E-raamat: German Historians and the Bombing of German Cities: The Contested Air War

Strategic bombardments, either aimed explicitly at civilians or deployed in circumstances where extensive civilian deaths are written off as collateral damage or accidental, are becoming increasingly common. This book shows how European colonial powers, notably Britain, initiated aerial bombardment of civilians after World War I, and during World War II. In the 1920s, the RAF bombed Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Somaliland, Transjordan, Iraq, South West Africa, India and Burma, to terrify the colonies into submission. Similarly, the French bombed Morocco and Syria, the Italians bombed Libya, Ethiopia and Spain, and the USA bombed Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and China. In the Korean War, US and British forces killed 20% of Korea's people.
As one of the major symbols of German suffering, the Allied bombing left a strong imprint on German society. To a much wider extent than is often claimed, the bombings became part of German debates. In both the GDR and the Federal Republic before and after 1990, the air war became a topic of public and political interest as well as the subject of many historical accounts. Like many sensitive topics, the moral and historical interpretation of the Allied bombings was always fundamentally contested. Bas von Benda-Beckmann analyzes the German historiography of the Allied bombings since 1945. He explores how German historical accounts reflected debates on post-war German identity, and whether the history of the air war formed a "counter-narrative" against the idea that the Germans as a collective were guilty of the Nazi crimes.

Today, strategic aerial bombardments of urban areas that harm civilians, at times intentionally, are becoming increasingly common in global conflicts. This book reveals the history of these tactics as employed by nations that initiated aerial bombardments of civilians after World War I and during World War II.

As one of the major symbols of German suffering, the Allied bombing left a strong imprint on German society. Bas von Benda-Beckmann explores how German historical accounts reflected debates on post-war identity and looks at whether the history of the air war forms a counter-narrative against the idea of German collective guilt. Provocative and unflinching, this study offers a valuable contribution to German historiography.