Aerial bombing of cities

The aerial bombing of cities is an optional element of strategic bombing, which became widespread in warfare during World War I. The bombing of cities grew to a vast scale in World War II and is still practiced today. The development of aerial bombardment marked an increased capacity of armed forces to deliver ordnance from the air against combatants, military bases, and factories, with a greatly reduced risk to its ground forces. The killing of civilians and non-combatants in bombed cities has variously been a deliberate goal of strategic bombing, or unavoidable collateral damage resulting from intent and technology. A number of multilateral efforts have been made to restrict the use of aerial bombardment so as to protect non-combatants[2] and other civilians.

Only ruins left after the aerial Bombing of Guernica by the Condor Legion of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe (1937).
The results of German bombardment in Warsaw, Poland (1939).
Frampol before (left) and after (right) the German Luftwaffe bombing raids in September 1939 during early World War II (the town was almost completely destroyed).[1]
The remains of German town of Wesel after intensive Allied area bombing in 1945 near the end of World War II (a destruction percentage of 97% of all buildings).

Before World War I

Kites

Incendiary kites were first used in warfare by the Chinese.[3][4] During the Song dynasty the Fire Crow, a kite carrying incendiary powder, a fuse, and a burning stick of incense was developed as a weapon.[5] Walter de Milemete's 1326 De nobilitatibus, sapientiis, et prudentiis regum treatise depicts a group of knights flying kite laden with a black-powder filled firebomb over the wall of city.[6] In the 17th century, the forces of Thai king Phetracha tied gunpowder barrels to kites used for airborne assault.[4]

First Italian War of Independence

In 1849, Austrian forces besieging Venice during the First Italian War of Independence launched some 200 incendiary balloons, each carrying a 24- to 30-pound bomb that was to be dropped from the balloon with a time fuse over the besieged city. The balloons were launched from land and from the Austrian navy ship SMS Vulcano that acted as a balloon carrier, though the attack ended in failure as winds blew the balloons away, none reaching their intended target.[7][8]

Italian Invasion of Libya

The first ever air raid was conducted during the Italo-Turkish War by Italian forces against the Ottoman province of Libya on November 1, 1911. Giulio Gavotti dropped 1.5 kg of bombs on Ain Zara, a village 8 km west of the capital Tripoli.[9]

Balkan War

Adrianople (presently Edirne) was bombed by Bulgaria in 1912 in the First Balkan War.[10] Historically, it was the first bombardment of a city from a heavier-than-air aircraft.[11] In the morning of 29 October 1912 at 9:30 a.m. the plane Albatros F-3 took off from an airfield near the village of Mustafa Pasha – present day Svilengrad, Bulgaria. The pilot was captain Radul Mikov with spotter and bombardier Prodan Tarakchiev. The airfield was specially created to carry out the take off and landing. According to the report weather conditions were perfect. The flight lasted for 1 hour and 20 minutes and the altitude was 500m. During the flight the crew flew over the city of Edirne, discovered hidden Ottoman forces in the nearby villages and flew towards to city railroad station, near the village of Karaagach. The plane was equipped with two bombs, which were released at 10:00 am over the station. The crew landed successfully at the airfield with 4 holes on the hull. A number of journalists and military attachés attended the site.

Mexican Revolution

In May 1914, during the revolution of 1910–17, General Venustiano Carranza, later president, ordered a biplane to bomb Neveria Hill adjacent to the downtown area of Mazatlán in order to take the city. The bomb landed not on target but in a city street and in the process killed four civilians, including a French diplomat, and wounded several others.[12]

World War I

German airship Schütte Lanz SL2 bombing Warsaw in 1914.

The first civilian target to be bombed from the air was the Belgian city of Antwerp. This city, at that moment the National Redoubt of Belgium, was bombed during the night of 24–25 August 1914. Instead of targeting the surrounding fortresses, the Zeppelin LZ 25's intention was to bomb the clearly distinguishable historical centre of the city. The zeppelin dropped approximately ten bombs, killing ten people and injuring forty. The British Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) undertook the first Entente strategic bombing missions on 22 September 1914 and 8 October, when it bombed the Zeppelin bases in Cologne and Düsseldorf. The aeroplanes carried twenty-pound bombs, and at least one airship was destroyed.[13][14] On 19 January 1915 two German Zeppelins dropped 24 fifty-kilogram (110 lb) high-explosive bombs and ineffective three-kilogram incendiaries on the English towns of Great Yarmouth, Sheringham, King's Lynn, and the surrounding villages; in all, four people were killed, 16 injured, and monetary damage was estimated at £7,740.[15]

London was bombed for the first time on 30 May 1915. In July 1916, the German government allowed directed raids against urban centers, sparking 23 airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691. Gradually British air defenses improved and the Germans also introduced large bomber aircraft for bombing Britain. In 1917 and 1918 there were only eleven Zeppelin raids against England, and the final raid occurred on 5 August 1918, which resulted in the death of KK Peter Strasser, commander of the German Naval Airship Department. By the end of the war, 51 raids had been undertaken, in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people and injuring 1,358. [16][17] In the course of the Zeppelin raids the Germans lost more than half their airships and 40% of their crew. It has been argued that the raids were effective far beyond material damage inflicted, in diverting and hampering wartime production, and diverting twelve squadrons and over 10,000 men to air defenses.[17] The British developed an Independent Force of long-range bombers that could bomb Berlin, but the war ended before these raids began.

After the war, bombers' increasing sophistication led to the general belief that aerial bombing would both destroy cities and be impossible to stop; as Stanley Baldwin stated in a 1932 speech, "The bomber will always get through".

