The Bombing War

This is a library, there should be books in it, right?

The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945
Richard Overy

Just finished reading this; really interesting examination of an aspect of the war that, while hardly unknown, is seldom seen as a whole, or from all sides of the conflict in the European theatre. Overy covers the way armed forces and civilians thought about and anticipated war from the air, how they geared up to deal with it, how they carried out bombing and responded to it, and what kind of overall effect it had. Of perhaps particular interest was the bombing of Italy, by both German and the Allies, which seems to attract little attention by comparison to the famous Blitz and the pounding of Germany near the end.

Some time ago I read Olaf Stapledon's sci-fi future history, Last And First Men, which was published in 1930; this features apocalyptic air wars bringing an end to modernity. What I had not realised was that this perception was actually widespread; that civilians and military alike expected that the next war would feature heavy and extremely destructive bombing, which would erase the distinction between soldier and civilian. Thus, everyone went into the war expecting to bomb and be bombed. Nor was this perception ultimately unfounded, although the world was mercifully spared the use of mustard gas and similar, which meant it never quite became as apocalyptic as had been feared. Indeed, everyone severely underestimated the difficulties involved in finding and bombing a target, and overestimated what effects bombing would therefore have, even with the use of incendiaries; both the Germans and the British found it so difficult to tell what the intended target had been that they erroneously concluded the enemy was simply bombing at random. As late as 1942, the British managed to kill only 2 Germans for each bomber they lost, and all parties, except the Italians, managed to maintain and increase industrial military production in the face of aerial bombardment.

This was an insightful book that really fleshes out an aspect of the war that is well known but not deeply understood, and anyone interested in roundning out their picture of the war should find it useful.