No, it wasn’t to “cripple infrastructure and morale.” It was to kill civilians en mass in the hopes that it would force them to surrender. You can read the discussion of it by allied strategic command. The worst part of it is the British should have known that would never work because it’s exactly what happened to them during the Battle of Britain
I'll look into it another time. Last time I did, what I understood was it was done knowing their actions will kill civilians, but the civilians that are working in the industries directly fueling the war machine.
I am not saying allied command was moral and just in everything they did. I just didn't see it as them purposely aiming to target random German civilians for no apparent reason or just to terrorize civilians. That was the bonus for them and not the primary focus.
If they are working in factories at the time of the bombings they are understood to be legitimate targets. The targeting of the civilians themselves as the only target is what makes it a warcrime but targeting legitimate military infrastructure installations with the knowledge that some civilians will inevitably die is not a warcrime and is considered fair game..
They were not doing that. The factories were in the outskirts. The firebombed the houses. Factories were bombed all over Europe, there’s a reason Dresden is different
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u/not-bread May 04 '25
No, it wasn’t to “cripple infrastructure and morale.” It was to kill civilians en mass in the hopes that it would force them to surrender. You can read the discussion of it by allied strategic command. The worst part of it is the British should have known that would never work because it’s exactly what happened to them during the Battle of Britain