The remains of German town of Wesel after intensive allied area bombing in 1945 (destruction rate 97% of all buildings)

The aerial bombing of cities began in 1911, developed through World War I, grew to a vast scale in World War II, and continued to the present day. Image File history File links Wesel_1945. ... Image File history File links Wesel_1945. ... Wesel is a city (population about 61,689 in 2004) in Germany, located at the point where the Lippe River empties into the Rhine. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Aerial bombing before World War II

Italian-Turkish War of 1911-1912

The very first aerial act of aggression occurred during the Italian-Turkish War of 1911-1912 in North Africa. Italy had been using aircraft to monitor enemy troop movements and search for Turkish artillery positions. One Italian pilot, a Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti, realized that the aircraft could be used for more than simple reconnaissance. The event occurred over a Turkish camp at Ain Zara in Libya on November 1, 1911. Lt. Gavotti was flying his Taube monoplane at an altitude of 600 ft (185 m) when he took four small 4.5 lb (2 kg) grenades from a leather pouch, screwed in the detonators he had carried aboard in his pocket, and threw each bomb over the side by hand. Although no one was injured and little damage was done, Lt. Gavotti earned his place in history for conducting the first aerial bombing raid ever recorded. Combatants Italy Ottoman Empire Commanders Carlo Caneva Ismail Enver Strength 100. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Rumpler Taube is a pre-World War I monoplane aircraft, and the first mass produced military plane in Germany. ... A monoplane is an aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. ...

Mexican Revolution

The city of Mazatlan then got the distinction of being the 2nd city in the world after Tripoli, Libya of being one of the first to suffer aerial bombardment. During the revolution of 1910-17 General Venustiano Carranza (later president) intent on taking the city of Mazatlan, ordered a biplane to drop a crude bomb of nails and dynamite wrapped in leather to the target of Neveria Hill adjacent to the down town area of Mazatlan. The bomb landed not on target but on the city streets of Mazatlan and in the process killed two citizens and wounded several others, becoming the first aerial bombing to result in fatalities. Mazatlán is a city (population 340,000 as of 2000) located on the Pacific coast of Mexico, just across from the southernmost tip of Baja California. ... Venustiano Carranza Garza (December 29, 1859 – May 21, 1920) was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. ... Reproduction of a Sopwith Camel biplane flown by Lt. ...

World War I

The first ever aerial bombardment of civilians was on January 19, 1915, in which two German Zeppelins dropped 24 fifty-kilogram high-explosive bombs and ineffective three-kilogram incendiaries on the English towns of Great Yarmouth, Sheringham, King's Lynn, and the surrounding villages; in all, four people were killed, 16 injured, and monetary damage was estimated at £7,740, although the public and media reaction were out of proportion to the death toll.^[1] London was accidentally bombed in May and in July 1916, the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centres, sparking 23 airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691. Gradually British air defences improved. In 1917 and 1918 there were only eleven Zeppelin raids against England, and the final raid occurred on August 5, 1918, which resulted in the death of KK Peter Strasser, commander of the German Naval Airship Department. By the end of the war, 51 raids had been undertaken, in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people and injuring 1,358. It has been argued that the raids were effective far beyond material damage in diverting and hampering wartime production, and diverting twelve squadrons and over 10,000 men to air defences. is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday[1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Zeppelins are a type of rigid airship pioneered by German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century, based in part on an earlier design by aviation pioneer David Schwarz. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Great Yarmouth, often known to locals simply as Yarmouth, is an English coastal town in the county of Norfolk. ... Sheringham from the mound Sheringham is a seaside town (population 7143[1]) in Norfolk, England, west of Cromer. ... , Kings Lynn is a town and port in Norfolk, England. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... USS Akron (ZRS-4) in flight, November 2, 1931 An airship or dirigible is a buoyant lighter-than-air aircraft that can be steered and propelled through the air. ... is the 217th day of the year (218th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Portrait of Peter Strasser in 1914, commander of the Luftschiffer German Airforce Peter Strasser (April 1, 1876 - August 6, 1918) Chief Commander of Germanys Luftschiffer airforce during World War I. He was the main leader of the Zeppelins command and in charge, operating bombing campaigns from 1915 to 1918. ...

Second Italo-Abyssinian War

The Italians used aircraft against the Ethiopian cities in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. Combatants Kingdom of Italy Ethiopian Empire Commanders Benito Mussolini Emilio De Bono Pietro Badoglio Rodolfo Graziani Haile Selassie Ras Imru Strength 800,000 combatants (only ~330,000 mobilized) ~250,000 combatants Casualties 10,000 killed1 (est. ...

Spanish Civil War

During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists under Francisco Franco made extensive use of aerial bombing on civilian targets. Nazi Germany gave aircraft to Franco to support the overthrow of the Spanish Republican government. The first major example of this came in November 1936, when German and Spanish aircraft pounded Republican held Madrid; this bombardment was sustained throughout the Siege of Madrid. Barcelona and Valencia were also targeted in this way. On April 26, 1937, the German Luftwaffe (Condor Legion) bombed the Spanish city of Guernica carrying out the most high profile aerial attack of the war. This act caused world-wide revulsion and was the subject of a famous painting by Picasso, but by the standards of bombings during WWII, casualties were fairly minor (estimates ranging from 500 to 1,500); however, it remains significant as it was the first-ever saturation bombing of a civilian population. Not to be confused with the Spanish Civil War of 1820-1823. ... “Franco” redirects here. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Anthem El Himno de Riego Capital Madrid Language(s) Spanish Government Republic President  - 1931–1936 Niceto Alcalá-Zamora  - 1936–1939 Manuel Azaña Legislature Congress of Deputies Historical era Interwar period  - Monarchy abolished April 14, 1931  - Spanish Civil War 1936–1939  - Republic in exile dissolved July 15, 1977 Currency Spanish... This article is about the Spanish capital. ... The Siege of Madrid was a three year siege of the Spanish capital Madrid, during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. ... Location Coordinates : Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer: CEST (GMT +2) General information Native name Barcelona (Catalan) Spanish name Barcelona Nickname Ciutat Comtal (City of Counts) Postal code 08001–08080 Area code 34 (Spain) + 93 (Barcelona) Website http://www. ... Location Coordinates : 39°29′ N 0°22′ W Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer: CEST (GMT +2) General information Native name València (Catalan) Spanish name Valencia Founded 137 BC Postal code 46000-46080 Website http://www. ... is the 116th day of the year (117th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Deutsche Luftwaffe or   (German: air force, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ... Hermann Göring delivering an honour (likely to be the Spanienkreuz, Spanish Cross) to a member of the Legion Condor (April 1939) The Condor Legion was a unit of Nazi Germanys air force which was sent as volunteers to support the right wing Nationalists (i. ... The bombing of Guernica was an aerial attack on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War by planes of the German Luftwaffe Condor Legion and subordinate Italian Fascists from the Corpo Truppe Volontarie expeditionary force organized as Aviazione Legionaria. ... Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain, by twenty-eight bombers, on April 26, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. ... A young Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso, formally Pablo Ruiz Picasso, (October 25, 1881 - April 8, 1973) was one of the recognized masters of 20th century art. ... Aerial area bombardment is the policy of indiscriminate bombing of an enemys cities, for the purpose of destroying the enemys means of producing military materiel, communications, government centres and civilian morale. ...

