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"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."
 
The fledgling RAF and the French practiced strategic bombing of German civilian targets in WW I. They realized that if they broke the morale of the civilian population, the front line soldiers would lose heart for the war. It worked, soldiers on leave shocked by the devastation and hardship.

The same thing applied in WW II. The age of innocence in modern war was over.
 
I'm referencing WWII, and sorry to burst your bubble, but you're wrong.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/10/the-bombing-war-by-richard-overy-review/

I read your link. No evidence given in the review to support the title of it. You'd think that if the author had made such a statement it would have been reproduced. None found in the comments below the article either.

If you've read the book feel free to reproduce the evidence that supports your assertion, whatever it is. The reviewer couldn't find any apparently as they had to content themselves with some general statements unsupported by any examples. It makes for a catchy headline though.

"Bombing in Europe was never a winning strategy, says Richard Overy in The Bombing War"
Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Speer said after the war that if the offensives against the Ruhr dams, the ball-bearing factories, or the oil plants had been kept up, they would have made it impossible to continue. But historians need to say something new; you don't win any prizes for confirming what was already known.

Regardless, Germany got a good pounding, which was richly deserved. The only pity is it cost the lives of so many good men to administer it. Don't you remember Goebbels asking the German people if they wanted "Totalenkrieg"? They didn't say "no" did they?

I forgot to mention your Gotha bombers dropping bombs on a clearly marked Canadian hospital in France in WWI and of course their attacks on London itself. Even in WWI and before, German leaders were waxing poetic on how necessity was the only law in war and every means must be used without scruples, how anything which undermined the enemy's will to resist was legitimate, if only because it might shorten a war. They wrote whole books about it; maybe you should read some of them.

So your story is evil Mr. Churchill, that arch-conspirator, spoiled Mr. Hitler's gentlemanly war? If that makes you feel better, you go right ahead and believe it. Since your side lost, twice, you are free to abuse the freedoms bought in blood that you presently enjoy.
 
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Wrong.

Churchill started the intentional civilian bombings of German cities in WWII.

Prior to that, while Germany had bombed cities during it's Polish, Norway, and Holland campaigns - but as specific air support for German ground forces.

Britain was bombing German cities, at night, indiscriminately, for 3 months, before the Blitz started. Hitler thought Churchill's actions were the height of insanity, and refused requests from the German High Command, repeatedly, to begin bombing urban centers in England, in favour of continued targeted air strikes on RAF installations.

There are many, many sources for this information. But it is inconvenient to the narrative of the war as told by the victors.

http://www.westernspring.co.uk/who-started-the-bombing-of-civilians-in-world-war-ii/

Now, that's not saying Churchill (and Harris) were wrong. But when it comes down to "who started it" - in the matter of mass bombings of urban centers - it was the British who opened that can of worms in WWII.

I'm not 100% sure but I seem to remember reading that a German bomber pilot had to dump his bomb load for some reason in bad weather or fog and mistakenly dropped on part of London and Churchill's retaliation was the start of city/civilian bombing. I don't know if any of it is true but I remember reading it a few years ago.
 
Definitely Re-Enactment. Kinda Farby. Ultra Clean uniforms/perfect condition equipment, MG not being used in it's intended role during a firefight, etc...

Yep, the picture didn't seem quite right. They did a pretty good job though. Actual wartime pictures never seem that dramatic . . .
 
From reading about the battle of britain, as macabre as it sounds, the switch to bombing English civilian targets is probably what won Them the Battle of Britain. By all accounts the bombing of radar installations, airfields and fighter squadrons had the Brits on their knees and the switch gave them the much needed reprieve to rearm, train new pilots and continue inflicting heavy losses on the incoming fighter bombers.
 
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