The term "carpet bombing" ("carpet bombing") is understood to mean continuous, long-term, sequential bombing with the defeat of significant areas.
This method is used both to destroy the material part of the enemy, together with its personnel, and to erase settlements, railway junctions, enterprises or vast forests from the face of the earth . For a more complete destruction of the selected object, incendiary bombs filled with phosphorus, napalm, etc. are often added to ordinary bombs.
The history of the appearance of carpet bombing
Carpet bombing was predicted long before they appeared. For example, the famous science fiction writer Herbert Wells in his novel "The Face of the Future" described the destruction of the city during an attack by aircraft. The assumption that in future wars the parties will certainly attack the enemy’s cities with a view to their maximum destruction, was expressed in 1921 by the famous Italian military theorist Giulio Douai.
The first carpet bombing was carried out with the participation of a large number of bombers. For example, the destruction of the city of Guernica by German aviation (1937, Spain) required the use of a whole legion. More than 100 civilians are considered dead.
As this strategy developed, the Germans learned to simultaneously use an increasing number of aircraft, continuing the action for the longest possible time. Do you know, for example, how many days the carpet bombing of Stalingrad lasted? and how many planes participated in it?
Stalingrad
This happened on August 23, 1942. On this day, the Germans of the 4th Air Fleet carried out the longest and destructive carpet bombing in history. It lasted almost three days. At that time, the fighting was on the outskirts of the city, and its inhabitants lived a completely peaceful life: factories, factories, shops, even schools and kindergartens worked normally.
The first aircraft appeared at 18.00. According to the order of the Headquarters, almost all anti-aircraft guns were involved in repelling tank attacks, the next of which at that time was being carried out by the 169th Panzer Division of the Germans, trying to capture the northern outskirts of the city. Anti-aircraft gunners were forbidden to open fire on planes, so that the tanks got more shells. The enemy decided to take advantage of this circumstance.
Aircraft flew in groups of 30-40 bombers. Each of the cars was able to make several sorties per day. After the raid, more than half of the city’s housing stock was destroyed. The pre-war city was turned into burning ruins. Everything burned. In addition to buildings and structures, land, grass and water blazed - the Germans destroyed tanks with crude oil, and it spilled into the river. There was such heat on the street that clothes flared on people rushing in a panic. Since the water supply was interrupted, there was no water, so there was simply nothing to extinguish the fire. That day killed about 40 thousand inhabitants.
Germany bombing
As a method of intimidation and in order to suppress the will of the civilian population of Germany to resist carpet bombing, the Royal Air Forces of Great Britain and the United States Air Force used.
In order to create the effect of a fire tornado, the planes lined up in several echelons, in each of which the aircraft carried different types of bombs in their womb: high-explosive, concrete-breaking, fragmentation, etc.
The goals of the bombing declared by the British
German Allied Carpet Bombings had different goals. British planes bombed mainly residential areas of German cities in order to suppress the morale of the civilian population, especially industrial workers. By September 22, 1941, a number of plans to destroy 43 German cities were adopted at the headquarters of the British Air Force.
According to the estimates of the British, the activity of the population should be completely broken after six bombings when using 1 ton of bombs per 800 inhabitants. To keep the population in constant fear, it is necessary to repeat every 6 months.
In fact
It should be noted that while the German “Luftwaffe” fought off the advancing Red Army with all its might, the British delivered strikes with virtually no opposition. The intensity of the strikes of British aviation was constantly increasing. It is believed that some of the cities were destroyed, because according to the Yalta agreement, at the end of the war, they were to fall under Soviet occupation.
An example is the carpet bombing of Dresden. However, besides him, there were Magdeburg (destroyed up to 90% of the territory), Stuttgart, Cologne (65%), Hamburg (45%), etc. Often the British wiped small towns from the face of the earth, which had no defense significance. One of these can be considered Wurzburg.
Americans declared bombing targets
Unlike the British, American aviation was used mainly for the destruction of industrial facilities and transport communications. The choice of objects was determined according to the principles: the most vulnerable spot in the economy, the ratio between opportunities and needs, the location of enterprises, the percentage of products produced, etc. As a result, a list of objects intended for bombing was agreed. It consisted of 76 objects.
The Americans were not as diligent in the bombing as the British. And it’s not at all about humanity or something like that. It was just that during the carpet bombing of industrial facilities in Darmstadt, Schweinfurt and Regensburg, they were so repulsed that they lost a third of their aircraft, as a result of which the crews of the rest of the cars went on strike.
The main goal of the bombing of cities and enterprises in Germany was to create the most favorable conditions for the subsequent Allied invasion of Europe.
Carpet bombing after World War II
The Americans continued to use the acquired practice after the Second World War. As an example, you can bring carpet bombing of cities in North Vietnam, such as Hanoi and Haiphong. With the development of aviation and the destructiveness of bombs, the consequences of such operations became increasingly monstrous. According to the Indochina bombing report that US President B. Clinton provided to Vietnam in 2000, approximately 3,000,000 (three million) tons of various bombs were dropped on Cambodia alone. About 500 kg per inhabitant of the country.
The Americans did not forget about carpet bombing today. In particular, Washington is sending B-52 aircraft to the Middle East to fight ISIS. They will have to carry out carpet bombing in Syria and Iraq. They will replace the B-1 strategic bombers currently located there.
Carpet bombing in Russia
Several cases of carpet bombing in Afghanistan are known. The initiator and developer of this strategy in Soviet aviation was Dzhokhar Dudaev. It should be noted that in mountainous Afghanistan it turned out to be ineffective. Dushmans tracked planes from afar and managed to hide in various caves and other folds of the terrain.
In the last years of the war, a certain replacement was shown to be very effective - the point bombardment with large-caliber bombs. Their use literally collapsed the gorges, giving the Mujahideen no chance of salvation.
Also took place carpet bombing in Chechnya . The skills gained in Afghanistan came in handy in their native land. In particular, the fact of carpet bombing from a great height of the village of Elistanji on October 7, 1999 is known. Killed 34 people, mostly women and children.
The carpet bombing strategy continues to improve. Where it will be used next time remains a question.