Second Sino-Japanese War

Casualties of a mass panic during a Japanese air raid in Chongqing

During the Manchurian Incident of 1931, the Japanese widely used airplanes to indiscriminately bomb key targets and cities, such as Mukden. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, in conjunction with the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, began relentlessly bombing Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and other populated cities on the Chinese coast from the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. These earlier mass raids were to be repeated against the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, and against the then Chinese capital of Nanjing immediately preceding the barbarous Nanjing Massacre and the unrelenting aerial bombing of Chongqing. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Bombing of Chongqing (February 18, 1938 - August 23, 1943) was a Japanese strategic bombing campaign against the Chinese provisional capital of Chongqing that lasted 5 1/2 years. ... One aspect of the Manchurian Incident (January 1931) was an engagement of the Imperial Japanese Army with Chinese forces. ... Major districts of Shenyang. ... Belligerents National Revolutionary Army, Republic of China Imperial Japanese Army, Empire of Japan Commanders Song Zheyuan Kanichiro Tashiro Strength 100,000 - Casualties and losses 16,700 - The Marco Polo Bridge Incident (盧溝橋事變; also known as 七七事變, 七七盧溝橋事變 or the Lugouqiao Incident) was a battle between the Republic of Chinas National Revolutionary Army... The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, or more traditionally called the Japanese Army Air Force (陸軍航空本部 Rikugun KōkÅ« Hombu), was Imperial Japans land-based aviation force. ... The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service or Dai Nippon Teikoku Kaigun Koku Hombu was a major force in the Pacific War during World War II. The Japanese military acquired their first aircraft in 1910 and followed the development of air combat during World War I with great interest. ... For other uses, see Shanghai (disambiguation). ... Peking redirects here. ...   (Chinese: ; Pinyin: ; Postal map spelling: Tientsin) is one of the four municipalities of China. ... Combatants China  United States1 Soviet Union2  Empire of Japan Collaborationist Chinese Army3 Commanders Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Cheng, Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren, Xue Yue, Bai Chongxi, Peng Dehuai, Joseph Stilwell, Claire Chennault, Aleksandr Vasilevsky Hirohito, Fumimaro Konoe, Hideki Tojo, Kotohito Kanin, Matsui Iwane, Hajime Sugiyama, Shunroku Hata... Guangzhou is the capital and the sub-provincial city of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the Peoples Republic of China. ... For other uses, see Nanjing (disambiguation). ... The Nanking Massacre (Chinese: 南京大屠殺, pinyin: Nánjīng Dàtúshā; Japanese: 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu), also known as the Rape of Nanking and sometimes in Japan as the Nanking Incident (南京事件, Nankin Jiken), refers to what many historians recognize as widespread atrocities committed by the Japanese army in and around Nanking (now Nanjing... The Bombing of Chongqing (February 18, 1938 - August 23, 1943) was a Japanese strategic bombing campaign against the Chinese provisional capital of Chongqing that lasted 5 1/2 years. ...

Aerial bombing during World War II

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Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...

European theatre

See also: Strategic bombing during World War II

At the beginning of World War II, the bombing of cities was a normal practice of the German Luftwaffe. In the first stages of war, the Germans carried out many massive indiscriminate bombings of towns and cities in Poland (1939), killing tens of thousands people, with Wieluń being the first city destroyed by 75%. Soviet Union also attempted terror bombing tactics against Finland, bombing Helsinki, but without any massive loss of life. Strategic bombing during World War II was greater in scale than any wartime attack the world had previously witnessed. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Deutsche Luftwaffe or   (German: air force, IPA: ) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ... WieluÅ„ is a town in central Poland with 25,500 inhabitants (1995). ... Bombing of WieluÅ„ in World War II refers to the German bomb raid on a Polish city of WieluÅ„ at the outbreak of World War II. On September 1, 1939 at 4. ... Terror bombing is a strategy of deliberately bombing and/or strafing civilian targets in order to break the morale of the enemy, make its civilian population panic, bend the enemys political leadership to the attackers will, or to punish an enemy. ... An 88 mm AA-gun at the Finnish anti-aircraft museum Search lights at the Finnish anti-aircraft museum The capital of Finland, Helsinki was bombed several times during the second World War. ...

Similar tactics was also used by the Germans during the Rotterdam Blitz in 1940. After the Germany victory in the Battle of France, German turned its attention to Great Britain. After Hitler dropped the invasion plans, the Luftwaffe carried out an intensive bombing of cities in Britain, including London and Coventry to weaken the morale of the population, in a bombing campaign known in Britain as "the Blitz", from September 1940 through to May 1941 with the goal of forcing the British government to accept peace without the need for an invasion. The city heart of Rotterdam after the bombing, the ruin of the (now restored) Laurens Kerk is the only building that reminds people of the Rotterdams medieval architecture. ... Combatants  France  United Kingdom  Canada  Czechoslovakia  Poland  Belgium  Netherlands  Luxembourg Germany Italy Commanders Maurice Gamelin, Maxime Weygand Lord Gort (British Expeditionary Force) Leopold III H.G. Winkelman Gerd von Rundstedt (Army Group A) Fedor von Bock (Army Group B) Wilhelm von Leeb (Army Group C) H.R.H. Umberto di... Operation Sealion (Unternehmen (Undertaking) Seelöwe in German) was a World War II German plan to invade the United Kingdom. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see Coventry (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Blitz. ... A logo of Her Majestys Government. ...

In response, the British started intensive night air raids on Berlin and other cities. In 1942, the goals of the British attacks were defined: the primary goal was the so called "morale bombing", to weaken the will of the civil population to resist. Following this directive an intensive bombing of highly populated city centers and working class quarters started. On 30 May 1942, the RAF Bomber Command launched the first "1,000 bomber raid" when 1,046 aircraft bombed Cologne in Operation Millennium, dropping over 2,000 tons of high explosive and incendaries were dropped on the medieval town and burning it from end to end. Only 384 civilians and 85 soldiers were killed, but thousands left the city. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... is the 150th day of the year (151st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Bomber Command badge RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ... Cologne in 1945 The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II. During the war the Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed Cologne more than thirty one times. ...

Two further 1,000 bomber raids were executed over Essen and Bremen, but neither so utterly shook both sides as the scale of the destruction at Cologne. The effects of the massive raids using a combination of blockbuster bombs and incendiaries created firestorms in some cites. The most extreme examples were caused by the bombing of Hamburg in Operation Gomorrah (45,000 dead), and the bombings of Kassel (10,000 dead), Darmstadt (12,500 dead), Pforzheim (21,200 dead), Swinemuende (23,000 dead), and Dresden (estimated 25,000 to 35,000 dead). Essen is a city in the center of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... This article is about the city in Germany. ... A Lancaster drops bundles of incendiary bombs (left), incendiary bombs and a “cookie” (right) on Duisburg on 15 October 1944 Blockbuster or Cookie was the name given to several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF). ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The large port city of Hamburg, Germany, was very heavily bombed many times by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II. During one of the attacks in July 1943 a firestorm was created that caused tens of thousands of mostly... The city of Kassel in Germany was severely bombed during World War II and more than 10,000 civilians died during these raids. ... Darmstadt was bombed a number of times during World War II. The most defestating air raid on Darmstadt occured on the night of 11/12 September 1944 when No. ... During the latter stages of World War II Pforzheim, a town in south west Germany was bombed on a number of times. ... Świnoujście (pronounce: [,ɕvinɔujɕtɕȋe], German Swinemünde) is a town in Pomerania, north-western Poland, situated on the islands of Uznam and Wolin with about 41,000 inhabitants (2004). ... The bombing of Dresden, led by Royal Air Force (RAF) and followed by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945, remains one of the more controversial Allied actions of World War II. The exact number of casualties is uncertain, but most historians agree...

