Strategic Bombing in the Second World War

The Results of America’s Air War against Germany and Japan

Sep 28, 2008

In WWII United States air strategists theorized that relentless, massive bombings of both Germany and Japan would produce instant victory.

The strategic bombing of Germany and Japan produced decisive results but not after the fashion theorized by United States air strategists. The massive bombing campaigns against Germany and Japan were designed to cripple the war effort of those two nations by bringing the horrors of war to the civilian populations, according to Richard Frank in a lecture to Norwich University. These campaigns were also designed to crush the ability of Germany and Japan to produce the materials needed for the continuation of the war. The strategic bombing campaign did not accomplish either of these two goals.

Germany and Japan's Reaction to Strategic Bombing

In Germany resistance stiffened and war material production, Frank states, increased. Allan R. Millett and Peter Maslowski in their work For the Common Defense record how German manufacturing adapted, some facilities becoming subterranean while others were hidden amongst the civilian populations. Even until the war’s end German manufacturers produced the material necessary for the war effort. Japan’s population, like Germany’s, stood steadfast beneath the onslaught of the strategic bombing campaign, and did so without much of a choice. The Japanese population had only a slight ability to indirectly affect the decisions of their government, regardless of the massive loss of civilian life which occurred.

The Cost of Strategic Bombing

The bombing campaigns against both countries did not come cheaply for the United States. At the beginning of the bombing campaign against Germany Millett and Maslowski state that the United States Army Air Force suffered 30 percent casualties on their raids. In the South Pacific, according to Kenneth J. Hagan in This People’s Navy, thousands of United States sailors and marines, as well as dozens of ships, were lost taking the islands necessary for the airfields required to conduct the bombing campaign against Japan.

Where the campaign did prove effective against Japan, however, was with the delivery of the United States’ atomic weapons. The war against Germany, in its turn, benefited from the close work of strategic bombing when Germany was unable to ship 88-mm artillery pieces and panzers to the front lines. Thus while the strategic bombing campaigns against Germany and Japan did not function as planned, the campaigns still bore fruit.

With the delivery of the atomic weapons against Japan, and the hindrance of heavy weapons from reaching German front line units, the strategic bombing campaigns played a significant role in both Europe and the South Pacific. In Europe the campaign succeeded in reducing the possible number of casualties in the drive to Berlin, and in doing the same when examining the frightening projection of losses should an invasion of the Japanese home islands been a reality.

Sources

Frank, Richard. Lecture to the Norwich University Military History Program. 2008.

Millett, Allan R. and Peter Maslowski. For the Common Defense. New York, NY: The Free Press, 1994.

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