Interbellum period

Iraqi revolt against the British

After World War I, there were protests in Iraq against continued British rule. Many Iraqis across a wide spectrum of opinion opposed the British Mandate for Iraq. The Iraqi revolt against the British began, with peaceful demonstrations in May 1920. Initial demands were rejected by the British administration, and fighting broke out in June 1920. This was suppressed, with many deaths, and at very high costs to the Empire. A policy of 'aerial policing', an invention of Winston Churchill's was brought in. This amounted to aerial bombing of rebelling tribesmen, followed up by pacification by ground troops. This continued up to the mid 1920s.[18] The aerial campaign included Sir Arthur Harris, who commanded a Vickers Vernon squadron engaged in the bombing and strafing of revolting tribesmen.[19] Harris once remarked that "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand."[20]

Somaliland Campaign

Following the end of World War I, the British stepped up their efforts in their war against the Dervish movement, their sultan Diiriye Guure and emir, the so-called "Mad Mullah", whom they had been fighting for the control the area formerly known as British Somaliland. However, they had been unable to defeat the Dervish movement for nearly 25 years. In January 1920, the British launched a combined aerial and land attack against the Dhulbahante garesas, bombarding Taleeh, the capital of the revolt.[21] The Somaliland Campaign has been described as one of the bloodiest and longest-running conflicts in the history of sub-Saharan Africa and the Somali forces are noted for concurrently repelling the invading British, Italian and Abyssinian forces for a period of 25 years.[22]

Tulsa race massacre

In the United States during the Tulsa race massacre of May 31 – June 1, 1921, private aircraft flown by white men dropped kerosene bombs on the Greenwood neighborhood.[23][24]

Cristero War

During the Cristero War in Mexico in 1929, Irish pilot and mercenary Patrick Murphy mistakenly dropped several improvised "suitcase bombs" on the border town of Naco, Arizona, while bombing government forces in the adjacent town of Naco, Sonora, for the Cristero revolutionaries. The bombing, which caused damage to many buildings and injured several bystanders on the American side of the international border, became the first aerial bombardment of the Continental United States by a foreign power in American history.[25][26]

Second Italo-Abyssinian War

The Italians used aircraft against the Ethiopian cities in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. For example, in February 1936, the Italian invasion forces in the south prepared for a major thrust towards the city of Harar. On 22 March, the Regia Aeronautica bombed Harar and Jijiga as a prelude. Both cities were reduced to ruins even though Harar had been declared an "open city".[27]

Spanish Civil War

During the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalists under Francisco Franco made extensive use of aerial bombing on civilian targets. Nazi Germany gave aircraft to Franco to support the overthrow of the Spanish Republican government. The first major example of this came in November 1936, when German and Spanish aircraft bombed Republican-held Madrid; this bombardment was sustained throughout the Siege of Madrid.[28] Barcelona and Valencia were also targeted in this way.[29] On 26 April 1937, the German Luftwaffe (Condor Legion) bombed the Spanish city of Guernica carrying out the most high-profile aerial attack of the war. This act caused worldwide revulsion and was the subject of a famous painting by Picasso,[30] but by the standards of bombings during World War II, casualties were fairly minor (estimates ranging from 500 to 1,500).[31][32]

Shortly after, the front-page headlines of the Diario de Almeria, dated June 3, 1937, referred to the press in London and Paris carrying the news of the "criminal bombardment of Almeria by German planes".[33]

Barcelona was bombarded for three days beginning on 16 March 1938, at the height of the Spanish Civil War. Under the command of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Italian aircraft stationed on the island of Majorca attacked 13 times dropping 44 tons of bombs, aimed at the civil population.[34] The medieval Cathedral of Barcelona suffered bomb damage and more than one thousand people died, including many children. The number of people injured is estimated to be in the thousands.[35] Many others Spanish towns and cities were bombed by the German Legion Condor and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria among them Jaen, Durango, Granollers and Alicante.

The Spanish Republican government also used aerial bombings, but not as extensively, as they did not have as many planes available. Cities such as Valladolid, Granada, Sevilla, Zaragoza or Burgos were bombarded, killing some people. The biggest aerial attack against civil population was in Cabra, a small town away from the war front, and with no strategic value, that was bombed due to an error. 109 people were killed and more than 200 wounded.[36][37] Planes coming from Barcelona launched three bombs against the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar on August 3, 1936. The bombs failed to detonate, but did damage one of the cupolas painted by Goya. The fact was considered a miracle, as, if the bombs had exploded, the eastern half of the Cathedral would have been completely destroyed.[38]

Second Sino-Japanese War

Casualties of a mass panic during a Japanese air raid in Chongqing (Chungking).

During the Manchurian Incident of 1931, the Japanese widely used airplanes to indiscriminately bomb key targets and cities, such as Mukden. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, in conjunction with the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, began relentlessly bombing Shanghai, Beijing (Peking), Tianjin (Tientsin) and several cities on the Chinese coast from the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937.

The bombing campaigns on Nanking and Canton which started in September 1937 evoked protests from the Western powers culminating in a resolution by the Far Eastern Advisory Committee of the League of Nations. An example of the many expressions of indignation came from Lord Cranborne, the British Under-Secretary of State For Foreign Affairs:

Words cannot express the feelings of profound horror with which the news of these raids had been received by the whole civilized world. They are often directed against places far from the actual area of hostilities. The military objective, where it exists, seems to take a completely second place. The main object seems to be to inspire terror by the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians ...[39]

World War II

European Theater

A raid by the 8th Air Force on the Focke Wulf factory at Marienburg, Germany (1943).
Aftermath of V-2 bombing at Battersea, London, 27 January 1945.
Results of the US-bombing of the Apollo company industrial plant in Bratislava (Slovakia) in September 1944.

