In the year 1940 began a large scale bombing campaign against Germany, with major destruction of both German soldiers and civilians. Although it began with attempted precision bombing of specific targets, only 20% of the bombs were found to hit within 5 miles of the target, so Britain decided to switch to a form of bombing known as Area bombing. In area bombing, the RAF attempted to destroy as much of the buildings and population of a city or region through the use of large quantities of bombs, fire bombs, and gas in waves to maximize destruction. It was this area bombing that has created controversy between historians as to whether or not the RAF’s actions could be considered war crimes. However the fact that the RAF’s bombing of the …show more content…
However, not only is this source most likely extremely biased, but it was most likely an attempt to make the British ok with bombing the Germans. The British censorship and propaganda went so far as to being described as “as bad a the Nazis”. This contextual information demonstrates how this source was probably embellishing the truth in order to buy support of the bombing campaigns. In actuality, the bombing was both extremely inaccurate and ineffective, with little impact on the German war machine. In fact, Many British sources reported that only 20% of the bombs dropped by the RAF landed within a 5 mile radius of the target, a number which only averaged about 50% throughout the entirety of the war. Additionally, many of the targets that were bombed only served to slightly delay the Germans, rather than stopping them outright. This persistence in continuing attacks even though they had little impact and accuracy further demonstrate why the RAF’s attacks should be considered war crimes. It only lead to an increase in the civilian death toll and was a waste of resources and lives on both sides of the