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

Cluster bombs were the weapon of choice, hundreds of little bombs packed into canisters. The Fhrer declared that terror attacks could only be a means of reprisal, as ordered by him.[138]. On 24 August, several off-course German bombers accidentally bombed central areas of London. Also, both the U.S. Government and its Army Air Forces commanders were reluctant to bomb enemy cities and towns indiscriminately[citation needed]. Evangeslista, Matthew. The development of the V2 was hit preemptively in the British Peenemnde Raid (Operation Hydra) of August 1943. It was accepted by the Cabinet, and Air Marshal Harris was appointed to carry out the task. [82] Over a period of a few days, Luftwaffe numerical and technological superiority took its toll on the Polish Air Force. [106] The Germans retaliated with a naval raid. [121][65] The underlying motive for the attacks was to divert German air forces away from the land front. This was another reasons for the Allies to perform airstrikes on Dutch soil, leading to one of the deadliest civilian airstrikes in the Netherlands. Williamson Murray, Allan Reed Millett, "A War To Be Won: fighting the Second World War", p. 319. By the morning of 8 September 430 Londoners had been killed. Therefore, there is no reason for French retorsions. The number of German civilians estimated to die of strategic bombing, about 500,000, is about the same as Germans who died of Nazi repression from 1933 to 1945. [122] Any airmen who, intentionally or unintentionally, violated this order were punished. [33] Hitler himself hoped that the bombing of London would terrorize the population into submission. 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. The land-based nature of warfare on the Eastern Front also required closer cooperation between the air forces and ground troops than did, for example, the defence of Great Britain. "[87] That day the Jewish New Year the Germans concentrated again on the Warsaw's Jewish population, bombing the Jewish quarter and targeting synagogues. Birmingham was the second most heavily bombed city in the country. US Air Force bombers like this B-52, shown releasing its payload over Vietnam, helped make Cambodia one of the most heavily bombed countries in history perhaps the most heavily bombed. Also, the centrally placed town hall was an ideal orientation point for the crews. [226], After the war, the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey reviewed the available casualty records in Germany and concluded that official German statistics of casualties from air attack had been too low. [97][100] The 1939 Battle of the Heligoland Bight showed the vulnerability of bombers to fighter attack. 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. By the end of the war, about 3040% of the buildings in each of the three cities were destroyed, and both in Milan and Turin less than half of the city remained undamaged. The first RAF raid on the interior of Germany took place on the night of 15/16 May 1940 while the Battle of France was still continuing. [218] The port city of Le Havre had been destroyed by 132 bombings during the war (5,000 dead) until September 1944. New York: Vintage Books. 3 (Apr. Poeppel-von Preuen-von Hase, 2000. p. 249. In hindsight, it would have been more effective to use land-based and carrier-based air power to strike merchant shipping and begin aerial mining at a much earlier date so as to link up with effective submarine anti-shipping campaign and completely isolate the island nation. Initially the commanding officer of the Twentieth Air Force was Hap Arnold, and later Curtis LeMay. The Imperial Japanese Navy also carried out a carrier-based airstrike on the neutral United States at Pearl Harbor and Oahu on 7 December 1941, resulting in almost 2,500 fatalities and plunging America into World War II the next day. [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. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press. In part because of their heavier armament and armor, they carried smaller bomb loads than British bombers. Hastings, p. 352, quoting German post-war Statistical Office calculations. The Most Bombed Country in WW2 #460 - YouTube Every time we think of WW2, we think of Germany, UK and Japan. Before that, U.S. forces had mounted a single raid from an aircraft carrier in 1942, and ineffective long-range raids from China from June to December 1944. [219], Throughout 1943, the Soviets attempted to give the impression of cooperation between their bombers and those of the West. However, in total around 10,000 Dutch civilians were killed by airstrikes from the Allied Forces between May 1940 and May 1945. To counter German radio navigation aids, which helped their navigators find targets in the dark and through cloud cover, the British raced to work out the problems with countermeasures (most notably airborne radar, as well as highly effective deceptive beacons and jammers).