The Bombing of Germany

America entered WWII's air war in Europe as an agent of righteousness with the intent not only to win the war but also to assert a moral stand. One aspect was the treatment of civilians: America was not planning to fight by harming non-combatants, thus challenging the theory and practices developed by its principal ally, Great Britain. The British adopted the bombing of German cities as their primary war strategy while American policy was geared to winning a war by destroying the enemy's fighting ability, rendering civilian populations irrelevant and therefore safe. Yet World War II turned out to be the first truly total war in which whole societies were pitted against each other with the distinction between combatant and civilian blurred. And Germany, a particularly nasty and amoral enemy, bent on conquest, challenged the American concept of civilised warfare.