At the beginning of World War II, bombing of cities prior to invasion was an integral part of Nazi Germany's strategy. In the first stages of war, the Germans carried out many bombings of towns and cities in Poland (1939), including the capital Warsaw (also bombed in 1944), with Wieluń being the first city destroyed by 75%.[40] The Soviet Union also attempted strategic bombing against Poland and Finland, bombing Helsinki.[41]

Rotterdam was bombed by Germany at 14 May 1940. The city had already surrendered an hour earlier and the attack was called off, but this did not reach the already flying bombers.[42][43]

Germany began aerial bombing of British cities immediately after the British declaration of war on Germany in September 1939, while the first British bombing raids against Germany were on the night of 15/16 May 1940, with 78 bombers against oil targets, 9 against steelworks and 9 against marshalling yards, all military and industrial targets in the German hinterland.[44] Oil remained the main British objective until the summer of 1941, although German cities and towns were regularly bombed from May 1940. Previous raids had been carried out by the RAF, but when targets were not found, the bombers returned without making an attack.

After the Fall of France, the Luftwaffe redirected its full attention to the United Kingdom. The scale of the attack increased greatly in July 1940, with 258 civilians killed, and again in August with 1,075 dead.[45] During the night of 25 August, British bombers raided targets in and around Greater Berlin for the first time, in response to the misdirected bombing of Oxford Street and the West End by the Luftwaffe while it was bombing the London docks.[46] On 4 September 1940 Hitler, frustrated by the RAF's superiority over the Luftwaffe and enraged by its bombing of German cities, decided to retaliate by bombing London and other cities in the UK.[47] On 7 September the Luftwaffe began massed attacks on London. The bombing campaign was known in the UK as "the Blitz", and ran from September 1940 through to May 1941. The Coventry Blitz and the Belfast Blitz were two of the heaviest of all bombings by the Luftwaffe, killing 568–1,000 civilians of Coventry, killing over 1,100 civilians in Belfast, and destroying much of both city centres.

British bombing policy evolved during the war. In the beginning, the RAF was forbidden to attack urban targets in Germany due to the risk of accidental civilian casualties.[48] Following a German attack on military targets in the Orkney Islands on 16 March 1940 that killed a civilian, the RAF mounted an attack on the seaplane base on the island of Sylt.[49] The RAF began attacking transport targets west of the Rhine on the night of 10 May following the German invasion of the Low Countries, and military targets in the rest of Germany after the bombing of Rotterdam.[50] On 9 September 1940 RAF crews were instructed that due to the "indiscriminate" nature of German bombing, if they failed to find their assigned targets they were to attack targets of opportunity rather than bring their bombs home.[51] On the 15/16 December the RAF carried out its first area bombing attack (destroying 45% of the city of Mannheim), officially in response to the raid on Coventry.[52][53]

In 1942, the goals of the British attacks were defined: the primary goal was the so-called "morale bombing", to weaken the will of the civil population to resist. Following this directive intensive bombing of highly populated city centers and working class quarters started. On 30 May 1942, the RAF Bomber Command launched the first "1,000 bomber raid" when 1,046 aircraft bombed Cologne in Operation Millennium, dropping over 2,000 tons of high explosive and incendiaries on the medieval town and burning it from end to end.[54][55] 411 civilians and 85 combatants were killed, more than 130,000 had to leave the city.[56]

Two further 1,000 bomber raids were executed over Essen and Bremen, but to less effect than the destruction at Cologne. The effects of the massive raids using a combination of blockbuster bombs and incendiaries created firestorms in some cites.[57] The most extreme examples were caused by the bombing of Hamburg in Operation Gomorrah (45,000 dead),[58][59] and the bombings of Kassel (10,000 dead),[60][61][62] Darmstadt (12,500 dead),[62] Pforzheim (21,200 dead),[63] Swinemuende (23,000 dead),[64][65] and Dresden (25,000 dead[66][67]).

The Allies also bombed urban areas in the other countries, including occupied France (Caen[68]) and the major industrial cities of northern Italy, like Milan and Turin.[69] Some cities were bombed at the different times by the Luftwaffe and the Allies, for example Belgrade in Yugoslavia[70][71] and Bucharest in Romania.[72]

The Luftwaffe also bombed cities in the Soviet Union, destroying Stalingrad in a massive air raid at the start of the Battle of Stalingrad[73] and bombing Leningrad during the siege of the city of 1941–1943.[74] The Soviet bombing of the German cities was limited in comparison with the RAF bombing (destruction caused by the Soviet army was mainly due to the land artillery). The Soviet Air Force also bombed Budapest in Hungary.[75]

Asiatic-Pacific Theater

Nagasaki before and after bombing.

In the Asiatic-Pacific Theater, Japan continued to bomb Chinese cities and expanded its air operations towards others in Asia such as Singapore, Rangoon, and Mandalay. In the first few months of the war with the Western Powers, Japan projected its airpower on settlements as distant as Honolulu, Darwin, and Unalaska.

The capture of the Mariana Islands in 1944 enabled the United States Army Air Forces to reach the Japanese home islands using the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. The U.S. firebombed Tokyo on the night of March 9–10, 1945, and killed more than 100,000 people in the deadliest conventional bombing in history, known as Operation Meetinghouse.[76] In a few hours, 100,000 people who were in Tokyo including civilians died either by the bombing or the conflagration that followed the bombing by 325 B-29's night attacks. The bombing was meant to burn wooden buildings and indeed the bombing caused fire that created a 50 m/s wind that is comparable to tornadoes. A total of 381,300 bombs amounting to 1783 tons, were used in the bombing.

