Bombardment

A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire or by dropping bombs from aircraft on fortifications, combatants, or cities and buildings.

Prior to World War I, the term was only applied to the bombardment of defenseless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, etc.

It was only loosely employed to describe artillery attacks upon forts or fortified positions in preparation for assaults by infantry.

In its old strict sense, the term was only applied to the bombardment of defenseless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, etc., by an assailant with the object of disheartening his opponent, and specially to force the civilian population and authorities of a besieged place to persuade their military commander to capitulate before the actual defenses of the place have been reduced to impotence.

Bombardments are, however, frequently resorted to in order to test the temper of the garrison and the civilian population, a notable instance being the Siege of Strasbourg in 1870.