Bombardment of civilians in undefended cities far away from the front lines is an atrocity, yet it was common practice during World War II. Read here about the history, conduct, and consequences of this war crime, as well as the various attempts to protect the civilian population from death falling from the skies.
By Mark Weber ∙ May 1, 1997
A long-suppressed report written in June 1945 by the US Army’s Chemical Warfare Service shows that American military leaders made plans for a massive preemptive poison gas attack to accompany an invasion of Japan. The 30-page document designated “gas attack zones” on detailed maps of Tokyo and other major Japanese cities. Army planners selected 50…
By Gregory P. Pavlik ∙ September 1, 1995
Gregory P. Pavlik wrote this essay as an editor for The Freeman, published monthly by the Foundation for Economic Education (30 S. Broadway, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533). It is reprinted from the September 1995 issue. Pavlik is also editor of the 1995 work, Forgotten Lessons: Selected Essays of John T. Flynn. The first use of an…
By Nicholas Strakon ∙ April 1, 1995
Nicholas Strakon is the pen name of the editor of Dispatches from The Last Ditch, a newsletter. (P.O. Box 224, Roanoke, IN 46783. $42 for twelve issues. Free sample available on request.) “Who Bombs Children?” and “The Bombardier's Song” are reprinted from the April-May 1995 issue. After the Oklahoma City bombing, ordinary Americans all over…
By Thomas Jackson ∙ April 1, 1990
Why I Survived the A-Bomb by Akira Kohchi. Costa Mesa, CA: Institute for Historical Review, 1989, hardbound, 230 pages, photographs, $19.95, ISBN 0-939484-31-5. Why I Survived the A-Bomb is a moving memoir of Akira Kohchi's boyhood in war-time Hiroshima, and of the city's devastation on August 6, 1945. The heart of the book is Mr….
By Siegfried Verbeke ∙ November 12, 2012
While I was visiting the revisionist activist, researcher and publisher Vincent Reynouard in France, I used the opportunity to visit Utah and Omaha Beach, especially the German “Batterie de Crisbecq/Marcouf.” Even 5 days after the landing of the Americans in 1944, the battery was still operational, causing the Americans a lot of problems. One can…
By Mark Weber ∙ December 1, 1985
In a secret wartime memorandum recently made public, Winston Churchill told his advisers that he wanted to “drench” Germany with poison gas. Churchill's July 1944 memo to his chief of staff Gen. Hastings Ismay was reproduced in the August-September 1985 issue of American Heritage magazine. “I you to think very seriously over this question of…
By Charles Lutton ∙ December 1, 1984
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley “Bomber” Harris died on 5 April of this year, at the age of 91. As Air Officer Commanding in Chief Bomber Command from February 1942 until the end of the Second World War, he was in charge of Britain’s massive “area bombing” campaign directed against German cities. At least half a…
By Charles Lutton ∙ July 1, 1985
Dresden 1945: The Devil's Tinderbox by Alexander McKee. New York: E.P. Duffon, Inc., 1982, 1984, with maps, photographs, index, $18.95, ISBN 0-525-24262-7. The destruction of the virtually undefended German city of Dresden by bombers of the Royal Air Force and U.S. Army Air Force, in mid-February, 1945, remains one of the most controversial episodes of…
By Andreas R. Wesserle ∙ December 1, 1981
16 March 1981 PBS Television“The Blitz” Sirs: Rarely have I come across a television broadcast more vicious in intent and more warped in execution than your recent “Blitz on Britain.” As a survivor of the mass air raid executed against my native city of Prague, Bohemia, on the Christian Holy Day of Palm Sunday, 1945,…
By Philip Beck ∙ December 1, 1981
In August 1944 the historic walled city of Saint Malo, the brightest jewel of the Emerald Coast of Brittany, France, was almost totally destroyed by fire. This should not have happened. If the attacking U.S. forces had not believed a false report that there were thousands of Germans within the city it might have been…
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