Munich Bombing

Munich, Germany is where the Nazi Party was formed in 1920. Munich was a major industrial and transport center and that is what made this city a major target for the allied bombers. Munich also created the first concentration camp 10 miles west of the city. Munich was important to the rise of Nazism and the Nazis called Munich the “Capital of Movement.” The Nazi Headquarters were also located in Munich.

The main allied countries were the United Kingdom, the United States, France and the Soviet Union.

World War Two started in 1939. The first major bombing on Munich started in September, 1942. Munich was the target of approximately 71 bombings from the United States alone. The US dropped 1 million bombs on this city starting in 1944.

The enemy was set on destroying the other sides’ economic resources. The allies bombed Munich was to strike fear into the hearts of the Germans. The allies used this tactic throughout World War 2. This tactic would later be known as “terror bombing”. They also did this was to tear the Germans apart physically and mentally. Also they bombed cities because of factories; you can destroy a factory and rebuild it but when you have no one to rebuild it its shut down for good. The allies wanted to causes issues behind the front lines. They wanted to reduce the number of possible troops for the Germans. They also wanted to kill the family members of the soldiers fighting on the front lines because, if the soldiers weren’t thinking right they couldn’t fight right. Mass bombings of civilians were later outlawed because they were inhumane. The United States recently used this tactic only it was called shock and awe and they didn’t use dummy bombs or unguided bombs they used missiles and laser guided bombs. This also shows that the old tactic still works even in the twenty first

The Royal Air Force Bomber Command would run attacks at night and the United States Army Air Force squad would run attacks on the Germans during the daytime. The RAF Bomber Commander felt that if they dispatched over 1,000 aircraft each night against the German objectives, it would destroy the industry of the city in hours and then the invasion of Europe would be unnecessary. In one night of bombing, over 1,000 aircraft used over 2,000 tons of bombs on Munich, destroying over 13,000 homes.

In the daylight raids by the United States Army Air Force squads, had no protection of the fighter escorts like the Royal Air Force squads did. These long distance raids were eventually abandoned because of the loss of life and airplanes.

On some of these bombing raids, the servicemen and air crew had a one in twenty chance of returning alive from their missions and six in the British bomber aircrew were killed, one of the highest casualty rates ever during