[157]. [97] Eight German Kriegsmarine men were killed at Wilhelmshaven the war's first casualties from British bombs;[98] attacks on ships at Cuxhaven[99] and Heligoland followed. British historian Norman Davies writes in Europe at War 19391945: No Simple Victory: "Frampol was chosen partly because it was completely defenceless, and partly because its baroque street plan presented a perfect geometric grid for calculations and measurements. 1963), pp. For gallantry during the siege, the people of the island was collectively awarded the George Cross . [240] After the victory over Japan, on 19 August the denizens of Hanoi broke into the streets and removed the black coverings off the street lamps.[241]. On top of this, some 62 percent of the population was dehoused causing more difficulties. The worst had only one good day. Giulio Gavotti dropped 1.5 kg of bombs on Ain Zara, a village 8 km west of the capital Tripoli. Despite repeated diplomatic attempts to update international humanitarian law to include aerial warfare, it was not updated before the outbreak of World War II. In January 1943, at the Casablanca Conference, it was agreed RAF Bomber Command operations against Germany would be reinforced by the USAAF in a Combined Operations Offensive plan called Operation Pointblank. 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. Some 3,300 houses were destroyed, and 10,000 were damaged. They are often directed against places far from the actual area of hostilities. The Ukrainian president said S-300 missiles were used to carry out the deadly attacks. [101] Meanwhile, attacks by the Royal Air Force dwindled to less than one a month. 92,673, (incl. The bomb destroyed 60% of the city. But this is a game at which two can play. With the arrival of the brand-new Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy, command of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe was consolidated into the United States Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF). Following the raids, steel production fell by 200,000 tons, making a shortfall of 400,000 tons. Vice Admiral a. D. Prof. Friedrich Ruge, Dr. Hellmuth Gnther Dahms, Dr. Ernst Schraepler, Dr. Herbert Michaelis, Dr. Walther Hubatsch, (1968). The diversion of German fighter planes and anti-aircraft 88 mm artillery from the eastern and western fronts was a significant result of the Allied strategic bombing campaign. The British bomber crews had intended to bomb the Haagse Bos ("Forest of the Hague") district where the Germans had installed V-2 launching facilities that had been used to attack British cities. Strategic bombing during World War II World War II (1939-1945) involved sustained strategic bombing of railways, harbours, cities, workers' and civilian housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory. more ordnance on Cambodia than was previously believed: 2,756,941 tons' worth, dropped in 230,516 sorties on 113,716 sites. Overy estimated in 2014 that in all about 353,000 civilians were killed by Allies bombing raids against German cities. 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. 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]. [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. "Aiming to Break Will: America's World War II Bombing of German Morale and its Ramifications", This page was last edited on 17 June 2023, at 23:07. Consequently, the bombs were usually scattered over a large area, causing an uproar in Germany. Erhard Milch, who strongly supported Goering's conceptions, was instrumental in the Luftwaffe's future. Most of the air missions over the country were conducted with high -performance jet-bombers, World War II cargo planes, Douglas A-1 Skyraiders, and AT-28 Trojans. [247] The city was made primarily of wood and paper, and the fires burned out of control. Noncombatant immunity and proportionality in use of force were insisted upon. Between July 1943 and March 1944 there were no further increases in the output of aircraft. These attacks caused widespread damage and prompted most of the cities' inhabitants to flee. A total of 2,386 tonnes of bombs were dropped. Photos by Jerry Redfern; Text. Of the 3,000 civilians left in the city, 442 died. [10] However, Zeeland continue to resist the German occupation with assistance from Belgian and French forces till the 27th of May, resulting in another bombing by the Luftwaffe in Middelburg on the 17th of May. Heartland heroes: remembering World War II. 