Bomber Command is an organizational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. Many countries have a "Bomber Command", although the most famous ones were in the United States and Britain. A bomber command is generally composed of bombers (i.e. planes used to bomb targets).

Contents

1 RAF Bomber Command 2 USAAF 2.1 VIII Bomber Command 2.2 XXI Bomber Command 3 Civilian casualties

RAF Bomber Command

The RAF Bomber Command was formed in 1936 to be responsible for all bombing activities of the RAF It was most famous during World War II, when its aircraft were used for devastating night time air raids on Germany and occupied Europe. Many non-British squadrons and personnel served with Bomber Command. Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, many Commonwealth countries contributed squadrons and/or individuals to British air and ground staff. For example, No. 6 Group, which represented about one-sixth of Bomber Command's strength, was a Royal Canadian Air Force unit.

At its height, Bomber Command under Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris could put over 1,000 aircraft into the air over Germany. Over 12,000 Bomber Command aircraft were shot down during World War II, and 55,000 aircrew were killed. Various aircraft were used, from the obsolete and horrendously vulnerable Fairey Battle in 1939 to the command's most numerous and successful aircraft, the Avro Lancaster. Not only British aircraft were used. American machines such the B-17 Flying Fortress saw service as well.

RAF Bomber Command was merged into RAF Strike Command in 1968.

USAAF

Whereas the Bomber Command in the RAF was a single organisation, reporting directly to the Chief of the Air Staff, there were many American Bomber Commands. They were subordinate formations, reporting in general to various numbered Air Forces around the world. Out of all those organisations, two stand out; VIII Bomber Command and XXI Bomber Command .

VIII Bomber Command

VIII Bomber Command was the UK-based (there were also substantial strategic air forces in Italy) American part of the strategic bomber offensive, Operation Pointblank . Two aircraft made up the backbone of this unit, the B-17 Flying Fortress, and the B-24 Liberator. The former was more famous, but the latter was longer ranged and had a larger bomb load. The USAAF came to Europe wanting to bomb by day with 'precision'. True precision bombing in the modern sense was impossible in the 1940s. However, daylight bombing was more accurate than night bombing. The big problem was that bomber in daylight were considerably easier to shoot down. The RAF had tried day bombing early in the war, but had abandoned it in the face of huge losses. However, the USAAF persevered. It was not until long range escort fighters like the P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang came into service that daylight bombing really worked. The original American doctrine of heavily armed bombers defending themselves over enemy territory was found to be fundamentally flawed.

XXI Bomber Command

In the Pacific, XXI Bomber Command was the main instrument of destruction used against Japan. Its B-29 Superfortresses, operating from the Marianas, were the longest range and most modern bomber in service in the world at the time. Again, as in Europe, the USAAF tried daylight precision bombing. However, it proved to be impossible due to the weather around Japan, as bombs dropped from great height were tossed about by high winds. General Curtis LeMay, commander of XXI Bomber Command instead switched to mass firebombing attacks by night from low level. Japanese cities were uniquely vulnerable to this sort of attack, being closely packed and largely built of wood.

The Pacific attacks included the most devastating single air raid in history. It was not, as some might think, the result of dropping one of the two atomic bombs. It was a conventional raid on Tokyo on the night of 9–10 March 1945, which created a firestorm and killed 100,000 people. However, the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which helped to end the war were devastating enough, killing tens of thousands of people.

Civilian casualties

The Bomber Commands of the RAF and USAAF were responsible for most of the civilian casualties that the UK and US inflicted upon the enemy in World War II. There are those who condemn the attacks as against international law. It should be remembered that it was the Luftwaffe that first attacked cities with massed bomber formations in that war. It should also be remembered that World War II was a total war, the like of which has not been seen since on a worldwide scale. In total war, many constraints that would normally bind the behaviour of the combatants are often loosened and it was Hitler who offered his and other people Totalkrieg.

In the twenty-first century, it is difficult to remember that through most of the Second World War, in a cloudy climate like that of northern Europe, it was not usually possible, by night, for air navigators to find anything as small as a city, if its owners did not wish for it to be found. Hoping to aim for a bridge of a factory was a ridiculous idea but raids in conditions which suited the navigators, were too costly to sustain. These lessons were learned on the Dams Raid, at Augsburg and Schweinfurt.

Even with the help of the air to ground radar of the later part of the war, only places like Hamburg, where there was a distinctively-shaped margin between land and water, could be accurately bombed in cloud and the discovery of that possibility was only then, being made. The over-effective bombing of Dresden, planned to impede German reinforcement of its eastern front, was achieved only by chance. The resources put into it could have been expected to be marginally effective but the city happened to be in a quite small cloud-free patch. The bombers were able to aim effectively but the raid had been planned on the reasonable assumption that they would not.

The Alies' aim was firstly, not to lose the war, then later, to get it won and out of the way before they were all dead or bankrupt.