After the successful Operation Meetinghouse raid, the USAAF went on to firebomb other Japanese cities in effort to pulverize the Japanese war industry and shatter Japanese civilian morale. From March to August 1945, the U.S. firebombing of 67 Japanese cities had killed 350,000 civilians. In addition, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed 120,000 people.[77]

Since World War II

Korean War

During the Korean War of 1950–1953, U.S.-led UN air forces heavily bombed the cities in North Korea and the North-occupied South Korea, including their respective capital cities.[78] There were also plans to use nuclear weapons against North Korea and the People's Republic of China.[79]

Vietnam War

USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) planes raid the Haiphong cement plant and vicinity, 27 April 1967

From 1965 to 1968, during the Vietnam War, the United States Air Force conducted an aerial campaign known as Operation Rolling Thunder. The campaign began with interdiction of supply lines in rural areas of southern North Vietnam but incrementally spread northward throughout the country.[80] In 1966, restrictions against bombing the capital city of Hanoi and the country's largest port, Haiphong, were lifted, and they were bombed by the USAF and Navy.[81] The bombing of the city centers continued to be prohibited.[82] However, the South Vietnamese cities seized by the communists were bombed, including the former capital of Huế during the 1968 Tet Offensive.[81]

The Republic of Vietnam Air Force bombed contested cities in South Vietnam in 1968, 1972 and 1975, while the Vietnam People's Air Force attacked Southern cities (including the capital city of Saigon) in 1975.

Arab–Israeli conflict

The Lebanese capital of Beirut was attacked by the Israeli aircraft during the Siege of Beirut in 1982,[83][84] and during the 2006 Lebanon War (using guided munitions).[85][86][87] Israeli cities were bombed by Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian aircraft during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the Six-Day War. The bombing included attacks on some of Israel's largest cities, such as Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.[88] Israel also conducted air strikes targeting Palestinian targets during the Second Intifada, including against Hamas in Gaza.[89][90]

Wars in Afghanistan

In March 1979, in response to an uprising, the Khalq-control army of Democratic Republic of Afghanistan carpet-bombed the Afghanistan's third-largest city of Herat, causing massive destruction[91] and some 5,000 to 25,000 deaths.[92] Herat was also repeatedly bombed during the following Soviet involvement in the Afghan civil war.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S.-led coalition attacked the urban targets in Afghanistan using mainly precision-guided munitions (or "smart bombs"). The United States government maintains that it has a policy of striking only significant combatant targets while doing all possible to avoid what it terms "collateral damage" to civilians and non-combatants during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Iran–Iraq War

"War of the Cities" during the Iran-Iraq War

Saddam Hussein's Iraq attacked civilian targets in Iranian cities in the War of the Cities during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, with Iranians retaliating in kind (both sides soon switched to ballistic missile attacks).[93][94] Iraqi aircraft also bombed the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Halabjain 1988 with conventional and chemical weapons in 1988, killing more than 5,000 people in the largest aerial poison gas attack in history.

Somalia's campaign against Isaaq

Aftermath of the Somali government's attack on Hargeisa, 90 percent of the city was destroyed.[95]

In 1988 Somali Air Force aircraft conducted intense aerial bombardment of major Isaaq cities targeting civilian Isaaqs during its campaign against Somali National Movement in the north of the country. Civilians were also strafed by Somali Air Force aircraft as they were fleeing the aerial bombardment.[96] The artillery shelling and aerial bombardment caused the deaths of estimated 50,000–200,000 Isaaq civilians, as well as the complete destruction of Somalia's second and third largest cities.[97] It also caused up to 500,000[98][99] Somalis (primarily of the Isaaq clan)[100] to flee and cross the border into Hartasheikh in Ethiopia as refugees in what was described as "one of the fastest and largest forced movements of people recorded in Africa",[98] and resulted in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp then (1988),[101] with another 400,000 being internally displaced.[102][103][104] The scale of destruction led to Hargeisa being known as the 'Dresden of Africa'.[98]

Gulf War

The Iraqi Air Force attacked Kuwait City in 1990 and bombed their own cities during the 1991 uprisings in Iraq, targeting civilians with the use of bomb-carrying helicopters (use of airplanes was banned by the Coalition as part of the ceasefire agreement that ended hostilities of the Gulf War but not the war itself).

UN-led coalition aircraft attacked targets in Iraqi cities, including in the capital Baghdad and the largest southern city of Basra during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.[105][106]

On 13 February 1991, a United States Air Force (USAF) warplane fired two laser-guided missiles at an air raid shelter in the Al-A'amiriya neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least 408 civilians sheltering there. U.S. officials subsequently claimed that the shelter also served as a communications center for the Iraqi military. BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen, who was one of the first television reporters on the scene, was given access to the shelter and claimed that he did not find any evidence of it being used by the Iraqi military.[107] His claims were later contradicted by Iraqi general Wafiq al-Samarrai, who claimed that the shelter was used by the Iraqi Intelligence Service, and that Saddam Hussein had personally made visits to it.[108] The day after the bombing of the shelter, a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jet fired two laser-guided missiles which were aimed at a bridge in Fallujah which was used as part of an Iraqi military supply line. The missiles malfunctioned and struck Fallujah's largest marketplace (which was situated in a residential area), killing between 50 and 150 non-combatants and wounding many more. After news of the mistake became public, an RAF spokesman, Group Captain David Henderson issued a statement noting that the missile had malfunctioned but admitted that the Royal Air Force had made an error.[109][110]

