Wings Assignment #4

1. Why did some world leaders and theologians feel that flying would be the end of mankind?

Although the discovery of flight by mankind was a great achievement, there were several world leaders and theologians that felt flying would be the end of the world. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin even went so far as to say that he wishes flying had never been invented by the Wright Brothers.  They had every reason to believe that aircraft would be the end of mankind, especially going through World War I and World War II. The suffering of innocent civilian lives was too great at that time to say that flying was a good thing. The main reason these men felt flying would doom the world was because of the power flight gave to horrible people and how easily that power could take down an entire city with one drop of a bomb. The people on the ground have no protection from the aircrafts in the sky and that still is true today. As Baldwin said, the only way to combat that sort of attack was with offense and respond to that violence with more violence. There’s no doubt that giving man the ability to fly was a great accomplishment, however, to quote Ollivander from Harry Potter, the destruction carried out by planes were, “terrible, yes, but great.” (p. 356-357)

6. What role did strategic bombing play during the war and was it successful?

            Strategic bombing was an offensive tactic used during World War II by all of the parties involved. It stood as a controversial topic, but was carried out as the only possible solution to end the continuing, all devouring war that was plaguing the world. As Crouch states, “…the leadership of both the RAF (Royal Air Force) and the U.S. Army Air Corps were convinced that strategic bombing offered the surest and least painful path to victory” (p. 412). During the war, several air raids were planned and carried out by several different forces. These raids did do a lot of damage, however, depending on what time of the day the raids were carried out, they also ended in catastrophe on the offensive side. In two raids that took place on December 14 and 18 of the year 1939, over half of the planes involved were taken down. Overall, and once some of the edges were smoothed out of strategic bombing, the bombing campaigns did contribute greatly to the victory of the Allies. In terms of whether it was successful, I think that depends on your definition of “success”. Yes, the raids did help bring the war to an end, but, at what cost?

7. What is meant by the phrase “abandonment of all restraint” as it relates to WWII and the military tactics used by both sides?

The phrase “abandonment of all restraint” refers to the loss of moral restraint. There was no voice in the back of some peoples’ minds telling them not to do something or that a certain plan was a horrible idea. The war had a ridiculous amount of casualties by the end of it, and it was because of leaders taking the “abandonment of all restraint” approach when plotting during the war. As stated in Crouch, “Total war had come at last, with no mercy, no quarter, and no limit to the capacity for destruction” (p. 425). So, during World War II, everything was fair game. Bombing planes were all over the world and some of the leaders had no qualms about sending military planes to bomb cities in other countries that were exclusively populated by innocent citizens. The greatest example of this type of tragedy was the bombing of Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although the bombings were necessary to move towards ending the war, there was still an immeasurable amount of destruction done to Japan and an unbelievable number of innocent deaths as a result. The idea of abandoning all restraint during war time was and is a terrifying concept and has proven to result in horrifying consequences.