The phrases area bombing and carpet bombing refer to the use of very large numbers of unguided gravity bombs to attempt the destruction of a target, either to destroy personnel and materiel or as a means to demoralize the enemy. The phrase probably is intended to invoke the image of bombs completely covering an area, like a carpet.
The phrase carpetbombing refers to the use of large numbers of unguided gravity bombs, often with a high proportion of incendiary bombs, to attempt the complete destruction of a target region, either to destroy personnel and materiel, or as a means to demoralize the enemy (see terror bombing).
Initially, carpetbombing was effected by multiple aircraft, often returning to the target in waves.
Carpetbombing is often linked to strategic bombing.
Carpetbombing by multiple modern strategic bombers like the B-52 can be likened to an hour during the Somme bottled into a thirty second time period.
Due to this, and the ineffectiveness of carpetbombing, partly because of a lack of identifiable targets, new precision weapons were developed.
The Bombing of Guernica: the first aerial bombardment in history in which a civilian population was attacked with the apparent intent of producing total destruction.
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