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Revision as of 07:58, 17 May 2009 by PBS (talk | contribs) (rewrote the article to concentrate on the phrase as talked through on the talk page.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Terror bombing is an emotive term used to describe aerial attacks made by a belligerent to break the morale of their enemy. Use of the term to describe aerial attacks implies that the attacks are criminal attacks that fall outside the law of war, or if within the laws of ware are nevertheless a moral crime.
The aerial attacks described as terror bombing are often long range strategic bombing raids, although attacks against tactical targets which result in the deaths of civilians my also be described as such, or if the attacks involve fighters strafing the my be labeled "terror attacks".
The German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels frequently described attacks made on Germany by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) during their strategic bombing campaigns as terror attacks. The Allied governments usually described their attacks on cities using other euphemism such as area bombing (RAF) or precision bombing (USAAF), and for most of World War II the Allied news media did the same. However at a SHAEF press conference on 16 February 1945, two days after the Bombing of Dresden, British Air Commodore Colin McKay Grierson, replied to a question by one of the journalists that the primary target of the bombing had been on communications to prevent the Germans moving military supplies, and to stop movement in all directions if possible. He then added in an offhand remark that the raid also helped destroying "what is left of German morale." Howard Cowan, an Associated Press war correspondent, subsequently filed a story about the Dresden raid. The military press censor at SHAEF made a mistake and allowed the Cowan cable to go out starting with "Allied air bosses have have made the long awaited decision to adopt deliberate terror bombing of great German population centres as a ruthless expedient to hasten Hitler's doom." There were follow-up newspaper editorials on the issue and a long time opponent of strategic bombing, Richard Stokes MP, asked questions in the House of Commons on 6 March.
Notes
- Overy (2005), p. 119
- Myrdal (1977), p. 252
- Axinn (2008), p. 73
- Brower (1998), p. 108 (mentions that Historian Ronald Shaffer describing Operation Clarion which involved both bombing and strafing as a terror attack).
- Taylor (2005) pp. 413,414 p. 363
References
- Axinn, Sidney (2008). A Moral Military,Temple University Press, ISBN 1592139582, 9781592139583
- Brower, Charles F. (1998). World War II in Europe: the final year, Roosevelt Study Center,, Palgrave Macmillan,ISBN 0312211333, 9780312211332
- Myrdal, Alva (1977). The game of disarmament Manchester University Press ND, ISBN 0719006937, 9780719006937.
- Overy, R. J. (2005). The air war, 1939-1945, Brassey's, ISBN 1574887165, 9781574887167.
- Taylor, Frederick (2005). Dresden: Tuesday 13 February 1945. London: Bloomsbury, ISBN 0-7475-7084-1.