Yugoslav wars

At the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars, in Croatia (1991), the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) carried out aerial bombing of Dubrovnik and Vukovar.[111]

NATO's aerial bombing of FR Yugoslavia in 1999 included targeted aerial bombing throughout Serbia, notably of targets in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš. In addition to military casualties, there were at least 500 civilian casualties. Despite the NATO campaign appearing to violate NATO's charter,[112] the UNSC rebutted the case on March 24 and March 26, 1999.[113] In addition to purely military targets NATO targeted the national power grid (leaving many cities in the dark), water purification plants, oil refineries, fertilizer factories, and a petrochemical plant in Pancevo.[114] The 78-day bombing campaign is assessed as having been an 'economic catastrophe', cutting the Yugoslav economy in half.[114]

Chechen wars

Post-Soviet Russia heavily bombed the Chechen capital of Grozny from the air with mostly unguided munitions (including fuel-air explosives) as well as bombarding it with a massive artillery barrages (1994–1995, 1996 and 1999–2000), killing thousands of people (some estimates say 27,000 civilians were killed during the 1994–1995 siege alone[115]) including civilians during the First and Second Chechen Wars. Although the Russian pilots and soldiers were ordered to attack designated targets only, such as the Presidential Palace, due to their inexperience and lack of training, Russian soldiers and pilots bombed and shelled random targets inside the city. In 2003, the UN still called Grozny the most destroyed city on earth.[116]

Iraq War

In 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition aircraft again bombed Iraq, including the Shock and Awe campaign of precision bombing[117] of government targets in the city centers. From 2003 to 2011 and 2014 to 2018, coalition aircraft attacked Iraqi insurgent targets, including in urban locations like Najaf, Fallujah, Mosul, Basra, and Baghdad.[118] There are frequent reports of civilian casualties, though it is often hard to distinguish guerrillas and civilians.

Syria

Syrian MiG-23s bombed the city of Aleppo on 24 July 2012, the first use of aerial bombing in the Syrian Civil War.[119][120][121] Over the course of the war, the Syrian government has dropped tens of thousands of bombs, mostly unguided barrel bombs,[122] on the cities of Aleppo,[123] Damascus,[122] Homs,[124] Hama,[125] Deir ez-Zor,[126] Hasakah,[127] Daraa,[128] Darayya,[129] and Al-Bab.[130][131][132]

Ukraine

Russia has lead strategic bombing of Ukrainian civilian power grid, with low or null military purpose, in order to weaken Ukraine resistances or distract it from attacking and taking back Russian occupied territories.

Other conflicts

Budapest was attacked by intense Soviet air strikes in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution.[133][134] A year before, on 16 June 1955, Casa Rosada, the Argentine government seat at Buenos Aires, was the target of four waves of fighter-bombers during a military uprising to overthrow Juan Peron. Fourteen-tons of bombs scattered on a wide area, killing hundreds of civilian passers-by[135] as well as 11 soldiers.[136] In 2008, the cities of Tskhinvali and Gori were hit by the Georgian and Russian aircraft during the war in Georgia.[137]

International law

A memorial for victims of aerial bombing in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Air warfare, theoretically, must comply with laws and customs of war, including international humanitarian law by protecting the victims of the conflict and refraining from attacks on protected persons.[138]

These restraints on aerial warfare are covered by the general laws of war, because unlike war on land and at sea – which are specifically covered by rules such as the 1907 Hague Convention and Protocol I additional to the Geneva Conventions, which contain pertinent restrictions, prohibitions and guidelines – there are no treaties specific to aerial warfare.[138]

To be legal, aerial operations must comply with the principles of humanitarian law: military necessity, distinction, and proportionality:[138] An attack or action must be intended to help in the defeat of the enemy; it must be an attack on a legitimate military objective, and the harm caused to civilians or civilian property must be proportional and not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