Pacific theatre

Nagasaki before and after bombing

In the Pacific theatre, the U.S. bombing of Tokyo created firestorms which killed 73,000, while many other Japanese cities were bombed (eg. Kobe, 8,800 dead). In addition, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed over 200,000 people. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x1095, 869 KB) Adjusted version of Nagasaki_1945_-_Before_and_after. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x1095, 869 KB) Adjusted version of Nagasaki_1945_-_Before_and_after. ... Nagasaki ) ( ) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. ... For other uses, see Pacific War (disambiguation). ... B-29 bombers were used to drop hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives onto Japanese cities during the war. ... On March 17th, 1945, three hundred and thirty-one American B-29 bombers launched a firebombing attack against the city of Kobe, Japan. ... The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the dropping of Little Boy. ...

Aerial bombing since World War II

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Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...

The Cold War (theoretical)

During the Cold War, the threat of destruction of cities by nuclear weapons carried on bombers or ICBMs became the main instrument of the balance of terror that allegedly kept the United States and Soviet Union from open warfare with one another. (See mutual assured destruction.) For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter A nuclear weapon derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. ... A Minuteman III missile soars after a test launch. ... Balance of Terror, written by Paul Schneider and directed by Vincent McEveety, is a first-season episode of the original Star Trek series that first aired on December 15, 1966. ... Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by one of two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. ...

Bombing by Iraq

Saddam Hussein's Iraq attacked civilian targets in Iranian cities in the "War of the Cities" during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, with Iranians retaliating in kind (both sides soon switched to ballistic missile attacks). Iraqi aircraft also bombed the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Halabja with conventional and chemical weapons in 1988, killing more than 5,000 people in the largest aerial poison gas attack in history. Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq and Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council from 1979 until his overthrow by US forces in 2003. ... Combatants  Iran Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Iraq Peoples Mujahedin of Iran Commanders Ruhollah Khomeini Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Ali Shamkhani Mostafa Chamran â€  Saddam Hussein Ali Hassan al-Majid Strength 305,000 soldiers 500,000 Pasdaran and Basij militia 900 tanks 1,000 armored vehicles 3,000 artillery pieces 470 aircraft... Diagram of V-2, the first ballistic missile. ... For other uses, see Kurdistan (disambiguation). ... Halabja (Kurdish: Helepçe or , Arabic: or Turkish: Halepçe ) is a Kurdish town in Iraq or Southern Kurdistan about 150 miles (240 km) northeast of Baghdad and 8-10 miles from the Iranian border. ... Early detection of chemical agents Sociopolitical climate of chemical warfare While the study of chemicals and their military uses was widespread in China, the use of toxic materials has historically been viewed with mixed emotions and some disdain in the West (especially when the enemy were doing it). ... Photo said to have been taken in the aftermath of the attack. ...

Bombing by Israel

Lebanese capital of Beirut was attacked on a large scale by the Israeli aircarft during the Siege of Beirut, killing several thousand people in 1982 and, on a much smaller scale, during the 2006 Lebanon War (using guided munitions). This article is about the Lebanese city. ... Belligerents Israel Defense Forces Palestine Liberation Organization Commanders Ariel Sharon Yasir Arafat Strength 30,000 15,000 Casualties and losses 368 soldiers killed, 2,383 wounded 1000 PLO guerillas killed, 6000 captured. ... Combatants Hezbollah Amal[1] LCP[2] PFLP-GC[3]  Israel Commanders Hassan Nasrallah Dan Halutz Moshe Kaplinsky[10] Udi Adam Strength 600-1,000 active fighters 3,000-10,000 reservists[4] Up to 10,000 ground troops. ...

Bombing by the Soviet Union and Russia

In 1979, the Soviets carpet-bombed the city the Afghan third-largest city of Herat, causing massive destruction^[2] and some 5,000 to 25,000 deaths.^[3] Herāt (Persian: ‎ ) is a city in western Afghanistan, in the province also known as Herāt. ...

Post-Soviet Russia heavily bombed the Chechen capital of Grozny from air with mostly unguided munitons (including fuel-air explosives) as well as bombarding it with a massive artillery barrages (1994-1995, 1996 and 1999-2000), killing thousands of people (some estimates say 27,000 civilians were killed during the 1994-1995 siege alone^[4]). In 2003, the United Nations still called Grozny the most destroyed city on earth.^[5] The Chechen Republic (IPA: ; Russian: , Chechenskaya Respublika; Chechen: , Noxçiyn Respublika), or, informally, Chechnya (; Russian: ; Chechen: , Noxçiyçö), sometimes referred to as Ichkeria, Chechnia, Chechenia or Noxçiyn, is a federal subject of Russia. ... For other uses of Grozny, see Grozny (disambiguation). ... A high-impulse thermobaric weapon (HIT), also known as a fuel-air explosive (FAE or FAX), a heat and pressure weapon, or a vacuum bomb, consists of a container of a volatile liquid, in some designs including a finely powdered explosive component as a slurry, and (typically) two separate explosive... Look up Barrage in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Combatants Russian Federation Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Commanders Pavel Grachev Ivan Babichev Vadim Orlov Lev Rokhlin Vladimir Shamanov Viktor Vorobyov â€  Aslan Maskhadov Turpal-Ali Atgeriev Shamil Basayev Ruslan Gelayev Strength 60,000 in all (est. ... UN and U.N. redirect here. ...

Bombing by the United States

During the Korean War of 1950-1953, United States bombed the cities in North Korea and the North-occupied South Korea, including their respective capital cities. There were also plans to use nuclear weapons against North Korea and the People's Republic of China. Belligerents United Nations: Republic of Korea Australia Belgium Canada Colombia Ethiopia France Greece Luxembourg Netherlands New Zealand Philippines South Africa Thailand Turkey United Kingdom United States Naval Support and Military Servicing/Repairs: Japan Medical staff: Denmark Italy Norway India Sweden DPR Korea PR China Soviet Union Commanders Syngman Rhee Chung...

