The Impact Of The Allied Strategic Bombing Of Germany

The Allied strategic bombing of Germany was very significant in the context of the war but did not have a large effect in the long term. In this essay I will be looking at the considerable effects of bombing on the German people, the German economy and the Eastern front in the short term. I will also be looking at the lack of long term impact on these areas and on warfare.
Bombing had a huge effect on the people of Germany during World War Two as it significantly affected a large number of people. One of the main objectives of bombing was to crush opposition morale to cause problems for the Nazis and ideally a rebellion. Because of this many cities were heavily bombed with the target of attacking civilians, rather than just economic targets, with
the largest example of this being the bombing of Hamburg on 24th to 29th July 1943. The fires lasted over two days and overwhelmed the city’s emergency response. Hamburg was largely destroyed and 40,000 civilians were killed with another one million made homeless. These attacks were frequent; Dresden was also attacked in this way killing 25,000 people in February 1945. Over the course of the war Allied bombing killed 500,000 German civilians and a further six million were forced to evacuate their cities.
This shows how significant bombing was as it affected so many people so deeply as it changed the lives of millions of civilians. Although the morale of the German people was not affected enough by bombing to cause a large scale rebellion it certainly had a big impact. Due to its devastating and unstoppable appearance, many people were severely affected by it, most importantly workers. In 1944 absenteeism in the Ford plant in Cologne soared to 25% due to the disruption of transport and the fear caused by bombing. Additionally when German civilians were asked after the war what the hardest thing for them had been during the war, 91% said bombing. These points show how significant bombing was as it affected, to some degree, almost everyone in Germany. However the bombing campaign of Germany had a relatively small long term effect on the people, compared to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. While, due to radiation, the bombing of Japan still has effects today in regards to serious health problems, the bombing of Germany in World War Two does not have an impact on the German people today, nor
has it since just a short time after the war. This all shows that the bombing campaign against Germany was very significant for the German people at the time as it deeply affected many people including workers which also hurt the German economy, although it did not have a long-lasting effect on them due to the nature of the bombs used and the fact that it has no effect today.