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. "He looked up the size of the large Japanese cities in the World Almanac and picked his targets accordingly. HAMBURG (SEPTEMBER 1939-APRIL 1945) - 42,600 deaths. "9 March 1945: Burning the Heart Out of the Enemy", "Bombings Worse than Nagasaki and Hiroshima", "United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Summary Report (Pacific War). After two and a half months, 12,000 U.S. servicemen, 107,000 Japanese soldiers, and over 150,000 Okinawan civilians (included those forced to fight) were killed. On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, immediately killing 80,000 people . It is, therefore, no doubt unrealistic to hope for the general acceptance of rational views about such an emotive subject as the ethics of air bombardment. A much lower figure (51,526) is borne out by such evidence and "is much more consistent with the nature of The British were unsure of whether they could adequately retain or protect Malta. Milch believed that the German industry (in terms of raw materials and production capacity) could only produce 1,000 four-engine heavy bombers per year, but many times that number of twin-engine bombers. The Allies dropped 18,583 bombs on Thailand during the war, resulting in the death of 8,711 people and the destruction of 9,616 buildings. "[244] Further, bombs dropped from a great height were tossed about by high winds. The Kanalkampf of attacks on shipping and fighter skirmishes over the English Channel started on 4 July, and escalated on 10 July, a day which Dowding later proposed as the official start date for the Battle. 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). Few in Britain opposed this policy, but there were three notable opponents in Parliament, Bishop George Bell and the Labour MPs Richard Stokes and Alfred Salter. Ever. General Telford Taylor, Chief Counsel for War Crimes at the Nuremberg Trials, wrote that: If the first badly bombed cities Warsaw, Rotterdam, Belgrade, and London suffered at the hands of the Germans and not the Allies, nonetheless the ruins of German and Japanese cities were the results not of reprisal but of deliberate policy, and bore witness that aerial bombardment of cities and factories has become a recognized part of modern warfare as carried out by all nations. About 3,000 people living nearby were evacuated for the disposal operation, the army said. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, during World War II, American bombing raids on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945) that marked the first use of atomic weapons in war. Schreyer, Wolfgang: Die Piratenchronik. [54], Before World War II began, the rapid pace of aviation technology created a belief that groups of bombers would be capable of devastating cities. It was no easy task to clear the bomb. When the Combined Bomber Offensive officially ended on 1 April, Allied airmen were well on the way to achieving air superiority over all of Europe. 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. Making history in 1942, Malta became the most bombed place on earth. 426. [126] Railway yards at Cologne were attacked on the same night. [238] The primary target of the campaign was Bangkok, the Thai capital. As a result of the attack, 47 people were killed and 127 were wounded. 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. [33] On 7 September 318 bombers from the whole KG 53 supported by eight other Kampfgruppen, flew almost continuous sorties against London, the dock area which was already in flames from earlier daylight attacks. 3. Operation Hydra of August 1943 sought to destroy German work on long-range rockets but only delayed it by a few months. [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". Overy also estimates that Britain spent about 7% of her war effort on bombing, which he concludes was not a waste of resources.[221]. 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. [219] In total, 7,158 Soviet aircraft dropped 6,700 tonnes of bombs on Germany during the war, 3.1% of Soviet bomber sorties, 0.5% of all Allied "strategic" sorties against German-occupied territory and 0.2% of all bombs dropped on it. The Luftwaffe's air raids began on 9th August 1940 and ended on 23rd April 1943. [219] It raided Helsinki for the first time on 24 August, Budapest on 45 and 910 September and Bucharest on 1314 September. 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. There were also air raids on the Philippines, Burma, Singapore, Ceylon, and northern Australia (Bombing of Darwin, 19 February 1942). 