Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire New Documentary on the 8th Air Force...

Mighty 8th Air Force museum is about 5 miles from my house.
Some of the vets are volunteers at the museum, though fewer and fewer as time goes on.

There's a lot of really good documentaries on tonight on the National Geographic channel. One in particular is "Hero's of the Sky's. The Mighty 8th Air Force" a new one that I've not seen before which says it was first shown last week. A 2 hour documentary that covers the 8th from conception. Starts again at 1 am Pacific Time. Its the best I've seen on the air battle over Europe. Mentions the orders and cover-up of deliberate bombing of civilians pretty good also.


Phil

The 8th was used as a terror force. The commanders were war criminals responsible for more civilian death and suffering than the SS.

My Grandpa was in the 8th though...a navigations officer on a 17 and later 24. Brave bunch of guys...it’s a shame they were used the way they were

They didn’t start it.

The 8th was used as a terror force. The commanders were war criminals responsible for more civilian death and suffering than the SS.

My Grandpa was in the 8th though...a navigations officer on a 17 and later 24. Brave bunch of guys...it’s a shame they were used the way they were

...Although simple incendiary bombs have been used to destroy buildings since the start of gunpowder warfare, World War I saw the first use of strategic bombing from the air to damage the morale and economy of the enemy, such as the German Zeppelin air raids conducted on London during the Great War. The Chinese wartime capital of Chongqing was firebombed by the Imperial Japanese starting in early 1939. London, Coventry, and many other British cities were firebombed during the Blitz by Nazi Germany. Most large German cities were extensively firebombed starting in 1942, and almost all large Japanese cities were firebombed during the last six months of World War II...

...Early in World War II many British cities were firebombed. Two particularly notable raids were the Coventry Blitz on 14 November 1940, and the blitz on London on the night of 29 December/30 December 1940, which was the most destructive raid on London during the war with much of the destruction caused by fires started by incendiary bombs. During the Coventry Blitz the Germans pioneered several innovations which were to influence all future strategic bomber raids during the war.[2] These were: The use of pathfinder aircraft with electronic aids to navigate, to mark the targets before the main bomber raid; The use of high explosive bombs and air-mines coupled with thousands of incendiary bombs intended to set the city ablaze. The first wave of follow-up bombers dropped high explosive bombs, the intent of which was to knock out the utilities (the water supply, electricity network and gas mains), and to crater the road — making it difficult for the fire engines to reach fires started by the successive waves of bombers. The follow-up waves dropped a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs. There were two types of incendiary bombs: those made of magnesium and iron powders, and those made of petroleum. The high-explosive bombs and the larger air-mines were not only designed to hamper the Coventry fire brigade, they were also intended to damage roofs, making it easier for the incendiary bombs to fall into buildings and ignite them. As Sir Arthur Harris, commander of RAF Bomber Command, wrote after the war:

In the early days of bombing our notion, like that of the Germans, was to spread an attack out over the whole night, thereby wearing down the morale of the civilian population. The result was, of course, that an efficient fire brigade could tackle a single load of incendiaries, put them out, and wait in comfort for the next to come along; they might also be able to take shelter when a few high explosives bombs were dropping. ... But it was observed that when the Germans did get an effective concentration, ... then our fire brigades had a hard time; if a rain of incendiaries is mixed with high explosives bombs there is a temptation for the fireman to keep his head down. The Germans, again and again, missed their chance, as they did during the London blitz that I watched from the roof of the Air Ministry, of setting our cities ablaze by a concentrated attack. Coventry was adequately concentrated in point of space, but all the same, there was little concentration in point of time, and nothing like the fire tornadoes of Hamburg or Dresden ever occurred in this country. But they did do us enough damage to teach us the principle of concentration, the principle of starting so many fires at the same time that no firefighting services, however efficiently and quickly they were reinforced by the fire brigades of other towns could get them under control.
— Arthur Harris, [3]...

And they were doing what it took to finish it.

Civilians do bear responsibility for the actions of the government they select and support.

And they were doing what it took to finish it.

Civilians do bear responsibility for the actions of the government they select and support.