To Destroy A City: Strategic Bombing And Its Human Consequences In World War 2Herman Knell was nineteen and living in Würtzburg in March of 1945 when hundreds of Allied planes arrived overhead, unleashing a torrent of bombs on the city. Würtzburg's tightly packed medieval housing exploded in a firestorm, killing six thousand people in one night and destroying 92 percent of the city's structures. Despite the fact that Würtzburg had no strategic value, the city emerged from World War II second only to Dresden in material destruction inflicted from the air. The experience led Knell to years of research on the history, development, and effects of the strategy of area bombing.To Destroy a City is the result of the author's long and unrelenting investigation. His analysis of this form of warfare, which reached its zenith during World War II, covers the history and the development of wide-area bombing since 1914, examines its wartime effectiveness and the consequences. But the extra dimension that Knell's book offers is his firsthand experience of the tension, fear, tentative defiance, and, finally, utter catastrophe of being on the receiving end of overwhelming air power. For Americans, who fortunately did not experience bombing during the war, this is essential reading. |
Contents
5 | |
15 | |
THE RAIDS BEGIN | 31 |
Part | 49 |
THE BOMBER PRACTITIONERS | 69 |
BOMBING IN WORLD WAR I | 91 |
BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS | 119 |
BOMBING IN WORLD WAR II | 165 |
Part Three | 269 |
GAS IN AERIAL WARFARE | 287 |
LOSS OF CULTURAL ASSETS | 295 |
PSYCHOLOGICAL EffectS OF BOMBING | 303 |
THE VICTIMS AND THEIR TREATMENT | 313 |
STRATEGIC BOMBING AND INTERNATIONAL LAW | 323 |
CONCLUSION | 330 |
Other editions - View all
To Destroy A City: Strategic Bombing And Its Human Consequences In World War 2 Herman Knell No preview available - 2009 |
Common terms and phrases
aerial AFSHRC Air Ministry Air Power air raids aircraft Alliierter Bombenterror area bombing Army Air Force attack bases BCWD became Berlin Bomber Harris Bomber Offensive bomber practitioners Britain British campaign Cherwell chief of staff Churchill civil defense civilian losses Condor Legion crews damage destroyed destruction Douhet dropped Eighth USAAF enemy Europe factories February fight fighters fire flown flying France Freiburg French German army German cities Geschichte des Luftkriegs Göring high explosives Hitler Ibid industry Italian Italy J. M. Spaight Japan Japanese killed LeMay London Luftwaffe March Marshal Maximilian Czesany military million morale night Olaf Groehler operations orders percent planes planning Portal RAF Bomber Command railway Regia Aeronautica Reich Royal Royal Air Force Russian September Soviet Soviet Air Force Spaatz squadrons strategic bombing tactical targets tion tons of bombs Treaty Trenchard troops U.S. Army United USAAF USSR Verlag Wehrmacht World World War II Würzburg Zeppelins Zuckerman