the blitz
The first attempt of civilian bombing was in September 1940, when Germany bombed London for months at night. Thousands of civilians were killed and injured. The city was greatly destroyed as well. These air raids by Germany were called the blitz. Soon Germany started attacking other cities and towns. By doing so, Germany believed it would reduce British moral to keep fighting the war. However, what actually happened was the opposite.
the bombing of dresden
The British although, didn’t learn from the blitz and tried to do the same thing to Germany. In 1942 Cologne, a city in Germany, was attacked by 1,000 bombers. This worsened the situation in Germany because they were already facing a shortage in food, clothing, and fuel. The bombing of Dresden, another city in Germany, created a firestorm that killed 35,000 people. Half a million people died in total because of these bombs. However, this only boosted German moral and they fought with more effort against the allies.
atomic bombs
Toward the end of the war Japan’s air force was destroyed. This meant that it had no protection against air raids. The US began bombing Japan on November 24, 1944 with the biggest bombers in all of the war. This greatly destroyed Japanese industries. However, these bombings were nothing compared to the first atomic bomb. In August 1945 President Truman approved the decision to drop the atomic bomb, and as a result thousands of Japanese civilians died.