| "Are We Beasts?" Churchill and the Moral Question of World War II "Area Bombing": Naval War College Newport Papers 1 Contributor(s): Harmon, Christopher C. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1478399864 ISBN-13: 9781478399865 Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform OUR PRICE: $13.29 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2012 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Military - World War Ii - History | Europe - Great Britain - General |
| Physical Information: 0.07" H x 5.98" W x 9.02" (0.14 lbs) 36 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1940's - Cultural Region - British Isles |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This historical reassessment of the World War II British bombing campaign notes that through in 1940 Churchill declared that he was waging "a military and not a civilian war" to destroy "military objectives" and not "women and children," within eighteen months both types of targets would be struck by Bomber Command. The author searches for the reasons in "three contiguous realms" of strategic influence: moral (and legal), political, and military. The study concludes that although for much of the war "area bombing" of cities was a "tragic necessity" meeting the "reasonable man's standard of what was decently allowable given the blunt weapons the Allies had" and the evils they faced, nonetheless Allied leaders could have and should have abandoned indiscriminate bombing in the last phases of the conflict, when more precise means were at hand and "Nazi power had been overmatched." |