2,241 Brummies were killed, 3,010 were injured seriously and 3,682 harmed. From February 1942 onward, the British bombing campaign against Germany became even less restrictive and increasingly targeted industrial sites and civilian areas. On 8 August 1940, the Germans switched to raids on RAF fighter bases. The Luftwaffe issued a press notice announcing they had dropped more than 1,000,000 kilograms of bombs on London in 24 hours. After a second ultimatum had been issued by the Germans, it appeared their effort had failed and on 14 May 1940, Luftwaffe bombers were ordered to bomb Rotterdam in an effort to force the capitulation of the besieged city. Smith, J. Richard and Creek, Eddie J. Ray, John, "The Night Blitz", Cassel & Co 1996, Horst Boog, "Germany and the Second World War: The global war", p 509, Trigg, "The Defeat of the Luftwaffe" 2016, p. 52-56, British historian Richard Overy considers this order of magnitude to be "a rhetorical statistic, to demonstrate the level of sacrifice of the Soviet people and 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. 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. Many other British cities were hit in the nine-month Blitz, including Plymouth, Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, Southampton, Manchester, Bristol, Belfast, Cardiff, Clydebank, Kingston upon Hull and Coventry. The British government banned attacks on land targets and German warships in port due to the risk of civilian casualties. Speer acknowledged that the RAF were hitting the right targets, and raids severely disrupted his plans to increase production to meet increasing attritional needs. The soldiers killed 135 Indians, while two white men were wounded. The ancient timber structures burned well, and the raid destroyed most of the city's centre. They also bombed the Japanese-occupied Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. [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. 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]. "[50], The concept of strategic bombing and its wide-scale implementation during WWII led to a post-war debate if it was moral. Its identity may come as a surprise to some, but the south-east Asian nation of Laos holds the unwanted title as the most bombed country in history. Tami Davis Biddle, "British and American Approaches to Strategic Bombing: Their Origins and Implementation in the World War II Combined Bomber Offensive". 2416 airmen of bombing squadrons (Polish Airforce in the West), 353,000635,000 civilians killed, including foreign workers, Destruction and heavy damage to oil refineries and to thousands of buildings, 60,595: Harper Collins Atlas of the Second World War, 60,600: John Ellis, World War II: a statistical survey (Facts on File, 1993) "killed and missing". US air raids on Japan escalated from October 1944[37] culminating in widespread firebombing and, in August 1945, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. [132] Hermann Gring's general order, issued on 30 June 1940, stated: The war against England is to be restricted to destructive attacks against industry and air force targets which have weak defensive forces. As the winter set in, both sides engaged in propaganda warfare, dropping leaflets on the populations below. The British had been waiting for the opportunity to experiment with such a raid aimed at creating a maximum of destruction in a selected town since the summer of 1940, and the opportunity was given after the German raid on Coventry. Leaflets were dropped over cities before they were bombed, warning the inhabitants and urging them to escape the city. [55], The first was based on the Just War theory and emphasized that noncombatants possess an inherent right to be spared from the harm of war and should not be intentionally targeted. Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby, Royal Air Force. "Peace Studies, Volume 3". The USAAF Eighth Air Force's B-17 bombers were called the "Flying Fortresses" because of their heavy defensive armament of ten to twelve machine guns eventually comprising up to thirteen heavy 12.7mm calibre, "light barrel" Browning M2 guns per bomber and armor plating in vital locations. What country got bombed the most in WW2? Secondary targets included Braunschweig, Lbeck, Rostock, Bremen, Kiel, Hanover, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Stuttgart, and Schweinfurt. [113], Out of 100 Heinkel He 111s, 57 dropped their ordnance, a combined 97 tons of bombs. 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. The impact of bombing on German morale was significant according to Professor John Buckley. p. 503. Only 384 civilians and 85 soldiers were killed, but thousands evacuated the city. Nonetheless, after the war, Marshal Vasili Sokolovsky admitted that the Soviets would have gladly launched a strategic bombing offensive had they the capability. [199][200] 2,199 people were killed in Turin[201] and over 2,200 in Milan. The Polish air force left Poland on 18 September 1939 due to the Soviet attack on 17 September 1939, and imminent capture of the Polish airstrips and aircraft stationed in eastern parts of Poland. However, the attacks on such small targets remained relatively limited. Major John S. Chilstrom, School of Advanced Airpower Studies. Estimates of those killed vary from 35 million to 60 million. A few days later, Rostock suffered the same fate. By 1944, absenteeism rates of 2025 percent were not unusual and in post-war analysis 91 percent of civilians stated bombing was the most difficult hardship to endure and was the key factor in the collapse of their own morale. [57], The third approach was demonstrated by Michael Walzer in his Just and Unjust Wars (1977). If the Luftwaffe confined attacks to purely military targets, the RAF should "launch an attack on the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven" and "attack warships at sea when found within range". 