During the Vietnam War the United States from 1965 to 1968 conducted an aerial campaign known as Operation Rolling Thunder. The campaign began with interdiction of supply lines in rural areas of southern North Vietnam but incrementally spread northward throughout the country. On June 29, 1966, restrictions against bombing the capital city of Hanoi and the country's largest port, Haiphong were lifted, and they were bombed by the USAF and Navy.^[6] The bombing of their city centres continued to be prohibited.^[7] These restrictions didn't regard South Vietnamese cities seized by the communists and they were bombed, including the former capital of Huế in 1968. Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... Combatants  United States Republic of Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam Commanders Joseph H. Moore, William W. Momyer, George S. Brown Phung The Tai (Air Defense), Nguyen Van Tien (Air Force) Casualties United States: ~835 killed, captured, or missing VNAF: Unknown ~20,000 military, ~72,000 civilian Operation Rolling Thunder was... is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. ... Hanoi (Vietnamese: Hà Ná»™i, Hán Tá»±: 河内)  , estimated population 3,145,300 (2005), is the capital of Vietnam. ... Haiphong (Vietnamese: Hải Phòng, Chinese 海防, HÇŽifáng) is the third most populous city in Vietnam. ... “The U.S. Air Force” redirects here. ... USN redirects here. ... Anthem Thanh niên Hành Khúc (Call to the Citizens) Capital Saigon Language(s) Vietnamese Government Republic Last President¹ Duong Van Minh Last Prime minister Vu Van Mau Historical era Cold War  - Regime change June 14, 1955  - Dissolution April 30, 1975 Area  - 1973 173,809 km² 67,108... Huế (化 in Vietnamese Chữ nôm, 順化 in Chinese characters) is the former modern capital of Vietnam. ...

The United States has also bombed city areas during a number of military operations, including Tripoli (1986), Belgrade (Kosovo War 1999) and Baghdad (1991 and 2003). These attacks were made using precision-guided munitions (or "smart bombs") and cruise missiles. Following the September 11, 2001 attack the United States attacked the urban targets in Afghanistan in Iraq, including the Shock and Awe campaign of precision bombing. The United States government maintained that it has a policy of striking only militarily-significant targets while doing all possible to avoid what it terms "collateral damage" to non-military areas and persons. Neverthless, thousands of civilians were reportedly killed,^[8] including some 500 confirmed deaths in Serbia and Kosovo (in both urban and rural locations).^[9] Tripoli (Arabic: طرابلس Tarābulus) is the capital city of Libya. ... For other uses, see Belgrade (disambiguation). ... The term Kosovo War or Kosovo Conflict is often used to describe two sequential and at times parallel armed conflicts (a civil war followed by an international war) in the southern Serbian province called Kosovo (officially Kosovo and Metohia), part of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. ... Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ... BOLT-117 laser guided bomb Precision-guided munitions (smart munitions or smart bombs) are self-guiding weapons intended to maximize damage to the target while minimizing collateral damage. Because the damage effects of an explosive weapon scale as a power law with distance, quite modest improvements in accuracy (and hence... A Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missile of the German Luftwaffe A cruise missile is a guided missile which carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. ... The World Trade Center on fire The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. ... Shock and awe, technically known as rapid dominance, is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming decisive force, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of power to paralyze an adversarys perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. ... Collateral damage is a U.S. Military term for unintended or incidental damage during a military operation. ... Not to be confused with Republika Srpska. ... For other uses, see Kosovo (disambiguation). ...

Aerial bombardment and international law

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International law up to 1945 Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...

International law relating to aerial bombardment before and during World War II rests on the treaties of 1864, 1899, 1907 which constituted the definition of most of the laws of at that time — which, despite repeated diplomatic attempts, was not updated in the immediate run up to World War II. The most relevant of these treaties are the Hague Conventions of 1907 because they were the last treaties ratified before 1939 which specify the laws of war on aerial bombardment. Of these treaties there are two which have a direct bearing on this issue of bombardment. These are "Laws of War: Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907"^[10] and "Laws of War: Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War (Hague IX); October 18, 1907"^[11]. It is significant that there is a different treaty which should be invoked for bombardment of land by land (Hague IV) and of land by sea (Hague IX) ^[12]. Hague IV which reaffirmed and updated Hague II (1899) ^[13] contains the following clauses: The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the Geneva Conventions, among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of international law. ... is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Article 25: The attack or bombardment of towns, villages, habitations or buildings which are not defended, is prohibited.
Article 26: The Commander of an attacking force, before commencing a bombardment, except in the case of an assault, should do all he can to warn the authorities.
Article 27: In sieges and bombardments all necessary steps should be taken to spare as far as possible edifices devoted to religion, art, science, and charity, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not used at the same time for military purposes.
The besieged should indicate these buildings or places by some particular and visible signs, which should previously be notified to the assailants.^[13]

In 1923 a draft convention, promoted by the United States was proposed: The Hague Rules of Air Warfare, December, 1922-February, 1923",^[14] There are number of articles which would have directly affected how nations used aerial bombardment and defended against it; these are articles 18, 22 and 24. It was, however, never adopted in legally binding form. ^[15]

The subordination of the law of air warfare to the law of ground warfare was arguably established by the Greco-German arbitration tribunal of 1927-30. It found that the 1907 Hague Convention on "The Laws and Customs of War on Land" applied to the German attacks in Greece during World War I:^[16] This concerned both Article 25 and Article 26.

The U.S. Air Force Law Review argues that "if international law is not enforced, persistent violations can conceivably be adopted as customary practice, permitting conduct that was once prohibited"^[17] Even if the Greco-German arbitration tribunal findings had established the rules for aerial bombardment, by 1945, the belligerents of World War II had ignored the preliminary bombardment procedures that the Greco-German arbitration tribunal had recognized.^[18]

In response to a League of Nations declaration against bombardment from the air^[19], a draft convention in Amsterdam of 1938^[20] would have provided specific definitions of what constituted a "undefended" town, excessive civilian casualties and appropriate warning. This draft convention makes the standard of being undefended quite high - any military units or anti-aircraft within the radius qualifies a town as defended. This convention, like the 1923 draft, was not ratified, nor even close to being ratified, when hostilities broke out in Europe. While the two conventions offer a guideline to what the belligerent powers were considering before the war, neither of these documents came to be legally binding.

After the war the judgement of the Nuremberg Trials,^[21] the records the decision that by 1939 these rules laid down in the 1907 Hague Convention were recognised by all civilised nations, and were regarded as declaratory of the laws and customs of war. Under this post-war decision, a country did not have to have ratified the 1907 Hague conventions in order to be bound by them ^[22]. For the 1947 Soviet film about the trials, see Nuremberg Trials (film). ...

In 1963 the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the subject of a Japanese judicial review in Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State. The review draws several distinctions which are pertinent to both conventional and atomic aerial bombardment. Based on international law found in Hague Convention of 1907 IV - The Laws and Customs of War on Land and IX - Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War, and the Hague Draft Rules of Air Warfare of 1922–1923 the Court drew a distinction between "Targeted Aerial Bombardment" and indiscriminate area bombardment, that the court called "Blind Aerial Bombardment", and also a distinction between a defended and undefended city.^[23] "In principle, a defended city is a city which resists an attempt at occupation by land forces. A city even with defence installations and armed forces cannot be said to be a defended city if it is far away from the battlefield and is not in immediate danger of occupation by the enemy."^[24] The court ruled that blind aerial bombardment is only permitted in the immediate vicinity of the operations of land forces and that only targeted aerial bombardment of military installations is permitted further from the front. It also ruled that, in such an event, the incidental death of civilians and the destruction of civilian property during targeted aerial bombardment was not unlawful.^[25] The court acknowledged that the concept of a military objective was enlarged under conditions of total war, but stated that the distinction between the two did not disappear.^[26] The court also ruled that when military targets were concentrated in a comparatively small area, and where defence installations against air raids were very strong, that when the destruction of non-military objectives is small in proportion to the large military interests, or necessity, such destruction is lawful.^[25] So in the judgement of the Court, because of the immense power of the bombs, and the distance from enemy (Allied) land forces, the bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki "was an illegal act of hostilities under international law as it existed at that time, as an indiscriminate bombardment of undefended cities".^[27] The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the dropping of Little Boy. ... Judicial review is the power of a court to review the actions of public sector bodies in terms of their legality or constitutionality. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Ryuichi Shimoda et al. ... The aerial bombing of cities became a common tactic in World War II. World War I The first ever aerial bombardment of civilians was on January 19, 1915, in which two German Zeppelins dropped 24 fifty-kilogram high-explosive bombs and ineffective three-kilogram incendiaries on Great Yarmouth, Sheringham, Kings... The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the Geneva Conventions, among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of secular international... Total war is a military conflict in which nations mobilize all available resources in order to destroy another nations ability to engage in war. ... This article is about the independent states that comprised the Allies. ...

