Lecture 3 Notes: Strategic Bombing

STRATEGIC BOMBING Begin with Four Questions: 1. What is the Innovation? • Is it technology? Long Range Bombers? • Is it a set of targets? Transportation? Industry? The civilians? The leadership? • Is it doctrine? A way of fighting? • Is it just a false promise? The bloodless war? 2. Why has it been practiced by very few nations? • Where is the French Strategic Bombing Corps? • Why didn’t the “Amerika” Bomber bomb America? • Is strategic bombing cheap or expensive compared to conventional forces? What about geography? 3. Has it worked? • How effective was it WWII? • What about Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War? • What is its value? AF independence? Is it moral? 1 4. What is the Strategic Bombing future? • Precision non-nuclear---but what are the centers of gravity? • Non-lethal, information war, the Gas of Peace? • Can nuclear weapons be used? • Aren’t we driven to preemption? Strategic (Bombing) offers the ability to gain victory in war by applying direct pressure against the enemy’s vital center. But what killed targets unravel a government? A nation? A movement? Born with airplanes and the First World War Voices from the Deep Blue: • Guilio Douhet 1865-1930 1. No distinction between combatants and non-combatants 2. No successful offensive by surface forces 3. No defense against air attack 4. Hit first and harder 5. Need a separate strategic force • General Billy Mitchell 1879-1936 Need for centralization • Alexander de Seversky 1894-1974 Independent USAF 2 First World War 65 million soldiers mobilized 9 million killed 22 million wounded The promise of Airpower had some obvious appeal > Germans staged 100 raids (half Zepplin, half bombers ) Killed less than 1000 (Giant nearly size and capacity of B-17; 11 crew) > British organize retaliatory raids –not so deep but kill about same. Raids not effective but do cause panic and led to immediate creation of Royal Air Force. Plans for deeper, bigger raids. Second World War AF Corps sets Tactical School which develops doctrine: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Air power decisive arm and strategic bombing its dominant form. Most effective when directed at economy, not population. Must bomb key industries Need for accuracy High speed, high altitude bombers don’t need fighters Force the technology range speed altitude payloads accuracy defensive armament B-17 B36/47 B-52 B-58 B-70 30,000 ft 40,000 47,000 50,000 60-75,000 3 AWPD-1 General Hal George Calls for 251 Groups Acquired 243 Groups 60 B-29 Groups/ planned 64 US built 300,000 aircraft---about 35,000 bombers Europe US/UK Complementary, not Combined Strategy Casablanca Conference calls for combined UK does night bombing forced out of unescorted daylight raids 1941 does night firebombing –dehousing campaign Hamburg July 1943---kills 40,000 lost battle of Berlin Nov 1943- March 44 lost 1000 bombers US does daylight unescorted bombing beginning 1943 Schweinfurt Oct 43 lost 60 bombers/600 airmen –last time without fighter escorts US beginning in February 1944 brings in escorts, attacks aircraft factories (Big Week---cuts 2500 aircraft from German inventory---escorts knock down German fights (533 in one month) US said it could be precise (couldn’t) but solved the air defense problem UK had to bomb at night because it couldn’t solve air defense, but got to be fairly precise through radar and their bombers carried big loads Skies cleared by US so British bombers could get through Japan US fire bombed---had to fight our way across Pacific; when we arrived had surplus of resources; High winds over Japan and very dispersed industry made accurate bombing unlikely; Japanese cities wooden construction; competitive strategy. Racist? The war in Pacific was worse than Western front: No Japanese unit larger than a company surrendered>Where were the US Japanese POW camps. 4 Cost of Strategic Bombing UK Bomber Command lost: 8, 300 bombers suffered 64,000 casualties bombing was about one third of British war effort US 8th and 15th Air Forces lost 8,000 bombers, 4,000 fighters 73, 000 casualties, 29,000 dead thousands more died in training accidents Marines lost 20,000 in entire war Normandy cost 16,000 US lives about a quarter of US war effort Germany suffered 600-900,000 civilian dead France lost 50-60,000 civilians UK lost 60,000 civilians in German bombing of Britain Soviets---Stalin killed off proponents; Red Army dominant Luftwaffe---Advocate died, hung up on dive bombers, aircraft construction bottlenecks, built only 1000 bombers (short range; low capacity) French---No independent units; strategy was to attack mobilization areas Fight over interpretation ---US Bombing Survey/ creation of USAF 5 Cold War and Beyond A bomb solves accuracy problem US Strategy? Preemption? Massive bomber force –2,000 B-47s 800 B-52s Ballistic Missiles kill bombers Korea—few targets, switch to cities but bombers (B-29s and 50s) vulnerable. Vietnam---few targets, B-52s vulnerable, strategic campaign fought with fighterbombers; Rolling Thunder: Linebacker I and Linebacker II Lost 5-7,000 fighter aircraft; 7,000 helicopters; 12 B-52s Post-Modern War We can’t: lose our own pilots kill enemy civilians hit vital infra-structure---dams, food system, electrical system Precision Weapons---the silver bullet But what is use of strategic bombing ---Shock and Awe didn’t work Decapitation didn’t work? Deterrence? Future of the U S Air Force • • • Precision kills numbers UAVs can do some of the jobs Missiles with conventional warheads do global strike Air Combat Control Center ---manage the fight 6