Aerial bombing of cities
[3][4] During the Song dynasty the Fire Crow, a kite carrying incendiary powder, a fuse, and a burning stick of incense was developed as a weapon.
Giulio Gavotti dropped 1.5 kg of bombs on Ain Zara, a village 8 km west of the capital Tripoli.
[11] In the morning of 29 October 1912 at 9:30 a.m. the plane Albatros F-3 took off from an airfield near the village of Mustafa Pasha – present day Svilengrad, Bulgaria.
The bomb landed not on target but in a city street and in the process killed four civilians, including a French diplomat, and wounded several others.
[13][14] On 19 January 1915 two German Zeppelins dropped 24 fifty-kilogram (110 lb) high-explosive bombs and ineffective three-kilogram incendiaries on the English towns of Great Yarmouth, Sheringham, King's Lynn, and the surrounding villages; in all, four people were killed, 16 injured, and monetary damage was estimated at £7,740.
[18] The aerial campaign included Sir Arthur Harris, who commanded a Vickers Vernon squadron engaged in the bombing and strafing of revolting tribesmen.
In January 1920, the British launched a combined aerial and land attack against the Dhulbahante garesas, bombarding Taleeh, the capital of the revolt.
[22] In the United States during the Tulsa race massacre of May 31 – June 1, 1921, private aircraft flown by white men dropped kerosene bombs on the Greenwood neighborhood.
[29] On 26 April 1937, the German Luftwaffe (Condor Legion) bombed the Spanish city of Guernica carrying out the most high-profile aerial attack of the war.
This act caused worldwide revulsion and was the subject of a famous painting by Picasso,[30] but by the standards of bombings during World War II, casualties were fairly minor (estimates ranging from 500 to 1,500).
[35] Many others Spanish towns and cities were bombed by the German Legion Condor and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria among them Jaen, Durango, Granollers and Alicante.
The biggest aerial attack against civil population was in Cabra, a small town away from the war front, and with no strategic value, that was bombed due to an error.
After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, in conjunction with the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, began relentlessly bombing Shanghai, Beijing (Peking), Tianjin (Tientsin) and several cities on the Chinese coast from the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
The bombing campaigns on Nanjing and Canton which started in September 1937 evoked protests from the Western powers culminating in a resolution by the Far Eastern Advisory Committee of the League of Nations.
The main object seems to be to inspire terror by the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians ...[39] At the beginning of World War II, bombing of cities prior to invasion was an integral part of Nazi Germany's strategy.
[51] On the 15/16 December the RAF carried out its first area bombing attack (destroying 45% of the city of Mannheim), officially in response to the raid on Coventry.
The Allies also bombed urban areas in the other countries, including occupied France (Caen[68]) and the major industrial cities of northern Italy, like Milan and Turin.
[75] In the Asiatic-Pacific Theater, Japan continued to bomb Chinese cities and expanded its air operations towards others in Asia such as Singapore, Rangoon, and Mandalay.
The campaign began with interdiction of supply lines in rural areas of southern North Vietnam but incrementally spread northward throughout the country.
The United States government maintains that it has a policy of striking only significant combatant targets while doing all possible to avoid what it terms "collateral damage" to civilians and non-combatants during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
[96] The artillery shelling and aerial bombardment caused the deaths of estimated 50,000–200,000 Isaaq civilians, as well as the complete destruction of Somalia's second and third largest cities.
BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen, who was one of the first television reporters on the scene, was given access to the shelter and claimed that he did not find any evidence of it being used by the Iraqi military.
[108] The day after the bombing of the shelter, a Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jet fired two laser-guided missiles which were aimed at a bridge in Fallujah which was used as part of an Iraqi military supply line.
The missiles malfunctioned and struck Fallujah's largest marketplace (which was situated in a residential area), killing between 50 and 150 non-combatants and wounding many more.
After news of the mistake became public, an RAF spokesman, Group Captain David Henderson issued a statement noting that the missile had malfunctioned but admitted that the Royal Air Force had made an error.
From 2003 to 2011 and 2014 to 2018, coalition aircraft attacked Iraqi insurgent targets, including in urban locations like Najaf, Fallujah, Mosul, Basra, and Baghdad.
[130][131][132] Russia has strategically bombed the Ukrainian civilian power grid, with low or null military purpose, in order to weaken Ukraine resistance or distract it from attacking and taking back Russian occupied territories.
[citation needed] During the Israel–Hamas war, Israeli airstrikes damaged or destroyed Palestinian refugee camps, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, and other civilian infrastructure.
[137][138] A year before, on 16 June 1955, Casa Rosada, the Argentine government seat at Buenos Aires, was the target of four waves of fighter-bombers during a military uprising to overthrow Juan Perón.
[142] These restraints on aerial warfare are covered by the general laws of war, because unlike war on land and at sea – which are specifically covered by rules such as the 1907 Hague Convention and Protocol I additional to the Geneva Conventions, which contain pertinent restrictions, prohibitions and guidelines – there are no treaties specific to aerial warfare.