Not all governments and scholars of international law agree with the analysis and conclusions of the Shimoda review, because it was not based on positive international humanitarian law. Colonel Javier Guisández Gómez, at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in San Remo, points out: International humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the law of war, the laws and customs of war or the law of armed conflict, is the legal corpus comprised of the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions, as well as subsequent treaties, case law, and customary international law. ... The name San Remo can refer to several different things: San Remo, Italy – a large town in Italy San Remo, Victoria – a town in Victoria, Australia The San Remo – an apartment building in New York City This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might...

In examining these events [Anti-city strategy/blitz] in the light of international humanitarian law, it should be borne in mind that during the Second World War there was no agreement, treaty, convention or any other instrument governing the protection of the civilian population or civilian property, as the Conventions then in force dealt only with the protection of the wounded and the sick on the battlefield and in naval warfare, hospital ships, the laws and customs of war and the protection of prisoners of war.^[18]

This leaves the legal status of aerial bombardment during World War II ambiguous and open to other interpretations, for example one of the reasons given by John Bolton, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, for the USA not agreeing to be bound by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is that There are several people named John Bolton, including: John Gatenby Bolton – British-Australian astronomer (1922–1993) John R. Bolton – U.S. politician and diplomat U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. (2005-current) (b. ... ... Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Opened for signature June 17, 1998[1] at Rome Entered into force July 1, 2002 Conditions for entry into force 60 ratifications Parties 99[2] The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (or Rome Statute) is the treaty which established the International...

A fair reading of the [Rome Statute], for example, leaves the objective observer unable to answer with confidence whether the United States was guilty of war crimes for its aerial bombing campaigns over Germany and Japan in World War II. Indeed, if anything, a straightforward reading of the language probably indicates that the court would find the United States guilty. A fortiori, these provisions seem to imply that the United States would have been guilty of a war crime for dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is intolerable and unacceptable.^[28] This page includes English translations of several Latin phrases and abbreviations such as . ...

International law since 1945

In the post war environment, a series of treaties governing the laws of war were adopted starting in 1949. These Geneva Conventions would come into force, in no small part, because of a general reaction against the practices of the Second World War. In 1977 Protocol I was adopted as an amendment to the Geneva conventions. The two parts of the laws of war (or Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC)): Law concerning acceptable practices while engaged in war, like the Geneva Conventions, is called jus in bello; while law concerning allowable justifications for armed force is called jus ad bellum. ... Original document. ... Protocol I: Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts. ...

The International Court of Justice gave an advisory opinion in July 1996 on the Legality of the Threat Or Use Of Nuclear Weapons.^[29] The International Court of Justice (known colloquially as the World Court or ICJ; French: ) is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. ...

See also

• Air supremacy
• Command responsibility
• Strategic bombing
• Strategic bombing survey
• Terror bombing

v • d • e World War II city bombing
Area bombardment · Terror bombing · V-Weapons
Augsburg · Baedeker Raids · Belfast · Belgrade · Berlin · Birmingham · Braunschweig · Breslau · Bristol · Bucharest · Budapest · Caen (Operation Charnwood) · Cardiff · Chemnitz · Chisinau · Chongqing · Clydebank · Cologne · Coventry · Danzig · Darmstadt · Darwin · Dresden  · Dublin  · Duisburg · Düsseldorf · Essen · Frampol · Frankfurt · Frascati · Gelsenkirchen · Glasgow · Greenock  · Haifa  · Hamburg · Hamm · Hanau · Heilbronn · Helsinki · Hildesheim · Honolulu · Hiroshima · Innsbruck · Kaiserslautern · Kassel · Kobe · Königsberg · Liverpool · London · Lübeck · Mainz · Malta · Manchester · Manila · Mannheim · Minsk · Munich · Nagasaki · Nagoya · Naha · Naples · Nuremberg · Osaka · Peenemünde · Pforzheim · Ploiesti · Plymouth · Prague · Rabaul · Remscheid · Rome · Rothenburg ob der Tauber · Rotterdam · Saarbrücken · Salzburg · Schaffhausen · Schwäbisch Hall · Schweinfurt · Sheffield · Sofia · Southampton · Stalingrad · Stettin · Stuttgart · Taipei · Tallinn  · Tel Aviv  · Thessaloníki · Tokyo · Treviso · Ulm · Vienna · Warsaw · Wesel · Wieluń · Wuppertal · Würzburg · Yokohama · Zara

