Strategic Bombing - Strategic Bombing Events

Strategic Bombing Events

Among the controversial instances of strategic bombing (and it should be noted that there is still significant controversy over whether all of these events even constitute strategic bombing, as opposed to other forms, such as terror bombing or tactical bombing) are:

  • Strategic bombing of "uncivilized tribes" during the British mandate of Iraq
  • Spanish Civil War
    • The Bombing of Guernica: the first aerial bombardment in history in which a civilian population was targeted with the apparent intent of producing civilian casualties.
  • World War II
    • The Japanese bombing of Wuhan
    • The Japanese bombing of Chongqing
    • The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
    • The German bombing of Warsaw
    • The German bombing of Rotterdam
    • German attacks on the UK during The Blitz and afterwards, through the V-1 and V-2 attacks in the last year of the war.
    • The German bombing of Belgrade
    • The German bombing of Moscow.
    • Allied bombing of Hamburg
    • Allied bombing of Berlin
    • Allied bombing of Dresden
    • Allied bombing of Milan
    • United States bombing of Tokyo
    • United States bombing of Kobe
    • United States atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • Vietnam War
    • United States bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail
    • United States bombing of Hanoi
    • United States bombing of Cambodia
    • United States bombing of Vietnam's dikes
  • Operation Desert Storm (Liberation of Kuwait Jan/Feb 1991)
  • Yugoslav Wars (1991–1999)
    • NATO bombing of Republika Srpska (1995) (Operation Deliberate Force)
    • Kosovo War (1999)
      • NATO bombing of industry and other civilian infrastructure in Serbia. Examples include the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade (claimed to have been done by mistake) and the deliberate bombing of the main TV center in Belgrade.
  • Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003) invasion of Iraq.
    • Precision laser and GPS guided bombs were used extensively, not only to damage and destroy Saddam Hussein's army but also to damage infrastructure such as communications, utilities, and various government buildings. The campaign moved into asymmetric warfare once strategic targets no longer existed or were not viable targets.

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