The term "carpet bombing" ("carpet bombing") is commonly understood as continuous, long-term, sequential bombing with the destruction of large areas.
This method is used both to destroy the material part of the enemy, together with his personnel, and to wipe out settlements, railway junctions, enterprises or vast forests. For a more complete destruction of the selected object, incendiary bombs filled with phosphorus, napalm, etc. are often added to ordinary bombs.
History of Carpet Bombing
Carpet bombings were predicted long before they happened. For example, the famous science fiction writer H. G. Wells in his novel The Shape of the Future described the destruction of the city when attacked by aircraft. The assumption that in future wars the parties will certainly attack enemy cities with the aim of their maximum destruction was expressed in 1921 by the famous Italian military theorist Giulio Due.
The first carpet bombings were carried out with the participation of a large number of bombers. For example, during the destruction of the city of Guernica by German aircraft (1937g, Spain) it took to use 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 as long as possible. Do you know, for example, how many days the carpet bombing of Stalingrad lasted and how many aircraft participated in it?
Stalingrad
It happened on August 23, 1942. On this day, the Germans carried out the longest and most destructive carpet bombing in history by the forces of the 4th Air Fleet. It lasted almost three days. At that time, fighting was going on on the outskirts of the city, and its inhabitants lived a completely peaceful life: factories, factories, shops, even schools and kindergartens worked as usual.
The first planes 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 aircraft, so that the tanks got more shells. The enemy decided to take advantage of this circumstance.
The planes flew in groups of 30-40 bombers. Each of the machines was able to make several sorties in a 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 was on fire. In addition to buildings and structures, earth, grass and water were blazing - the Germans destroyedcrude oil tanks and it spilled into the river. It was so hot outside that the clothes on people rushing about in panic caught fire. Since the plumbing was interrupted, there was no water, so there was simply nothing to put out the fires. About 40,000 people died that day.
Bombing Germany
As a method of intimidation and in order to suppress the will of the civilian population of Germany to resist, carpet bombing was used by the Royal Air Force of Great Britain and the US Air Force.
In order to create the effect of a fiery tornado, the planes lined up in several echelons, in each of which the cars carried different types of bombs in their belly: land mines, concrete-piercing, fragmentation, etc.
British declared bombing targets
The Allied carpet bombing of Germany had different purposes. British planes bombed mainly residential areas of German cities in order to crush the morale of the civilian population, especially industrial workers. By September 22, 1941, a number of plans were adopted at the headquarters of the British Air Force to destroy 43 German cities.
According to the calculations of the British, the activity of the population should be completely broken after six bombings using 1 ton of bombs per 800 inhabitants. To keep the population in constant fear, must be repeated every 6 months.
Really
It should be noted that while the German "Luftwaffe" fought off the advancing RedThe armies, the British struck with little or no opposition. The intensity of British air strikes was constantly increasing. It is believed that some of the cities were destroyed, since, according to the Y alta agreement, at the end of the war they were to fall under Soviet occupation.
An example is the carpet bombing of Dresden. However, in addition to it, there were also Magdeburg (up to 90% of the territory was destroyed), Stuttgart, Cologne (65%), Hamburg (45%), etc. Often the British wiped out small towns that had no defensive value. Wurzburg can be considered one of those.
Bombing targets declared by Americans
Unlike the British, American aircraft were used mainly to destroy industrial facilities and transport communications. The choice of objects was determined according to the principles: the most vulnerable place in the economy, the ratio between opportunities and needs, the location of enterprises, the percentage of output, etc. As a result, a list of objects intended for bombardment was agreed upon. It consisted of 76 objects.
The Americans weren't as diligent in bombing as the British were. And it's not about humanity or anything like that. It's just that during the carpet bombing of industrial facilities in Darmstadt, Schweinfurt and Regensburg, they were so rebuffed that they lost a third of their aircraft, as a result of which the crews of the rest of the machines went on a real strike.
The main goal of the bombing of German cities and enterprises was to create the most favorable conditions for the subsequentAllied invasion of Europe.
Carpet bombing after World War II
The Americans continued to use the accumulated practice after the Second World War. An example is the carpet bombing of North Vietnamese cities such as Hanoi and Haiphong. With the development of aviation and the destructiveness of bombs, the consequences of such operations became more and more monstrous. According to the report on the bombing of Indochina, which US President B. Clinton presented to Vietnam in 2000, approximately 3,000,000 (three million) tons of various bombs were dropped on Cambodia alone. Approximately 500 kg per inhabitant of the country.
The Americans have not forgotten about carpet bombing today. In particular, to fight against ISIS, Washington is sending B-52 aircraft to the Middle East. They will have to carry out carpet bombing in Syria and Iraq. They will replace the B-1 strategic bombers currently stationed there.
Carpet bombing in Russia
Several instances of carpet bombing have been reported in Afghanistan. The initiator and developer of this strategy in Soviet aviation was Dzhokhar Dudayev. It should be noted that in mountainous Afghanistan it turned out to be ineffective. Dushmans detected aircraft 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 showed great effectiveness - point bombing with large-caliber bombs. Their use literally collapsed the gorges, notgiving the Mujahideen a chance to escape.
There were also carpet bombings in Chechnya. The skills gained in Afghanistan were also useful in their native land. In particular, the fact of carpet bombing from a great height of the village of Elistanzhi on October 7, 1999 is known. 34 people died, mostly women and children.
The carpet bombing strategy continues to improve. Where it will be used next time remains a question.
