British Leaders’ Philosophy of Bombing German Cities in WWII

Subject: History
Pages: 2
Words: 288
Reading time:
< 1 min

A supreme emergency is used to justify the measures in dealing with the imminent danger that violates one of the main elements of warfare, known as non-combatant immunity or non-targeting civilians. Some British leaders could think that they faced supreme emergency during the Second World War when they had to begin the strategic bombing of German cities and kill non-combatants to defeat Nazism and respond to Hitler’s hegemony. I think that the decision to use area bombing against civilians even to save more lives cannot be used as an excuse. Even the war has its rules, and leaders should not break them but demonstrate their professionalism and value human lives. According to international law, the bombing of civilians without a clear identification of military objectives is a serious violation. Also, the decision to bomb the civilian area without reasonable care being offered to people seems to be immoral.

Another negative effect of area bombing was the failure to achieve the primary goals to weaken the German morale and change the very essence of the warfare regime. Even the German leaders thought that such violent actions could lead to new rebellions and public concerns. However, the results showed that it was hard to weaken the German morale, and people were ready to numerous victims and losses. On the contrary, this type of horrific bombing was the reason for Germany to take a new step and use its powers in the war. One may say that ordinary civilians were just afraid of the Nazi regime and did not find it necessary to protest. Still, new motivation and reasons to join the warfare occurred after the bombing of the 1940s.