Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) Analysis

Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) AnalysisThe Anglo-American eitheriance during World War II (WWII) launched a series of strategic battery campaigns against the Germans in what is now known as the Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO). The soundness of the CBO is and has always been a controversial one, as some schools of thought see it as being just, and had as its primary objective the progressive terminal and dislocation of the German host, industrial and sparing system. Thus, undermining the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance was fatally weakened1. However, other schools argue the aim of the CBO should be unambiguously express as the destruction of German cities, the killing of German workers, and the disruption of civilized life throughout Germany2. These bombardment campaigns on German cities like Dresden, which led to reckon mass killings or murder of civilians on a large scale by the CBO, is seen as unjust. The bombing of the Ger man city of Dresden depart be utilize as a case study to give a balanced analysis of the CBO in this essay as it is the most controversial.This essay will probe both schools of thought, taking into consideration if the CBO met the elements of justice in war -Jus in Bello. Analysing the involvement of the Anglo-American alliance in the CBO and the bombing of Dresden during WWII by the prescripts of Jus in Bello military necessity, proportionality, contrast and humanity this essay will determine that the CBO against Germany was just. Jus in Bello has been used as criteria to analyse and determine the justness of CBO against due to the incident that the CBO was an act in the war, which has to be analysed in order to determine if the act of the CBO met the legal and ethical justness.The CBOs objective to flak catcher the city of Dresdens industrial and economic system was a legitimate military necessity. The doctrine of military necessity, states an attack or action must be int ended to help in the defeat of the enemy it must be an attack on a legitimate military objective3. tone at the CBO attack of Dresden from this perspective, it was a legitimate military necessity because the bombing of the industrial centres and other targets of the economic system was crucial for the CBO in order to belatedly down the German war machine. The concept is known as the Industrial Web hypothesis, which was developed by Sir Hugh Trenchard, Colonel Billy Mitchell and General Giulio Douhet. Boog et. al support this principle of military necessity as they argue that the Germans could silk hat be eliminated by destroying her armaments industry and the result of that will be breaking the civilian populations will to resist4.However, critiques of the principle of military necessity have debated on its controversy, and a grey argona on their minds is that of the justness of the CBO on Dresden. Their argument is that the attack on Dresden might be military necessity, but why was it ok for the CBO to kill non-combatants also their argument is based on the fact that Dresden wasnt of any importance to the Germans.Michael Walzer gives a counter argument to this school of thought when he argues that military necessity supersedes the killing of civilians in a supreme emergency, and he uses Nazi Germany in WWII as an example of supreme emergency for Great Britain5. He goes on gain to state thatif the situation is grave enough to absolve killing or putting at risk ones own citizens to accomplish military objectives, then military necessity may also justify the akin risk to other non-friendly non-combatants6.Further to that, the arguments of the critiques on the less importance of Dresden to the Germans at the time of the CBO are incorrect. The veracity of this argument is seen in the RAFs briefing notes to its Squadrons which attacked DresdenDresden has developed into an industrial city of first-class importance its multiplicity of telephones and rail facili ties is of major value for controlling the defence of that part of the front now threatened. The intentions of the attack are to hit the enemy where he will feel it most, behind an already partially collapsed front7These justifies of the attack on Dresden, on the creation of military necessity, which, resulted in production in industries stopping. The bombing of Dresden was therefore not wanton but was justified by military necessity and it was also aiming at civilian morale8, in order to slow down the German war machine.Jus in Bellos principle of proportionality is an area of contention used by critiques to analyse the unjustness of the CBO. symmetry means avoiding needless destruction to achieve justified ends9. One school of thought argues that the firebombing in Dresden caused more destruction than was necessary. John V. Denson, in his book, Costs of War, supports this theoryit seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the s ake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed.The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing. I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives. rather than on absolute acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive10.Other schools have a different perception of what is proportional and hold that the CBO was proportional with the destruction of civilian targets in Dresden. remainder is a hard criterion to apply, as there is no ready way to establish an independent or stable view of values against which the destruction of war is to be measured11. The use of the firebombing in Dresden was proportional, despite the argument that sees it as not fulfilling Jus in Bello principle of proportionality. Michael Walzer, in his book supports the justness on the basis of proportionality when he saysit would be difficult to condemn soldiers for anything they did in the course of a battle o r a war that they honestly believed, and had good priming to believe, was necessary, or important, or simply useful in determining the outcome12.The justness of this principle is the lack of technology at the time of the attack on Dresden, which was the best approach to be utilised at the time. Precision bombing had been used prior to that and it was impracticable, thus, area