See also

Notes

  1. Daniel Blatman, Rachel Grossbaum-Pasternak, Abraham Kleban, Shmuel Levin, Wila Orbach, Abraham Wein (1999). translation Volume VII, Yad Vashem, pp. 406–07. Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "International Law on the Bombing of Civilians". Archived from the original on 2013-03-11.
  3. Paul R. Wonning. A Short History of Kites: History of Flying – The Kites Role in Aviation and the Airplane. Mossy Feet Books. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-4761-3714-8.
  4. The Strange and Violent History of Kites, Haaretz, Noa Manheim, 28 June 2018
  5. China Reconstructs, Volume 33, 1984
  6. Richard Hallion (2003). Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age, from Antiquity Through the First World War. US: Oxford University Press. pp. 9, 10. ISBN 978-0-19-516035-2.
  7. Justin D. Murphy (2005). Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-CLIO. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-1-85109-488-2.
  8. Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age, from Antiquity through the First World War, Richard P. Hallion, page 66
  9. Johnston, Alan (10 May 2011). "The first ever air raid – Libya 1911". BBC News. Archived from the original on 11 January 2018. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  10. Paris, Michael (1992). Winged warfare : the literature and theory of aerial warfare in Britain, 1859–1917. Manchester u.a.: Manchester Univ. Press. pp. 110–11. ISBN 0-7190-3694-1.
  11. Larsen, Christopher; Tremain, Dick (1 September 1999). "Bombs to the Balkans". Army Logistician. 31 (5): 50. Archived from the original on 7 December 2010. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  12. Sifton, John (2015). Violence All Around. Harvard University Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0674057692.
  13. Madison, Rodney (2005). "Air Warfare, Strategic Bombing". The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social and Military History. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 45–46. ISBN 1851094202.
  14. Tilford, Earl H. Jr. (1996). "Air Warfare: Strategic Bombing". The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. pp. 13–15. ISBN 0-81533-351-X.
  15. Ward's Book of Days. Pages of interesting anniversaries. What happened on this day in history. 19 January. On this day in history in 1915, German zeppelins bombed Britain Archived 2007-09-04 at the Wayback Machine.
  16. Klein, Christopher (31 August 2018). "London's World War I Zeppelin Terror". History. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  17. Roberts, Andrew (2010). A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900. Hachette UK. ISBN 978-0297865247.
  18. "Lord Thomson 1924 – Note from Air Ministry, August 14, 1924" (PDF). flightglobal.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  19. Longmate, Norman (1983). The Bombers: The RAF offensive against Germany 1939–1945. London: Hutchinson. p. 139. ISBN 0-09-151580-7.
  20. Corum, James S; Johnson, Wray R. (2003). Airpower in Small Wars: Fighting Insurgents and Terrorists (Modern War Studies). University Press of Kansas. p. 65. ISBN 978-0700612406.
  21. Zewde, Bahru (2008). Society, State, and Identity in African History. African Books Collective. p. 279. ISBN 978-99944-50-25-1.
  22. Shultz, Richard H.; Dew, Andrea J. (2006). Insurgents, Terrorists, and Militias: The Warriors of Contemporary Combat. Columbia University Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-231-12982-4.
  23. Brown, DeNeen L. "'They was killing black people': A century-old race massacre still haunts Tulsa". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
  24. Keyes, Allison. "A Long-Lost Manuscript Contains a Searing Eyewitness Account of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921". Smithsonian.
  25. Ellis, Dolan; Lowe, Sam (2014). Arizona Lens, Lyrics and Lore. Inkwell Productions. ISBN 978-1939625601.
  26. Price, Ethel Jackson (2003). Sierra Vista: Young City with a Past. Arcadia. ISBN 0738524344.
  27. Barker, A. J., "The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, p. 112
  28. Simkin, John. "Madrid during the Spanish Civil War". Spartacus Educational.
  29. Havardi, Jeremy (2010). The Greatest Briton: Essays on Winston Churchill's Life and Political Philosophy. Shepheard-Walwyn. ISBN 978-0856833359.
  30. "Spanish Civil War". Century of Flight. Archived from the original on 2018-08-03. Retrieved 2018-08-07.
  31. Tharoor, Ishaan (April 2017). "Eighty years later, the Nazi war crime in Guernica still matters". Independent. Archived from the original on 2017-04-29.
  32. "...bombing of Guernica". pbs.org.
  33. Abella, Rafael La vida cotidiana durante la guerra civil: la España republicana. p. 254 Editorial Planeta 1975
  34. Florian Ion Tiberiu Petrescu, Relly Victoria Petrescu (August 2017). "Military aviation, Part III". ResearchGate.
  35. "Massacre in Barcelona". wordpress.com. 16 March 2008. Archived from the original on 24 August 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  36. "ABC Córdoba - Noticias de Córdoba en ABC". ABC de Sevilla (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  37. Saiz Cidoncha, Carlos (2006). "Desde la batalla del Ebro hasta el final de la guerra". Aviación republicana: historia de las Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española (1931-1939) III (in Spanish). Madrid: Almena Ediciones. ISBN 84-96170-23-3.
  38. ""Atentado salvaje" sobre el Pilar: relato del 3 de agosto de 1936". El Heraldo de Aragón (in Spanish). 8 October 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  39. The Illustrated London News, Marching to War 1933–1939. Doubleday. 1989. p. 135.
  40. "Invasion of Poland – WW2 Timeline (September 1st, 1939 – October 6th, 1939)". SecondWorldWarHistory.
  41. Hallion, Richard P (2012). "The Winter War". Air Force Magazine. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  42. Cite web |author=Allert M.A. Goossens |title=Rotterdam |url=http://www.waroverholland.nl/index.php?page=rotterdam-4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031101505/http://www.waroverholland.nl/index.php?page=rotterdam-4 |archive-date=2020-10-31 |url-status=live |website=War Over Holland
