Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire from a incendiary device, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. The tactic originated during World War II with the use of strategic bombing to destroy the ability of the enemy to wage war. London, Coventry and many other British cities were firebombed during the Blitz. Most German cities were extensively firebombed starting in 1942. Many large Japanese cities were fire bombed during the last six months of WW II. This technique makes use of small incendiary bombs (possibly delivered by a cluster bomb) [1]. If a fire catches, it could spread, taking in adjacent buildings that would have been largely unaffected by a high explosive bomb. This is a more effective use of the payload that a bomber could carry. The use of incendiaries alone does not generally start uncontrollable fires where the targets are roofed with nonflammable materials such as tiles or slates. The use of a mixture of bombers carrying high explosive bombs, such as the British blockbuster bombs, which blew out windows and roofs and exposed the interior of buildings to the incendiary bombs, are much more effective. Alternatively, a preliminary bombing with conventional bombs can be followed by subsequent attacks by incendiary carrying bombers.
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Examples
Early in World War II many British cities were firebombed. Two particularly notable raids were the Coventry Blitz on 14 November 1940, and the blitz on London on the night of 29 December/30 December 1940, which was the most destructive raid on London during the war with much of the destruction caused by fires started by incendiary bombs. During the Coventry Blitz the Germans pioneered several innovations which were to influence all future strategic bomber raids during the war.[1] These were: The use of pathfinder aircraft with electronic aids to navigate, to mark the targets before the main bomber raid; The use of high explosive bombs and air-mines (blockbuster bombs) coupled with thousands of incendiary bombs intended to set the city ablaze. The first wave of follow-up bombers dropped high explosive bombs, the intent of which was knock out the utilities (the water supply, electricity network and gas mains), and to crater the road - making it difficult for the fire engines to reach fires started by the follow-up waves of bombers. The follow-up waves dropped a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs. There were two types of incendiary bombs: those made of magnesium and those made of petroleum. The high explosive bombs and the larger air-mines were not only designed to hamper the Coventry fire brigade, they were also intended to damage roofs, making it easier for the incendiary bombs to fall into buildings and ignite them. Arthur Harris, commander of RAF Bomber Command, wrote after the war "Coventry was adequately concentrated in point of space [to start a firestorm], but all the same there was little concentration in point of time",[2] so a firestorm was not ignited. Most large German cities were subject to firebombing. In several this induced a firestorm of which the most notable are
- Hamburg as a result of Operation Gomorrah (at least 50,000 dead and over a million homeless)
- the Bombing of Dresden (at least 25,000 dead)
Less-known (and smaller) targets were
- Bombing of Kassel (10,000 dead)
- Bombing of Pforzheim (20,277 dead, almost 31.4% of the population)
- Bombing of Würzburg (5,000 dead)
- Bombing of Wuppertal — 10 May 1943
- Bombing of Remscheid — 31 July 1943
- Bombing of Kaiserslautern — 14 July 1944
- Bombing of Braunschweig — 15 October 1944 (approx. 1,000 dead and 90% of the city centre destroyed)
- Bombing of Saarbrücken — 05 August 1944
- Bombing of Darmstadt — 11 September 1944 (12,300 dead)
- Bombing of Stuttgart — 12 September 1944
- Bombing of Heilbronn — 06 December 1944 (6,500 dead)
- Bombing of Mainz — 27 February 1945
- Bombing of Würzburg — 16 March 1945
- Bombing of Hildesheim — 23 March 1945
Many large Japanese cities were fire bombed including:
- Bombing of Tokyo (at least 80,000 dead, perhaps more than 100,000)
- Bombing of Kobe (8,841 confirmed dead, 650,000 homeless)
Some Chinese cities were also affected:
In popular culture
- The Japanese animated film Grave of the Fireflies follows events after the firebombing of Kobe.
- Kurt Vonnegut's classic novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, is based on his personal experience of the Dresden firestorm.
- In the movie 28 Weeks Later, firebombing was used to exterminate the population infected with the Rage Virus.
- The novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer contains narrative threads dealing with the Bombing of Dresden.
References
- ^ Taylor, Fredrick; Dresden Tuesday 13 February 1945, Pub Bloomsbury (First Pub 2004, Paper Back 2005). ISBN 0-7475-7084-1. Page 118
- ^ Harris, Arthur "Bomber Offensive; (First edition Collins 1947) Pen & Sword military classics 2005; ISBN 1-84415-210-3. Page 83
