Bombing
From Wikinfo
Although a bomb may be delivered by being thrown or may be concealed in a car or truck or by the roadside, the usual method of delivering bombs to their target is by dropping them from an airplane. Modern bombs, precision-guided munition, may be guided after they leave an airplane by remote control or (in the case of atomic weapons) mounted on a guided missile.
Bombing may be directed at military targets such as ships or armament factories or at civilian targets such as office buildings or cities. Bombing of particular targets such as tanks is called tactical bombing; bombing of areas such as military bases or cities is called strategic bombing. Strategic bombing of civilian targets is controversial and considered a war crime by some and a defining characteristic of terrorism by others, see terror bombing. Area or carpet bombing of cities using Incendiary bombs may result in a firestorm and extensive casualties especially when it is windy.
Bombing of civilian targets
During the Second World War there was some bombing of civilian targets, first, during the German invasion of Poland in 1939, then following The Blitz directed at London and other British cities, by the British bombing of German cities such as Dresden. In the Pacific War U.S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific towards the end of the war, after air defense over Japanese cities became weak, engaged in extensive bombing of Japanese cities such as Tokyo. This campaign culminated in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic weapons at the end of the war. Because of the huge size of the blast, most bombing using hydrogen bombs would necessarily result in massive civilian casualties both from the initial blast and subsequent nuclear fallout.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Bombing" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