  43. Horst Boog: Der anglo-amerikanische strategische Luftkrieg über Europa und die deutsche Luftverteidigung. In 'Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Hrsg.): Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1979 ff. Band 6: Horst Boog, Werner Rahn, Reinhard Stumpf, Bernd Wegner: Der globale Krieg. Die Ausweitung zum Weltkrieg und der Wechsel zur Initiative 1941 bis 1943. 1990, ISBN 978-3-421-06233-8, S. 455f.
  44. Ellis, Major L.F., "The War In France And Flanders 1939–1940"
  45. Overy, Richard, "The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality", p. 91
  46. "Britain bombs Berlin (pictures, video, facts & news)". bbc.co.uk BBC History. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  47. "Germany bombs London (pictures, video, facts & news)". bbc.co.uk BBC History. Archived from the original on 23 November 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  48. Cox, Sebastian, "The Strategic Air War Against Germany, 1939–1945", pp. 1, 2
  49. Terraine, John, "The Right of the Line", p. 112
  50. Ellis, p. 57
  51. Cox p. 4
  52. Terraine p. 268
  53. Horst Boog; Germany. Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (1990). Germany and the Second World War: Volume 6: The Global War. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-822888-2.
  54. Ztvordokov, Sheldon (January 2007). "Operation Millennium". historyinreview.org.
  55. Doel, Marcus (2017). Geographies of Violence: Killing Space, Killing Time. Sage. p. cxxxix. ISBN 978-1526413888.
  56. McDonald, Jason (2007). "Devastation of Cologne, Germany". World War 2 Database.
  57. Grafton, Brian (September 2001). "Bomber Command". Military History Online.
  58. Stutte, Harald (July 2018). "75 Jahre "Operation Gomorrha" Wie ich im Bombeninferno meinen Bruder verlor". Spiegel Online.
  59. Niessen, Martin (July 2018). ""Operation Gomorrha" 1943 – Feuersturm über Hamburg". zdf.de.
  60. "Jena, Jülich, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Kärnten, Kassel and Kempten". revisionist.net.
  61. "The Bombing of Germany 1940–1945 Exhibition" (PDF). University of Exeter.
  62. "10 Most Devastating Bombing Campaigns of WWII". onlinemilitaryeducation.org. February 2012.
  63. Borrud, Gabriel (February 2015). "Pforzheim: the Dresden nobody knows about". Deutsche Welle.
  64. Blank, Ralf (2008). Germany and the Second World War: Volume IX/I: German Wartime Society 1939–1945: Politicization, Disintegration, and the Struggle for Survival. Clarendon Press. p. 472. ISBN 978-0199282777.
  65. "The Swinemünde Mission 12 March 1945". the467tharchive.org.
  66. Matthias Neutzner; et al. (2010). "Abschlussbericht der Historikerkommission zu den Luftangriffen auf Dresden zwischen dem 13. und 15. Februar 1945, p. 70" (PDF). Landeshauptstadt Dresden. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
  67. Selwood, Dominic (February 2015). "Dresden was a civilian town with no military significance. Why did we burn its people?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2015-02-13.
  68. Copp, Terry (November 1998). "Allied Bombing In Normandy: Army, Part 23". Legion Magazine.
  69. "Bombing Italy: Allied Strategies, 1940–1945 Exhibitionlast=" (PDF). University of Exeter.
  70. Cann, Michael. A War Without Ground. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1387804238.
  71. "Serbia marks anniversary of Nazi bombing of Belgrade". b92.net. April 2011.
  72. Tillman, Barrett (2014). Forgotten Fifteenth: The Daring Airmen Who Crippled Hitler's War Machine. Regnery Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 978-1621572084.
  73. Jones, Jeffrey Frank (2015). The Battle of Stalingrad in Critical Analysis, Photographs and Maps. p. 83.
  74. Holland, James (2017). The Allies Strike Back, 1941–1943. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-0802190147.
  75. Pike, John (2016). "1939–1945 – Hungary in World War II". GlobalSecurity.org.
  76. "The War, Firebombing (Germany & Japan) – Tokyo, Air Attack on (9–10 March 1945)". pbs.org/thewar. PBS. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
  77. Media Monitors Network. Lessons from Japan for the US occupation of Iraq by Yusuf Al-Khabbaz (2 September 2004) Archived 13 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  78. Harden, Blaine; Harden, Blaine (2015-03-20). "The U.S. war crime North Korea won't forget". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on 2017-04-22. Retrieved 2017-08-24.
  79. Groot, Gerard J. De (5 May 2018). The Bomb: A Life. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674017245. Retrieved 5 May 2018 via Google Books.
  80. Valentine, Tom (January 2014). "Operation Rolling Thunder". thevietnamwar.info.
  81. Friedman, Sergeant Major Herbert A. "The North Vietnam Leaflet Campaign". psywarrior.com.
  82. Released by the Office of the Historian. Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, Volume V, Vietnam 1967, Documents 222–239 , Policy Decisions and the McNamara and Clifford-Taylor Missions to South Vietnam June–August, United States State Department. Accessed 22 May 2008
  83. Cathy Hartley, Paul Cossali (2004). Survey of Arab-Israeli Relations. Routledge. p. 91. ISBN 978-1135355272.
  84. Friedman, Thomas L. (September 25, 1982). "The Beirut Massacre: The Four Days". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2010-10-15. Retrieved July 21, 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  85. "The Second Lebanon War (2006)". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2013.
  86. McGreal, Chris (July 2006). "Beirut under siege as Israel attacks from air and sea". The Guardian.
  87. "Why They Died Civilian Casualties in Lebanon during the 2006 War". Human Rights Watch. September 2007.
  88. "Timeline: Israel War of Independence". zionism-israel.com.
  89. "Time Line of Second (Al-Aqsa) Intifada". mideastweb.org. October 2008.
  90. Nidal al-Mughrabi (December 2008). "Israel kills scores in Gaza air strikes". Reuters.
  91. Urban, Mark (1990). War in Afghanistan. London: Palgrave MacMillan. p. 30. ISBN 0-333-51477-7.]
  92. "Escaping the past: the widows of Herat". Archived from the original on April 10, 2008.
  93. "Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988)". GlobalSecurity.org.
  94. "Iran-Iraq War Timeline*" (PDF). WilsonCenter.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-11. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  95. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Somaliland: Time for African Union Leadership
