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| '''Terror bombing''' is an emotive term used to describe aerial attacks made by a belligerent to demoralise an enemy.<ref group=nb>For terrorist attacks that involve bombings see the articles ] and ]</ref><ref>Nehemia Geva & Cigdem Sirin (Department of Political Science Texas A&M University), and Keren Sharvit (Psychology Department Tel Aviv University). ''The Impact and Thematic Relevance of Negative Emotions on Foreign Policy Preferences Concerning Terror'', "(a) thematic relevance of the emotive trigger (terror bombing)"</ref><ref>Overy (2005), </ref> Use of the term to describe aerial attacks implies that the attacks are criminal attacks that fall outside the ],<ref>Myrdal (1977), </ref> or if within the laws of war are nevertheless a moral crime.<ref>Axinn (2008), </ref> According to John Algeo in ''Fifty years among the new words'' its first recorded usage in a United States publication was in a Readers Digest article in June 1941, a finding confirmed by the ].<ref>Algeo, "TERROR BOMBING. Bombing designed to hasten the end of a war by terrorising the enemy population—1941 ''Read. Dig''. June p. 58/2 ..."</ref><ref>Oxford English Dictionary ''terror,n'', "'''terror-bombing''', intensive and indiscriminate bombing designed to frighten a country into surrender; '''terror raid''', a bombing raid of this nature".</ref> | |||
| The aerial attacks described as terror bombing are often long range ] raids, although attacks against tactical targets which result in the deaths of civilians may also be described as such, or if the attacks involve fighters ] they may be labelled "terror attacks."<ref>Brower (1998), (mentions that Historian Ronald Shaffer described ], an operation that involved both bombing and strafing, as a terror attack).</ref> | |||
| ==Development of the term == | |||
| The German propaganda minister, ], and other high ranking officials of the ],<ref>Kochavi </ref> frequently described attacks made on Germany by the ] (RAF) and the ] (USAAF) during their ]s as terror attacks.<ref group= | |||
| nb>Hessel (2006), Goebbels used several terms including | |||
| {{quote|''terrorangriffe'' (terror raids) or ''Terrorhandlungen'' (terrorist activities) ... ''Terrorflieger'' (terror flyers or terrorist airman). Needless to say, no one in Germany used such terminology in connection with German bombing raids against cities in England}} | |||
| </ref><ref group=nb>Fritz (2004), {{quote|... Western Allies ... were "air pirates." "They are murderers!" screamed the headlines of an article emanating from Berlin on February 22. Not only dd the writer denounce the allied "terror bombing," he also stressed the "special joy" that the "Anglo-American air gangsters" took in murder of innocent German civilians ...}}</ref> The Allied governments usually described their ] with other euphemisms such as ] (RAF) or ] (USAAF), and for most of World War II the Allied news media did the same. However, at a ] press conference on 16 February 1945, two days after the ], British Air Commodore ], 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 ] 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<!--sic in the source--> 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, ] ], asked questions in the House of Commons on 6 March.<ref>Taylor (2005) pp. 413,414</ref> | |||
| The controversy stirred up by the Cowan news report, reached the highest levels of the British Government when on 28 March 1945 the Prime Minister, ], sent a memo by telegram to ] for the British Chiefs of Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff, in which he started with the sentence "It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed. ..."<ref name=Siebert>Siebert, Detlef. , 1 August, 2001, BBC, retrieved 8 January, 2008.</ref><ref name=Taylor-430>Taylor, (2005), p. 430.</ref> Under pressure from the Chiefs of Staff and in response to the views expressed by Sir ], ], and the head of Bomber Command ] among others, Churchill withdrew his memo and issued a new one. <ref name=Taylor-430>Taylor (2005), p. 430.</ref> This was completed on 1 April, 1945 and started instead with the usual British euphemism for attacks on cities: "It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of the so called 'area-bombing' of German cities should be reviewed from the point of view of our own interests. ..."<ref name=Taylor-434>Taylor (2005), p. 434.</ref> | |||
| == Chinese cities == | |||
| Japanese terror bombing was independently conducted by the ] and the ]. Bombing efforts mostly targeted large Chinese cities such as ], ] and ]. Three thousand tons of bombs were launched on the last one between 1939 and 1942. <ref name="Don Moser 1978, p.8">Don Moser, ''China-Burma-India'', Time-Life, 1978, p.8</ref> According to photograph Carl Mydans, the spring 1941 bombings on Chongqing were «the most destructive shelling ever made on a city.» <ref name="Don Moser 1978, p.8"/> | |||
| The bombing of ] and ], which began on 22 and 23 September 1937, called forth widespread protests <ref name="The Illustrated London News 1939, p.135">The Illustrated London News, Marching to War 1933-1939, Doubleday, 1989, p.135</ref> culminating in a resolution by the Far Eastern Advisory Committee of the ]. Lord Cranborne, the British Under-Secretary of State For Foreign Affairs, expressed his indignation in his own declaration. | |||
| {{quote|Words cannot express the feelings of profound horror with which the news of these raids had been received by the whole civilized world. They are often directed against places far from the actual area of hostilities. The military objective, where it exists, seems to take a completely second place. The main object seems to be to inspire terror by the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians...|Lord Cranborne <ref name="The Illustrated London News 1939, p.135"/>}} | |||
