Weird Debate on Precision Bombing

While reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book, I was amused by the discussion the US and Britain had as the tide of war started to turn in favour of the Allies. The Americans offered their bombers to assist the British air raids on Germany. One section of the US air force aspired for precision bombing – bombing precise targets that would yield the maximum benefits, rather than the prevalent indiscriminate reduce-everything-t0-rubble strategy. That section of the US air force was called the Bomber Mafia, the title of the book.

 

Illogical #1: While this may sound great, both operationally and from a moral standpoint, the tech to do precision bombing did not exist! Equally relevant was that the if you intended to even try precision bombing, you needed to be able to see the target. Which meant you had to fly during the day (because radar tech was nothing like what it is today). That meant the enemy could see you and shoot at you that much more easily. All of this is why the British were contemptuous about the proposal:

“The British thought that the American Bomber Mafia was crazy. Why were they taking all the risks of flying during the day against targets too hard to hit? The British were trying to win a war, and it seemed to them the Americans were holding an undergraduate philosophy seminar.”

 

Illogical #2: When the German air force had launched its raids on London, their thinking was that by bombing the “working class neighborhoods of East London, they would break the will of the British population”. The British assessment at the time agreed – they feared that 3-5 million Londoners would flee the city, with the attendant chaos. What actually happened?

“The chaos never came… It turned out that people were a lot tougher and more resilient than anyone expected.”

And yet:

“Despite that lesson, just two years later, the Royal Air Force was proposing to do the exact same thing to the Germans.”

 

Persuasion Skills: The US President persuaded Churchill to at least let the Bomber Mafia present its case. The Americans knew the British were unlikely to be convinced. How best then to argue the case? I loved the basic line the Americans tried. It went like this:

“I’d said that if the British bombed by night and the Americans by day, bombing them thus around the clock will give the devils no rest.”

Churchill’s response?

“He said, “You have not convinced me now that you are right, but you have convinced me you should have a further opportunity to prove your case.”

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