  96. Human Rights Watch. Americas Watch. 1987-01-01.
  97. Adam, Hussein Mohamed (2008-01-01). From Tyranny to Anarchy: The Somali Experience. Red Sea Press. ISBN 978-1-56902-288-7.
  98. Harper, Mary (2012-02-09). Getting Somalia Wrong?: Faith, War and Hope in a Shattered State. Zed Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78032-105-9.
  99. Press, Robert M. (1999). The New Africa: Dispatches from a Changing Continent. University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-1704-4.
  100. "Welcome to World Bank Intranet" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-12-26. Retrieved 2017-01-14. p. 10
  101. Lindley, Anna (2013). The Early Morning Phonecall: Somali Refugees' Remittances. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78238-328-4.
  102. Gajraj, Priya (2005). Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics (PDF). World Bank. p. 10. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-12-26.
  103. Law, Ian (2010). Racism and Ethnicity: Global Debates, Dilemmas, Directions. Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-5912-7.
  104. "Africa Watch". Volume 5: 4. 1993.
  105. Grant, Rebecca (January 2011). "Desert Storm" (PDF). Northrop Grumman.
  106. "Operation Desert Storm – Evaluation of the Air Campaign" (PDF). United States General Accounting Office. June 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  107. Report aired on BBC 1, 14 February 1991
  108. Frontline: The Gulf War (1990 1991), archived from the original on 2021-12-15, retrieved 2019-11-13
  109. Virginia, Sherry (1991). Needless Deaths in the Gulf War: Civilian Casualties During the Air Campaign and Violations of the Laws of War. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 978-0-3000-5599-3.
  110. Rogers, A. P. V. (2004). Law on the Battlefield. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-6136-3.
  111. US Department of State Dispatch. Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of State. 1992. p. 29.
  112. Raju G. C. Thomas (2003). Yugoslavia Unraveled: Sovereignty, Self-Determination, Intervention. Lexington Books. pp. 177–. ISBN 978-0-585-45499-3.
  113. World Court Digest: Volume 3: 1996–2000. Springer Science & Business Media. 5 August 2002. pp. 192–. ISBN 978-3-540-43588-4.
  114. Beau Grosscup (2013). Strategic Terror: The Politics and Ethics of Aerial Bombardment. Zed Books Ltd. pp. 88–. ISBN 978-1-84813-784-4.
  115. "The Battle(s) of Grozny". www.caucasus.dk. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011.
  116. Scars remain amid Chechen revival Archived 2016-07-31 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News, 3 March 2007
  117. Correll, John T. (November 2003). "What Happened to Shock and Awe?" (PDF). airforcemag.com.
  118. "Iraq timeline: February 1 2004 to December 31 2004". The Guardian. 2011.
  119. "Syria crisis: clashes and prison mutiny in Aleppo". The Guardian. 24 July 2012. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.
  120. "Aleppo: BBC journalist on Syria warplanes bombing city". BBC News. 24 July 2012. Archived from the original on 27 July 2012.
  121. "Syria's regime uses fighter jets for first time as it struggles to contain rebellion". The Telegraph. 24 July 2012. Archived from the original on 12 October 2017.
  122. "Syria War: What Are Barrel Bombs and Why Are They So Deadly?". NBC News.
  123. Grierson, Jamie (October 1, 2016). "Syria: Aleppo hospital hit by barrel bombs and cluster bombs, reports say". The Guardian via www.theguardian.com.
  124. Sep 2012, 6:25PM BST 01 (September 1, 2012). "Syrian regime forces filmed dropping 'barrel bomb' on Homs". www.telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on September 1, 2012.
  125. "Assad's Forces Shell, Barrel Bomb Rebels Across Syria Despite Geneva II Peace Talks Eurasia Review". February 1, 2014. Archived from the original on February 1, 2014.
  126. "Barrel bomb attack kills 14 in eastern Syria". Al Bawaba. 23 May 2015.
  127. "43 Syrian civilians killed by Assad barrel-bomb raid". Middle East Eye.
  128. "Assad Defiant as Activists Report Surge in Syrian Government Attacks". Voice of America.
  129. "Despite peace talks, Assad's forces drop barrel bombs". The National. 25 January 2014.
  130. "'Barrel bombs' kill 11 people in northern Syria: activists". National | Globalnews.ca. December 1, 2013.
  131. "Barrel bombs kill at least 15 in Aleppo". www.aa.com.tr.
  132. "Assad drops almost 70,000 barrel bombs on Syria, study finds". The National. 3 January 2018.
  133. Raffensperger, Todd Avery (January 2016). "Freedom or Death: The Hungarian Uprising of 1956". Warfare History Network. Archived from the original on 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  134. "On This Day – In 1956 Soviet Union Brutally Crushed Hungary's Hope For Freedom And Independence". Hungary Today. 2015.
  135. "Hace 60 años la Marina y la Aeronáutica bombardeaban la Plaza de Mayo". La Capital (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  136. Piqué, Martín (2015-06-14). "Recuperar la historia, a 60 años del bombardeo". INFOnews (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  137. Russia/Georgia: Investigate Civilian Deaths: High Toll from Attacks on Populated Areas Archived 2008-09-12 at the Wayback Machine, Human Rights Watch, 14 August 2008
  138. Gómez, Javier Guisández (20 June 1998). "The Law of Air Warfare". International Review of the Red Cross. nº 323 (323): 347–63. doi:10.1017/S0020860400091075. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010.
  139. 'Long-range' in the context of the time. See NASA history article. Archived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
  140. Neufeld, Michael J (1995). The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: The Free Press. pp. 158, 160–62, 190. ISBN 978-0029228951.

References

  • Francisco Javier Guisández Gómez, a colonel in the Spanish Air Force ICRC: "The Law of Air Warfare" International Review of the Red Cross no 323, pp. 347–63
  • Jefferson D. Reynolds. "Collateral Damage on the 21st century battlefield: Enemy exploitation of the law of armed conflict, and the struggle for a moral high ground". Air Force Law Review Volume 56, 2005(PDF) pp. 4–108
  • Charles Rousseau, Le droit des conflits armés, Editions Pedone, Paris, 1983

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.