Air supremacy is the most favorable state of control of the air. ... Peace Palace in The Hague Command responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard, or the Medina standard is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes. ... The city heart of Rotterdam after being terror bombed by Germany in 1940, the ruin of the (now restored) Laurens Kerk is the only building that reminds people of Rotterdams medieval architecture. ... The term strategic bombing survey refers to a series of American examinations of many topics related to their involvement in World War II. Some areas covered were the effectiveness of strategic bombing, medical treatment of casualties, inelegance/counter inelegance, and munitions construction and distribution. ... Terror bombing is a strategy of deliberately bombing and/or strafing civilian targets in order to break the morale of the enemy, make its civilian population panic, bend the enemys political leadership to the attackers will, or to punish an enemy. ... Strategic bombing during World War II was greater in scale than any wartime attack the world had previously witnessed. ... Aerial area bombardment is the policy of indiscriminate bombing of an enemys cities, for the purpose of destroying the enemys means of producing military materiel, communications, government centres and civilian morale. ... Terror bombing is a strategy of deliberately bombing and/or strafing civilian targets in order to break the morale of the enemy, make its civilian population panic, bend the enemys political leadership to the attackers will, or to punish an enemy. ... Vergeltungswaffe (German for retaliation weapon, reprisal weapon or vengeance weapon) was a term assigned during World War II by the Nazis to a number of revolutionary superweapons, the V1 flying bomb, the V2 rocket and the V3 long range gun. ... The Bavarian city of Augsburg, Germany, was bombed twice by the RAF during World War II 1942 The Augsburg air raid on 17 April 1942 was one of the most daring of World War II. The first squadron to take delivery of the 4-engined Avro Lancaster was No. ... The Baedeker Blitz or Baedeker raids were a series of reprisal raids for the bombing of the erstwhile Hanseatic League city of Lübeck during World War II, which was being used to supply the Russian front. ... The Belfast Blitz was an event that occurred on Easter Tuesday, April 15, 1941, when 200 German Luftwaffe bombers attacked Belfast, Northern Ireland. ... he bombing of Belgrade occurred in the initial phases of World War II when German forces bombed the city in preperation for the invasion of Yugoslavia. ... This article is about strategic bombing raids on Berlin. ... The Birmingham Blitz was the heavy bombing of the city of Birmingham in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... The Bombing of Braunschweig (or Brunswick) in World War II on 15 October 1944 by the Royal Air Forces No. ... The Battle of Breslau, otherwise known as the Siege of Breslau was a four months long siege of the city of Breslau (now WrocÅ‚aw, Poland) in Lower Silesia, Germany. ... Bristol was the fifth most heavily bombed city of World War II. // [edit] First Raid Hitler claimed that Bristol had been completely destroyed in a night raid on November 2, 1940 in which 5000 incendiary and 10. ... The bombing of Bucharest (the capital of Romania) in World War II comprised operations by the Allies and Axis Powers at separate intervals in 1944. ... For other uses, see Budapest (disambiguation). ... During World War 2, Operation Charnwood (Allies, 1944) had the objective to capture Caen and its surroundings during the ongoing Battle of Normandy. ... Chemnitz (Sorbian/Lusatian Kamjenica, 1953-1990 called Karl-Marx-Stadt; Czech: Saská Kamenice) is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. ... Chişinău. ... The Bombing of Chongqing (February 18, 1938 - August 23, 1943) was a Japanese strategic bombing campaign against the Chinese provisional capital of Chongqing that lasted 5 1/2 years. ... Clydebank Blitz is During World War II Clydebanks production of ships and munitions for the allies made the town a target for the German Luftwaffe: 439 bombers dropped over 1000 bombs on 13th and 14th of March 1941. ... Cologne in 1945 The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II. During the war the Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed Cologne more than thirty one times. ... The Coventry blitz was a series of bombing raids (blitzes) that took place in the English city of Coventry. ... History Early times Before Gdansk was established, the vicinity was inhabited by populations belonging to the various archealogical cultures of the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. ... Darmstadt was bombed a number of times during World War II. The most defestating air raid on Darmstadt occured on the night of 11/12 September 1944 when No. ... Combatants  Australia  United States Empire of Japan Commanders David V. J. Blake Chuichi Nagumo Strength 30 planes 242 planes Casualties 251 killed 23 planes destroyed 10 ships sunk one aircrew confirmed killed, several missing in action, six taken prisoner; six Japanese aircraft confirmed destroyed, four probably destroyed. ... The bombing of Dresden, led by Royal Air Force (RAF) and followed by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945, remains one of the more controversial Allied actions of World War II. The exact number of casualties is uncertain, but most historians agree... The Bombing of Dublin in World War II occurred on May 31, 1941, when amid World War II, the German luftwaffe (air force) bombed Dublin, the capital of neutral Ireland (Éire)[1], killing 34 persons. ... Duisburg was bombed a number of times by the Allies during World War II. The most devastating air raids on Duisburg occurred during October 1944 when the city was bombed by the Royal Air Force (RAF). ... Düsseldorf (IPA: ) is the capital city of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and one of the economic and cultural centres of Germany and western Europe. ... Essen, a town of the Ruhr area in Germany was mercilessly bombed about 50 times by the Allies in World War II. // Some of the earliest air raids were in March, 1942 by the RAF Bomber Command. ... The Bombing of Frampol happened during the Polish Defence War of 1939. ... September 8, 1943 is the date of the bombing raid of USAAF in Frascati because there were the German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone - O.B.S. and the Italian headquarters, scattered in buildings and Villas nearby the town. ... Gelsenkirchen, an industrial town in the Ruhr area of Germany was bombed many times in World War II. On the night of June 25, 1943, 473 RAF bombers attacked the city. ... Clydebank (Bruach Chluaidh in Gaelic) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, lying on the north bank of the river Clyde. ... The Greenock Blitz is the name given to two nights of intensive bombing of the town of Greenock by the Luftwaffe in May 1941. ... The Italian bombings on Palestine in World War II, which started in July 1940, were part of an Italian effort to strike at the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations where ever possible. ... The large port city of Hamburg, Germany, was very heavily bombed many times by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II. During one of the attacks in July 1943 a firestorm was created that caused tens of thousands of mostly... Map of Germany showing Hamm Hamm is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... Hanau, Germany, the birthplace of the Grimm Brothers, had a long and vibrant heritage. ... During WWII, the German city of Heilbronn was raided and bombed many times by both the British and the Americans. ... An 88 mm AA-gun at the Finnish anti-aircraft museum Search lights at the Finnish anti-aircraft museum The capital of Finland, Helsinki was bombed several times during the second World War. ... The 1,100 year-old German town of Hildesheim was ravaged by Allied air raids in the last days of World War II. March 22, 1945 was a bright mid-day when 280 Avro Lancasters and 8 Mosquito bombers destroyed the town in 17 minutes, flying low and starting fires. ... This article is about the actual attack. ... The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the dropping of Little Boy. ... Innsbruck, an Austrian city, was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938. ... This article is about the city. ... The city of Kassel in Germany was severely bombed during World War II and more than 10,000 civilians died during these raids. ... On March 17th, 1945, three hundred and thirty-one American B-29 bombers launched a firebombing attack against the city of Kobe, Japan. ... In 1944, the city of Königsberg was extensively bombed from the air by the British and burned for several days. ... The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the city of Liverpool in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... [[Media:Italic textLondon has a recorded history that goes back over 2,000 years. ... Lübeck was bombed for the first time by the Royal Air Force on the night of 28/29 March 1942. ... Mainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. ... The Island of Malta The Siege of Malta was a significant military event in the Mediterranean Theatre of World War II that occurred between 1940 and 1943 on the island of Malta. ... The Manchester Blitz was the heavy bombing of the city of Manchester in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... For other meanings of the word, see Manila (disambiguation). ... From December 1940 till the end of World War II, Mannheim saw over 150 air raids. ... The Minsk Blitz was the heavy bombing of the city of Minsk (population was 270 000) in the USSR during the Second World War. ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... The mushroom cloud over Hiroshima after the dropping of Little Boy. ... Nagoya faced several air raids in World War II. The first came on the night of March 11, 1945, two days after the attack on Tokyo. ... Combatants  United States  United Kingdom  Canada  Australia  New Zealand Empire of Japan Commanders Simon B. Buckner â€  Joseph W. Stilwell Ray Spruance Mitsuru Ushijima â€  Isamu Cho â€  Strength 548,000 soldiers, 1,300 ships,  ? aircraft 100,000 regulars and militia,  ? ships,  ? aircraft Casualties 12,513 dead or missing, 38,916 wounded, 33... Naples was the most bombed Italian city in World War II. Category: ... Nürnberg redirects here. ... The U.S. bombing of Osaka during World War II took place on 13th and 14th March 1945. ... Peenemünde was bombed by 596 British and Canadian aircraft, on August 17 and 18, 1943, so as to hamper the manufacture of the German V-Weaposns. ... During the latter stages of World War II Pforzheim, a town in south west Germany was bombed on a number of times. ... Operation Tidal Wave was a military operation by the allied forces to destroy Ploiesti, consisting of air raids conducted on August 1, 1943 Links http://www. ... During World War II, the Luftwaffe launched the Blitz, a night-bombing campaign of British towns. ... The Bombing of Prague occurred during the end of World War II (February 14, 1945) when the US Army Air Forces carried out an air raid over Prague. ... The eastern part of the Territory of New Guinea, and the northern Solomon Islands; the area in which Operation Cartwheel took place, from June 1943. ... Remscheid is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... The bombing of Rome in World War II took place on several occasions in 1943 and 1944, by both Allied and Axis aircraft, before the city was freed from Axis occupation by the Allies on June 4, 1944. ... The German town of Rothenburg was more than 1,000 years old when it lost many historic buildings to air raids in World War II. On March 31, 1945, a day before Easter, a raid destroyed the eastern old town (40% of the original city). ... Rotterdams city center after the terror bombing. ... Capital Saarbrücken Language(s) Rhine Franconian; see language of the Saarland Government Principality Historical era Middle Ages  - Joined Holy Roman Empire 925  - Established ca 1120  - Passed to Nassau-Weilburg 1353  - Occupied by France 1793  - Annexed by France 1797  - Passed to