From: Andrew Clough (aclough@mit.edu)
Date: Sun Nov 25 2001 - 18:57:21 MST
>
>One should not forget that the German Buzz-bombing of London
>was intended for civilians. I'd view the British bombing of
>Hamburg as tit-for-tat. (Whether it was in violation of the
>Geneva convention remains an open question).
Actually its more complicated than that. I forget exactly when the German
bombing of Britain began, but at first they targeted British industry,
instead of bombing indiscriminantly. Unfortunately for all concerned, some
of the German bombs went off target, and were assumed to be an
escalation. The Brits responded by bombing Berlin, the Germans responded,
and we all know how it turned out. So, though the Germans started the
bombing of cities, both sides believed that they were responding to
escalation when they started bombing purely civilian targets. Such are the
tragedies of war. Oh, this information comes from "Rise and Fall of the
Third Reich," which I read last spring, but don't currently have a copy
of. If someone could be so kind as to fill in dates I'd be glad.
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