Wings #4

1.  The events of WWI made it clear that global warfare would be the new face of war for years to come.  The strategic use of the airplane throughout the Great War dramatically changed the rules of war and established that nothing was safe from the horrors of war.  For the first time in history civilians became strategic targets and not just casualties.  Many world leaders and theologians feared where this path would lead humanity.  They felt that the airplane as a tool of war would lead to the end of mankind because it encouraged even greater devastation than ever before.  Some, including Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, predicted that the only way to combat attacks from the air would be to "kill more women and children than the enemy if you wish to save yourselves" (pg. 156).  As nations geared up for WWII it became clear that this fear was well founded.  The devastation wrought by the airplane began in Guernica, where the "local hospital, along with hotels and most residential sections of the city" were targeted and destroyed, killing as many as 1,600 people (pg. 378).  WWII ended when the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, killing upwards of 200,000 civilians, making Baldwin's prediction come true (pg. 425).

6.  Strategic bombing had a huge impact on the outcome of WWII.  The goal behind strategic bombing was to focus on a "direct attack on the enemy state with the object of depriving it of the means or the will to continue the war" (pg. 408).  There were a number of differing opinions on whether the bombers should focus on attacking the enemy homeland, undertaking tactical strikes on tank units or railroads, or as support for ground commanders (pg. 410).  The Germans decided to focus their attacks on unrestricted air attacks on cities, which allowed Allied leaders to retaliate in the same way (pg. 411).  Strategic bombing did not break the will of any nation, but it was very effective and played an important role in the Allied victory (pg. 425-426).  The Allies focused on eliminating transports and retaliation bombing which allowed them to "strike back at the enemy" and lead to the "end of German armaments production" (pg. 426).  Strategic bombing also played a role in the Pacific Theater.  The United States bombed factory cities, killing workers and hindering Japanese production (pg. 423).  And of course the U.S. undertook the most important strategic bombing event in history when it dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

7.  The actions of the power players of WWII, the leaders of England, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the United States can be summed up by the phrase "abandonment of all restraint."  Every nation involved in WWII made morally abhorrent decisions.  The Germans killed over 60,000 civilians in the Blitz attacks on London, and the Allies responded by retaliating in kind--focusing their attacks on night raids on German cities (pg. 411-412).  The Nazis murdered over six million people during the Holocaust.  The Russians sent millions of their own people to the front lines, poorly equipped, to act as a human wall.  The Japanese encouraged suicide attacks and would rather fight to the very last man than surrender.  And the United States dropped two bombs that vaporized almost 200,000 people and condemned even more to cancerous deaths years later.  The leaders of these nations were so desperate to win that they lost all morality.  "Total war had come at last, with no mercy, no quarter, and no limit to the capacity of destruction" it marked the "removal of all moral restraint" (pg. 425).