Prussian Grd     Dchy Lwr Rhine   June 9, 1815 Saarbr... This article is about the capital of the Austrian state of Salzburg. ... This article, image, template or category belongs in one or more categories. ... Schweinfurt is a city in the Unterfranken region of Bavaria in Germany on the right bank of the canalized Main, which is here spanned by several bridges, 27 km North-East of Würzburg. ... The Sheffield Blitz is the name given to the worst nights of bombing in Sheffield, England during the Second World War. ... The Bulgarian capital of Sofia suffered a series of Allied bombing raids during World War II, from late 1943 to early 1944. ... Southampton was bombed heavily by the Luftwaffe during World War II. It was targetted mainly in the first phase of the Blitz. ... The Soviet city and industrial centre Stalingrad was bombed heavily by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II. 40,000 people were killed. ... History of Szczecin (German: Stettin) in Poland. ... Stuttgart faced 53 air raids during World War II. A well-known raid was on 6 September 1943. ... Combatants  Empire of Japan  United States Strength Virtually nonexistent 117 B-24 Casualties Civilians killed: 3,000+ Wounded/Displaced: tens of thousands none Taipei Air Raid (Traditional Chinese: 台北大空襲), which took place on May 31, 1945, was the largest Allied air raid on the city of Taipei, known back then as... The Estonian capital of Tallinn was bombed several times during WW2. ... The Italian bombings on Palestine in World War II, which started in July 1940, were part of an Italian effort to strike at the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations where ever possible. ... Thessaloniki or Salonica (Greek: ) is Greeces second-largest city and the capital of Macedonia, the largest Region of Greece. ... B-29 bombers were used to drop hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives onto Japanese cities during the war. ... Treviso suffered a carpet bombing on 7 April 1944. ... Ulm, for its size, was the most heavily bombed city of south Germany during World War II. The heaviest air raid was on December 17, 1944 which killed and injuring hundreds but left 25,000 people homeless. ... Vienna was bombed 52 times during World War II. // [edit] Early 1945 Vienna had already faced 1800 bombs. ... The Bombing of Warsaw in World War II refers both to the terror bombing campaign on Warsaw by Luftwaffe during the September Campaign (siege of Warsaw and to the German bombing raids during the Warsaw Uprising. ... The German town of Wesel was devastated in Allied air raids during World War II. In March 1945, the city was attacked by Bomber command Group No. ... Bombing of WieluÅ„ in World War II refers to the German bomb raid on a Polish city of WieluÅ„ at the outbreak of World War II. On September 1, 1939 at 4. ... Wuppertal was bombed extensively in the Battle of the Ruhr of World War II. In two attacks on Wuppertal, more than 6,000 people died. ... During World War II, on March 16, 1945, 89% of the city was laid to ruins by a British Royal Air Force bombing raid. ... For the town of Yokohama in Aomori Prefecture, see Yokohama, Aomori. ... now. ... Survivor of German aerial bombardment of Warsaw This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Strategic bombing during World War II was greater in scale than any wartime attack the world had previously witnessed. ... RAF redirects here. ... Bomber Command badge RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ... The city heart of Rotterdam after being terror bombed by Germany in 1940, the ruin of the (now restored) Laurens Kerk is the only building that reminds people of Rotterdams medieval architecture. ... ... On on 30 March 1942 Lord Cherwell, the British governments leading scientific adviser, sent to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill a memorandum which after it had become accepted by the Cabinet became known as the dehousing cabinet paper. ... Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso KT CMG PC (October 22, 1890 – June 15, 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair from 1912 until 1952, was a Scottish politician and leader of the British Liberal Party. ... RAF Air Chief Marshal Charles Portal (left) and Polish Commander in Chief Władysław Sikorski (right) visit an airbase of the 300th Polish Bomber Squadron in England. ... Air Chief Marshal Sir Norman Howard Bottomley KCB CIE DSO AFC (September 18, 1891 - August 13, 1970) was the Yorkshire-born successor to Arthur Bomber Harris as Commander-in-Chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command in 1945. ... Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet GCB OBE AFC RAF (April 13, 1892 - April 5, 1984), commonly known as Bomber Harris by the press, and often within the RAF as Butcher Harris[1], was commander of RAF Bomber Command and later a Marshal of... Arthur William Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder (July 11, 1890–June 3, 1967) was a significant British Marshal of the Royal Air Force. ... Professor Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell (April 5, 1886 - July 3, 1957) was a physicist who became an influential scientific adviser to the British government and a close associate of Winston Churchill. ... The Bavarian city of Augsburg, Germany, was bombed twice by the RAF during World War II 1942 The Augsburg air raid on 17 April 1942 was one of the most daring of World War II. The first squadron to take delivery of the 4-engined Avro Lancaster was No. ... This article is about strategic bombing raids on Berlin. ... Combatants No. ... Cologne in 1945 The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II. During the war the Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed Cologne more than thirty one times. ... Similar to Operation Pointblank against the WWII German aircraft industry, Operation Crossbow specialized in offensive and defensive countermeasures against the Bodyline[1] and Peenemünde 20,[2] the British code names for the 40 ft x 7 ft object with blunt nose and three fins and the small winged aircraft... The bombing of Dresden, led by Royal Air Force (RAF) and followed by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945, remains one of the more controversial Allied actions of World War II. The exact number of casualties is uncertain, but most historians agree... The large port city of Hamburg, Germany, was very heavily bombed many times by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II. During one of the attacks in July 1943 a firestorm was created that caused tens of thousands of mostly... During WWII, the German city of Heilbronn was raided and bombed many times by both the British and the Americans. ... Operation Hurricane was a joint RAF Bomber Command and the USAAF VIII Bomber Command operation during October 1944 to demonstrate to the enemy in Germany generally the overwhelming superiority of the Allied Air Forces in this theatre[1] A Lancaster drops bundles of incendiary bombs (left), incendiary bombs and a... The city of Kassel in Germany was severely bombed during World War II and more than 10,000 civilians died during these raids. ... During the latter stages of World War II Pforzheim, a town in south west Germany was bombed on a number of times. ... During World War II, on March 16, 1945, 89% of the city was laid to ruins by a British Royal Air Force bombing raid. ... The Bristol Blenheim is also the name of the main model produced by Bristol Cars since 1994. ... The Douglas DB-7 was a family of attack, light bomber and night fighter aircraft of World War II, serving primarily with Soviet, US and British airforces. ... The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engine heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. ... The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force that was one of the main front-line bombers at the start of World War II. Along with the Whitley and Wellington bombers, the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war... The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). ... The de Havilland Mosquito[1] was a British combat aircraft that excelled in a number of roles during the Second World War. ... The Stirling was a World War II heavy bomber design built by Short Brothers. ... Lockheed PV-1 Ventura The Lockheed Ventura was a bomber and patrol aircraft of World War II, used by American and British forces in several guises. ... The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engine, medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs Chief Designer, R.K. Pierson. ... The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was one of three twin-engine, front-line medium bombers in service with the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of World War II. // Developed from the A.W.23 bomber-transport to meet Air Ministry Specification B.3/34 and manufactured by... Window was the WWII UK codename for a system called chaff, intended to confuse German radar. ... An early H2S picture of the Pembroke and Milford Haven area The H2S radar was used in bombers of RAF Bomber Command. ... ×GEE or AMES Type 7000 was a British radio navigation system used by the Royal Air Force during World War II. GEE was designed to improve aircraft navigation accuracy, thereby increasing the destructiveness of raids by Avro Lancasters and various other bombers. ... The navigators Oboe CRT display Oboe (Observer Bombing Over Enemy) was a British aerial blind bombing targeting system in World War II, based on radio transponder technology. ... G-H was a radio navigation system developed by Britain during World War II to aid RAF Bomber Command. ... Monica was a range-only tail warning radar for bombers, introduced by the RAF in June 1943. ... A Lancaster drops bundles of incendiary bombs (left), incendiary bombs and a “cookie” (right) on Duisburg on 15 October 1944 Blockbuster or Cookie was the name given to several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF). ... The bouncing bomb was a kind of bomb designed by Barnes Wallis of Vickers-Armstrong at Brooklands, Surrey. ... The earth quake bomb concept was invented by Barnes Wallis before the Second World War. ... A British 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) Grand Slam bomb The Grand Slam (Earth Quake bomb), was a very large freefall bomb developed by the British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis (who also made the bouncing bomb) in late 1944. ... The Tallboy was an Earth quake bomb developed by Barnes Wallis and brought into operation by the British in 1944. ... Aerial area bombardment is the policy of indiscriminate bombing of an enemys cities, for the purpose of destroying the enemys means of producing military materiel, communications, government centres and civilian morale. ... A map of part of the Kammhuber Line showing the belt and nightfighter boxes through which the bomber stream flew The bomber stream was a tactic developed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command to overwhelm the German aerial defences of the Kammhuber Line during World War II. The... Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire rather than the blast effects of large bombs. ... The Pathfinder squadrons of the Royal Air Force were elite squadrons of RAF Bomber Command during World War II. At the start of the war Bomber command made many daylight raids but the losses incurred due to lack of escorting fighters when operating over Europe led them to switch the... Combatants RAF Bomber Command Luftwaffe Strength 56 Avro Lancaster 5 Group 4 Avro Lancaster 8 Group (Pathfinders) Operation Bellicose was the name of a British aircraft strategic bombing mission that began on June 20, 1943 during World War II. The target was the Zeppelin Works, the suspected manufacturing site of... The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was the aviation component of the United States Army primarily during World War II. The title of Army Air Forces succeeded the prior name of Army Air Corps in June 1941 during preparation for expected combat in what came to be known as... The German Luftwaffe was one of the most powerful, doctrinally advanced, and battle-experienced air forces in the world when World War II started in Europe in September 1939. ...

