes. [69][70][71][72] Notably, the Luftwaffe bombed the Polish capital of Warsaw, and the small towns of Wielu and Frampol. Lindemann was liked and trusted by Winston Churchill, who appointed him the British government's leading scientific adviser with a seat in the Cabinet. [163] Production of the B-series by Heinkel's only subcontractor for the Greif, Arado Flugzeugwerke, would not have started until November 1944, because of Arado's focus on the production of its own Arado Ar 234 jet-powered reconnaissance-bomber at the time. The soldiers killed 135 Indians, while two white men were wounded. [190], Eventually, the Netherlands surrendered on the 15th of May 1940, after the bombings of multiple Dutch cities by the Luftwaffe from 10 to 14 May, which had killed 1250-1350 citizens. This, the BBSU noted, was because official estimates of German war production were "more than 100 percent in excess of the true figures". Words cannot express the feelings of profound horror with which the news of these raids had been received by the whole civilized world. [118][119][120], Following the attack on Rotterdam, RAF Bomber Command was authorized to attack German targets east of the Rhine on 15 May 1940; the Air Ministry authorized Air Marshal Charles Portal to attack targets in the Ruhr, including oil plants and other civilian industrial targets which aided the German war effort, such as blast furnaces. This would displace the German workforce and reduce their ability to work. Despite the use of combat boxes and the assembly ships to form them, formations of unescorted bombers were no match for German fighters, which inflicted a deadly toll. [218] The port city of Le Havre had been destroyed by 132 bombings during the war (5,000 dead) until September 1944. We watched possibility of orientation after visible signs, and also the size of village, what guaranteed that bombs nevertheless fall down on Frampol. The bombings mostly targeted harbour facilities, marshalling yards, factories and airports, but the inaccuracy of the attacks caused extensive destruction and civilian casualties; among the cities hit the hardest were Naples (6,000 casualties[207]), Messina (more than one third of the city was destroyed,[208] and only 30% remained untouched), Reggio Calabria, Foggia (thousands of casualties), Cagliari (416 inhabitants were killed in the bombings of February 1943, 80% of the city was damaged or destroyed), Palermo, Catania and Trapani (70% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed[209]). The military objective, where it exists, seems to take a completely second place. [46], Many reasons exist for the absence of international law regarding aerial bombing in World War II. Rural areas were almost entirely unaffected. But they also ended the war devastated: Malta holds the record for the heaviest, sustained bombing attack: some 154 days and nights and 6,700 tons of bombs. It became an important part of the total war waged against Germany. The Free French Air Force, operational since 1941, used to opt for the more risky skimming tactic when operating in national territory, to avoid civilian casualties.