bombing had to be the means employed13. Moreover, with the bombing of Dresden, the Germans supplies of liquid fuels were eliminated with a far smaller cost in causality than would have been incurred had there been no resort to the bombing and destruction of the industrial capacity14.Discrimination is another principle which has been used in this essay to analyse how just the CBO on Germany in WWII was. Discrimination within Jus in Bello means avoiding direct and intentional harm to non-combatants15. Looking at the CBO based on this, it was a just act, as it did not set out with the intention of attacking and k illing civilians. A.C. Grayling in his book argues that there is no such thing as putting non-combatants to the sword during the course of sacking their towns, as this is not classed as murder for this is no less than their soldiers would do if matters were the other way round and they were sacking your town instead16.However, some school of thoughts hold that the attack on Dresden was a deliberate bombing of the civilian population, thus, makes the CBO unjust. They further support their argument that attacks on civilian populations have often happened in wars throughout history, but this fact does not amount to a justification of the suffice moreover, there are no acceptable circumstances in which killing civilians is allowed17.This essay argues in line with Douhet, an air power theorist that war as a national phenomenon, involves the totality of a nations activities and forces, and no longer organised forces alone this is why the distinction between combatants and non-combatants are superseded18 . The CBO, therefore, was against Germany and not the Nazi government, thus, all the Germans are classed as combatants. Thus, the principle of discrimination was respected and followed, as the CBOs main aim was to attack the enemys industry, and civilian casualties were an unavoidable side-effect19 as was the case in Dresden.Jus in Bello principle of humanity, also shows how just the CBO against the Germans in WWII was. Humanity is defined as regulating the conduct of those involved in fighting as well as safeguarding human life and curbing the level of violence20. Critiques argue that the CBO was in pitying especially with the firebombing which caused untold pain and suffering to the populationit was a war of despair and mounting torments there were no signs that the bombings would lead to a collapse. It was incomprehensible how people struggled on.21They also hold that the wholesale destruction of German cities, Dresden foremost among them, could have been averte d, even if attacks on urban rail centres had continued22.The above argument is flawed given that the degree of devastation suffered by the people of Dresden in the firestorm was an unfortunate weather condition, as paramount wind helped, and did much of the damage and caused many of the deaths, and was not intended by the CBO, who, at the request of the Russians forces, had seen Dresden as an important choke-point for supplies and troops moving23. Further to that, the CBO was just, as it was humane as it shortened the war and prevented a lot more death and loses on both sides. Hasting in his book sums this humanity point when he stateswe just wanted to get it over with if we could bring the end closer by dropping bombs on Germany that was fine by us24.In conclusion, the CBO was just, despite the controversies surrounding the bombing of Dresden, which others might see as an unjust and legally wrong act of the CBO which goes against Jus in Bello principle of proportionality. However, the principle of military necessity outweighs this school of thought as the German armament production figures continued to rise through much of 1944, and these would undoubtedly have been very much higher but for the effects of the bombing on both industry and workforce25. Thus, the CBO was a necessary and ethically just act, and attacks on industrial targets like supplies of fuel, which resorted to the bombing of industrial capacity26 in order to slow down the Germans fighting edge.ReferencesArchives, The National Archives. The Rise and Fall of the German job Force 1933-45. Kew, Richmond, Surrey United Kingdom, 2008.Bess, Michael. Choices Under Fire Moral Dimensions of World War II. Knopf Doubleday produce Group, 2008.Biddle, Tami Davis. Rhetoric and REality in Air Warfare. New Jersy Princeton University Press, 2002.Charles Guthrie, Michael Quinlan. Just War The Just War Tradition morals in Modern Warfare. capital of the United Kingdom, New York and Berlin Bloomsbury Publishin g, 2007.Christopher, Paul. The Ethics of War Peace. Uppper Saddle River, New Jersey Pearson Education, Inc., 2004.Denson, John V. The Cost of War Americas Pyrrhic Victories. New Brunswick, New Jersey Transaction Publisher, 1997.Grayling, A C. Among the Dead Cities. London Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2006.Green, Leslie C. The Contemporary Law of Armed Conflict. Manchester, Canada Manchester University Press, 2008.Hastings, Max. Armageddon The Battle for Germany 1944-45. Chatham, Kent Mackays of Chatham plc, 2004.Hippler, Thomas. Bombing the People Giulio Douhet and the Foundations of Air-Power Strategy, 1884-1939. Cambridge Cambridge Univeristy Press, 2013.Horst Boog, Gerhard Krebs, Detlef Vogel. Germany and the Second World War, Volume VII. Oxford Clarendon Press, 2006.Johnson, James Turner. Morality and Contemporary Warfare. Binghamton, New York Yale University Press, 1999.Overy, Richard J. The Air War, 1939-1945. New York Stein and Day, 1980.Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars. New York A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2000.1 Biddle, (2002), p.2152 Denson, (1997) p.3523 Walzer, (2000), p.1444 Boog et. al, (2006), p.3655 Christopher, (2004), p.1636 id.7 Hastings, (2004), p.3878 Grayling, (2006), p. 2029 Johnson, (1999), p3610 Denson, (1997), p.35211 Walzer, (2000), p.12912 id.13 Grayling, (2006), p. 22714 The National Archives (2008) p.29815 Johnson, (1999), p3616 Grayling, (2006), p.417 ibid., (2006), p.418 Hipper, (2013), p.17019 Grayling, (2006), p.21620 Green, (2008), p.1721 Hastings, (2004), p.37622 Ibid. p. 35523 Grayling, (2006), p.22424 Hastings, (2004), p. 37025 Ibid.37826 The National Archives, (2008), p.298