References

• Francisco Javier Guisández Gómez, a colonel in the Spanish Air Force ICRC: "The Law of Air Warfare" International Review of the Red Cross no 323, p.347-363
• Joan T. Phillips. List of documents and web links relating to the law of armed conflict in air and space operations, May 2006. Bibliographer, Muir S. Poochild Research Information Center Maxwell (United States) Air Force Base, Alabama.
• Jefferson D. Reynolds. "Collateral Damage on the 21st century battlefield: Enemy exploitation of the law of armed conflict, and the struggle for a moral high ground". Air Force Law Review Volume 56, 2005(PDF) pp. 4-108
• Charles Rousseau, Le droit des conflits armés, Editions Pedone, Paris, 1983

Further reading

• Grayling, A. C. (2006). Among the Dead Cities. New York: Walker Publishing Company Inc.. ISBN 0-8027-1471-4. 

Anthony Clifford Grayling MA, DPhil (Oxon) FRSA (born 3 April 1949) is a British philosopher and author. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ Ward's Book of Days. Pages of interesting anniversaries. What happened on this day in history. January 19th. On this day in history in 1915, German zeppelins bombed Britain.
2. ^ Soviet Air Power: Tactics and Weapons Used in Afghanistan
3. ^ Escaping the past: the widows of Herat
4. ^ The Battle(s) of Grozny
5. ^ Scars remain amid Chechen revival, BBC News, 3 March 2007
6. ^ [1]
7. ^ [2]
8. ^ The terrible human cost of Bush and Blair's military adventure: "10,000 civilian deaths UK and US authorities discourage counting of deaths as a result of the conflict", reports David Randall The Independent on Sunday, 8 February 2004
9. ^ THE CRISIS IN KOSOVO Human Rights Watch 2000
10. ^ Laws of War : Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907 available from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School, entered into force: 26 January 1910.
11. ^ Laws of War: Bombardment by Naval Forces in Time of War (Hague IX); October 18, 1907, available from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School,
12. ^ International Review of the Red Cross no 323 cites: Charles Rousseau, References p. 360. "the a nalogy between land and aerial bombardment".
13. ^ ^{a b} Laws of War: Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague II); July 29, 1899, available from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School, entry into force 4 September 1900
14. '^ The Hague Rules of Air Warfare, 1922-12 to 1923-02, this convention was never adopted.
15. ^ Rules concerning the Control of Wireless Telegraphy in Time of War and Air Warfare, from the International Committee of the Red Cross's section on international humanitarian law verified 26 February 2005
16. ^ Laws of War : Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907 available from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School, entered into force: 26 January 1910
17. ^ Jefferson D. Reynolds. "Collateral Damage on the 21st century battlefield: Enemy exploitation of the law of armed conflict, and the struggle for a moral high ground". Air Force Law Review Volume 56, 2005(PDF) Page 57/58
18. ^ ^{a b} Javier Guisández Gómez The Law of Air Warfare 30 June 1998 International Review of the Red Cross no 323, p.347-363
19. ^ Protection of Civilian Populations Against Bombing From the Air in Case of War, Unanimous resolution of the League of Nations Assembly, 30 September 1938, verified 26 February 2005
20. ^ Draft Convention for the Protection of Civilian Populations Against New Engines of War. Amsterdam, 1938, verified 26 February 2005
21. ^ "Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 1 Charter of the International Military Tribunal", proceedings of the Nuremberg Trials, available from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School, verified 26 February 2005.
22. ^ Judgement : The Law Relating to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, available from the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School, verified 26 February 2005.
23. ^ Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 6
24. ^ Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 7
25. ^ ^{a b} Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 10
26. ^ Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 9
27. ^ Wikisource:Ryuichi Shimoda et al. v. The State I. Evaluation of the act of bombing according to international law: Paragraph 8
28. ^ John Bolton "The Risks and Weaknesses of the International Criminal Court from America's Perspective", US ambassador to the United Nations, Winter 2001
29. ^ ICJ: Legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons