Description
Bombing Vindicated: A Survey of Recent Developments by This Leading Authority on Air Warfare 1944
By J.M. Spaight. Published in 1944 by a former British Principal Secretary of the Air Ministry as a response to increasing discontent in Britain with the Allied bombing of German cities, this book set out to justify the saturation bombing of civilians.
Reflecting official British government policy, it states clearly that the idea to saturate bomb civilian targets was initiated by the British in May 1940, and that Hitler opposed this concept and refused to retaliate for months while German cities were bombed, hoping that “Churchill would come to his senses.”
This belief is dismissed as “stupid” by Spaight, who went on to describe as “pacifists” and “socialists” those Britons who objected to the bombing of civilians.
The British bombers were designed to bomb cities, he said, while the “Teutonic mind” never even considered such a policy, and instead viewed an air force merely as a tool to “blast open” a path for attacking armies.
The German air force, he pointed out, was never used for anything else until ordered to retaliate against the British campaign.
“Whatever Hitler wanted or did not want, he most assuredly did not want the mutual bombing to go on. . . . He had done his best to have it banned by international agreement.”
This is a shocking reminder of the horror of war which provides a fascinating insight into the brutal psychology of the time. An exact reproduction of the wartime original.
Contents:
Chapter I: The Bomber Saves Civilisation
Chapter II: Tactics and Strategies
Chapter III: Our Great Decision
Chapter IV: The Battle-Towns
Chapter V: The Bombing of Civilians
Chapter VI: The Tokyo Outrage
Chapter VII: Retrospect and Prospect
Softcover, 135 pages, 6″×9″