12,000 separate fires raged destroying 36 factories, damaging 270 more, and leaving 45,000 people with nowhere to live or to work. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. "The judging of war criminals: individual criminal responsibility under international law". The most extreme examples of which were caused by Operation Gomorrah, the combined USAAF/RAF attack on Hamburg, (45,000 dead), attack on Kassel (10,000 dead), the attack on Darmstadt (12,500 dead), the attack on Pforzheim (21,200 dead), the attack on Swinemuende (23,000 dead) and the attack on Dresden (25,000 dead). 15, No. The most bombed country in history has been revealed, with an unbelievable 55 bombs dropped per minute over nine years. Around a third of the urban population under threat of bombing had no protection at all. The absence of specific international humanitarian law did not mean aerial warfare was not covered under the laws of war, but rather that there was no general agreement of how to interpret those laws. At this stage of the air war, the most effective and disruptive examples of area bombing were the "thousand-bomber raids". [29] During World War II, many military strategists of air power believed that air forces could win major victories by attacking industrial and political infrastructure, rather than purely military targets. page 447. [48], Article 25 of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions on Land Warfare also did not provide a clear guideline on the extent to which civilians may be spared; the same can be held for naval forces. [46], Many reasons exist for the absence of international law regarding aerial bombing in World War II. A year after the war, the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey reported that American military officials had underestimated the power of strategic bombing combined with naval blockade and previous military defeats to bring Japan to unconditional surrender without invasion. The RAF bombed German warships and light vessels in several harbours on 3 and 4 September. Harris, Arthur Travers, ed Cox, Sebastian (1995). [196][197] Around 100 civilians were killed and 200 wounded as a result of Operation Tidal Wave. 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 USAAF first dropped bombs on Romania on 12 June 1942 during the HALPRO (Halverson project) raid against Ploieti (the first U.S. mission against a European target). Polish Air Force bases across Poland were also subjected to Luftwaffe bombing from 1 September 1939. The most heavily bombed country in the world has been Laos. E. Bruce Reynolds, "Aftermath of Alliance: The Wartime Legacy in Thai-Japanese Relations". Spencer Tucker, Priscilla Mary Roberts, (2004). These Strangriffe ("nuisance raids") were used to train bomber crews in both day and night attacks, to test defences and try out methods. [32] In September 1940 the Luftwaffe began targeting British cities in the Blitz. Augen am Himmel: Eine Piratenchronik 1968, Straty Warszawy 19391945.Raport pod red. page 177. [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. The first raid of this type on Tokyo was on the night of 2324 February when 174 B-29s destroyed around one square mile (3km2) of the city. TOKYO (NOVEMBER 1944-AUGUST 1945) - over 100,000 deaths. However, the pilots were issued with the wrong coordinates, so the navigational instruments of the bombers had been set incorrectly. [90][91][92][93][94] Due to prevailing strong winds they achieved poor accuracy, even causing some casualties to besieging German troops.[91][92]. The bombs were dropped from around 30,000 feet (10,000 m) and it is estimated that only around 10% hit their targets. Three separate lines of ethical reasoning emerged. This bomb's effects killed roughly 39,00080,000 people,[255] including roughly 23,00028,000 Japanese war industry employees, an estimated 2,000 Korean forced workers, and at least 150 Japanese soldiers. [117] International news agencies widely reported these figures, portraying Rotterdam as a city mercilessly destroyed by terror bombing without regard for civilian life, with 30,000 dead lying under the ruins. On 1 April 1945, U.S. troops invaded the island of Okinawa and fought there fiercely against not only enemy soldiers, but also enemy civilians.