Strategic Bomber Offensive: RAF Briefing

Strategic Bomber Offensive: Royal Air Force (RAF) Briefing

It is British doctrine to focus its bomber offensive on night attacks against German cities (area targets) in order to “undermine the German’s peoples will to fight.” By keeping up a steady rate of attacks night after night, it was believed that (1) German workers would be rendered unable to work effectively during the day by being robbed of their rest, and (2) the constant bombardment would destroy their morale and ultimately their support for their government. Given how ineffective the German Blitz was against British morale in 1940, it is somewhat surprising that the British believed this. In part, the night bombing strategy was pursued because the British believed that (1) it would be too difficult for them to build fighters with sufficient range to protect their bombers to targets deep into Europe, and (2) bombers without escorts were too vulnerable to the German air force for daylight raids. The latter was proven to them early in the war, when their bomber forces suffered extremely heavy losses during daylight attacks during the early stages of the war.

Once a night strategy is determined, it becomes difficult to hit targets with precision—it is difficult to identify individual targets even to the level of a particular factory or chemical plant. The British approach is to make up for imprecision with massed and sustained attacks against city-sized areas in the hopes of destroying anything of value within that area.

Your mission is the following. Develop criteria for targeting areas for night attack and the plan of your bombing offensive: (1) What kind of cities do you choose and why? a. Port cities, e.g., Hamburg, Antwerp b. Transportation centers, e.g., Frankfurt, Kiel c. Shipbuilding centers, e.g., Wilhelmshaven, Danzig d. Industrial cities, e.g., Dusseldorf, Cologne e. Government/financial cities, e.g., Berlin, Vienna f. Cultural cities, e.g., Dresden, Prague g. Occupied cites assisting the German war effort, e.g., St. Nazaire (U-boat yards) (2) Assuming you have only enough planes and crews to attack 1-2 major targets per night, how frequently and with what duration do you return to the same city, and why? a. Night after night for a week b. Once a week c. Once a month (3) What kind of bombs do you use against each type of city and why? a. High explosive penetrating (does not explode immediately on impact) b. High explosive ground burst (explode on impact) c. Fragmentation (shrapnel, anti-personal) d. Incendiary (destroys by creating fires) e. Anti-personal (e.g., time delay bombs)