Is Strategic Bombing a Good Idea?

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Panel: Most people agree that after the invasion of Northwest Europe took hold, they were diminishing returns on bombing German cities. Patrick Euchins: Was the question raised about the fear of an atomic bomb, a realistic bomb? Richard Overley: Were there more effective things to do than what we have just been described by Anthony Beveler and his colleagues in this debate so far? Panel: Is it possible for us to ask whether strategic bombing could be useful or should we not have done something else?

No one doubts the bravery of the thousands of men who flew and died in Bomber Command. The death rate was an appalling 44%. And yet until the opening of a monument in Green Park this year they have received no official recognition, with many historians claiming that the offensive was immoral and unjustified. How can it be right, they argue, for the Allies to have deliberately targeted German cities causing the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians? Even on a strategic level the offensive failed to bring about the collapse of civilian morale that was its intention. Others, however, maintain that the attacks made a decisive contribution to the Allied victory. Vast numbers of German soldiers and planes were diverted from the eastern and western fronts, while Allied bombing attacks virtually destroyed the German air force, clearing the way for the invasion of the continent. In this debate from October 2012, philosopher and author A C Grayling and Professor of History at Exeter University Rochard Overy...

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