| The Japanese also dropped ] as part of their aerial bombardment campaign. For example, in 1940, the ] bombed ] with ceramic bombs full of ]s carrying the ].<ref>''Japan triggered bubonic plague outbreak, doctor claims'', , {{Citation |url= http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/wwii.html|title= A time-line of World War II|accessdate=2008-05-02 |last= Scaruffi |first= Piero|year= 1999|work= |publisher=}}</ref> A film showing this operation was seen by the imperial princes ] and ] during a screening made by mastermind ]. <ref>Daniel Barenblatt, ''A Plague upon Humanity'', 2004, p.32.</ref> | |||
| == The Blitz == | |||
| ] on British cities in WW2 is often cited as prime example of terror bombing,<ref>{{cite book |title=The first day of the blitz |last=Stansky |first=Peter |year=2007 |publisher=] |isbn= 9780300125566 |page= 137|accessdate=24 July 2009 |quote=Bombing could also destroy morale and create popular pressure so that the British would sue for peace. This was the objective of terror bombing both at the time of the Blitz and later in the bombing of Germany.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Story of World War II|last= Miller|first= Donald|coauthors=Henry Steele Commager |year=2001 |publisher=] |isbn= 978-0743211987 |page= 41|accessdate=24 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Great Canadian War Stories|last=Whitaker|first=Muriel|year=2001|publisher=The University of Alberta Press|page=128|isbn=978-0888643834|accessdate=24 July 2009 |quote=The 'Blitz,' the most extensive terror bombing in history up to that time...}}</ref> as its primary purpose was to demoralize the British people into surrendering.<ref>{{cite book|title=The winter of the bombs|last=Fitzgibbon|first=Constantine|year=1958|publisher=W.W.Norton |page=94 |oclc=619290}}</ref> One example is the 29 December raid on London in 1940, the night was specifically chosen so that the Thames would be at its lowest and thus provide the least amount of water to the firefighting operation,<ref name="Gaskin">{{cite book |title=Blitz: The Story of December 29, 1940 |last=Gaskin |first=Margaret |year=2006 |publisher=] |isbn= 0151014043 |pages=82&c |accessdate=24 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Britain and 1940:History, Myth and Popular Memory |last=Smith |first=Malcolm |page=78 |year=2001 |publisher=] |isbn= 041524076X |accessdate=24 July 2009}}</ref> the resulting firestorm destroyed an area of London greater than that destroyed in the great fire of London as such it has since been dubbed the ].<ref>{{cite web |title=The 29th of December 1940 AD, Worst night of The Blitz |url=http://www.information-britain.co.uk/famdates.php?id=236|publisher= information-britain.co.uk|accessdate=24 July 2009}}</ref> The use of unmanned Terror weapons by Germany such as the ] and ] and the ] had a similar aim in the later stages of the war.<ref>{{cite web |title=Growing Up in London 1939-45 | url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/02/a2065402.shtml| publisher=]|accessdate=24 July 2009}}</ref> However, Sir Basil Collier, author of 'The Defence of the United Kingdom', the ]'s official history, wrote: | |||
| {{quote|Although the plan adopted by the Luftwaffe early September had mentioned attacks on the population of large cities, detailed records of the raids made during the autumn and the winter of 1940-41 does not suggest that indiscriminate bombing of the civilians was intended. The points of aim selected were largely factories and docks. Other objectives specifically allotted to bomber-crews included the ] and the governmental quarter rounds ].| ] <ref>Collier, 1957. p. 261</ref>}} | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| ;Footnotes | |||
| {{reflist|group=nb}} | |||
| ;Citations | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{refbegin}} | |||
| *Algo, John (1993). ''Fifty years among the new words: a dictionary of neologisms, 1941-1991'', American Dialect Society, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521449717 | |||
| *Axinn, Sidney (2008). A Moral Military'',Temple University Press, ISBN 9781592139583 | |||
| *Collier, Basil, '']: The Defence of the United Kingdom'', H.M. Stationery Office, London, 1957 {{OCLC|375046}} | |||
| * The Blitz: London's Longest Night (2005) PBS television. | |||
| *Gaskin, Margaret (2006). Blitz: the The Story of December 29, 1940, Harcourt, ISBN 9780151014040 | |||
| *Brower, Charles F. (1998). ''World War II in Europe: the final year'', Roosevelt Study Center,, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 9780312211332 | |||
| *Hessel, Peter (2006). ''The Mystery of Frankenberg's Canadian Airman'', James Lorimer & Company, ISBN 9781550288841 | |||
| *Kochavi, Arieh J. (2005). ''Confronting captivity: Britain and the United States and their POWs in Nazi Germany'', UNC Press, ISBN 9780807829400 | |||
| *Myrdal, Alva (1977). ''The game of disarmament'' Manchester University Press ND, ISBN 9780719006937. | |||
| *Overy, R. J. (2005). ''The air war, 1939-1945'', Brassey's, ISBN 9781574887167. | |||
| *Fritz, G. Stephen (2004). ''Endkampf: soldiers, civilians, and the death of the Third Reich'', University Press of Kentucky, ISBN 9780813123257 | |||
| *Taylor, Frederick (2005). ''Dresden: Tuesday 13 February 1945''. London: Bloomsbury, ISBN 0-7475-7084-1 | |||
| {{refend}} | |||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Terror Bombing}} | |||
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