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Germany Vs Usaaf Case Study

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During the Second World War, the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) and Royal Air Force (RAF) adopted two different strategic attack missions against Germany. While USAAF preferred daylight “precision targeting” attacks, RAF preferred night “area bombing” missions. Although both sides shared same goals, their interpretation about strategic effects of airpower was different. For better understanding these differences, this paper first will analyze strategic applications of USAAF and RAF, and then will clarify why USAAF’s approach was more effective way of utilizing airpower as an instrument of national policy.
Airpower is the most powerful weapon in terms of destruction in modern warfare. Although airpower is a very powerful weapon, it has been always …show more content…

These strategists’ thought shaped British aerial warfare policy. For example, Douhet says, “bombing objectives should always be large; small targets are unimportant and do not merit our attention here.” Also, Douhet model addresses aerial punishment to inflict considerable pain on enemy civilians to shatter their morale. RAF put his model into practice during WWII. In that case, British focused on morale of German workers. The British bombing campaign was chiefly waged by night by large numbers of heavy bombers. British knew that to influence into deep Germany territory was tough and daylight precision bombing had also much more difficulties. In addition, Royal Air Force’s accuracy in bombing was very low during the interwar period. For instance, in March 1932, only half of the Royal Air Force bombs hit the right target. In that respect, British continued in night attacks and the majority of the attacks on cities. British thought was that general area offensive would affect considerably war effort. But, there was not agreement in royal air force about targeting priority. British officials criticized due to negative moral effects, and political risks. While British air staff emphasized loyalty and mutual respect, chief of bomber point out if the Germans were asked today oil plant or cities they would reply bomb anything you fancy expect cities. British air staff concerned

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