= The Bombers and the Bombed =
== Allied Air War over Europe, 1940-1945 ==
=== Richard Overy, Penguin, 2014 Beav. 940.544 ===
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Anti-population and anti-factory bombing did not slow war production until late 1944.  Anti-transportation and anti-fuel-supply bombing had great effect ... after that began.

Inaccurate bombing killed half a million civilians, including many French and Dutch and Belgians in the vicinity of war factories.

 .p132 May 16, 1943 Ruhr dams:  Overy quotes Harris extensively, 1942 raids lost 2/3 water, but the dams were restored 7 months later and the "long-term damage to the industrial water supply was less than had been hoped"  Only 8 out of 13 Lancasters returned and 56 out of 113 aircrew were lost.  1294 drowned.
   .but ... how did the destruction, labor diversion, productivity reduction, etc. compare to other bombing missions, per loss of aircrew and civilian life?  A half year of lost productivity in the middle of a war seems like a lot.  
 .p133 May/June 1943 Barmen/Wuppertal raid by 719/630 bombers, 66 aircraft lost, 80%/94% of cities burned, 3,400/1,800 killed.  So this is better?
 .p213 1945 Yalta, bomb line to protect Soviet advance, Dresden bombing was allowed.  Feb 13 1945, 796 Lancasters, 75,000 homes destroyed, 25,000 dead.

 .p418 Governments in exile in London protest civilian casualties.   High altitude bombing inaccurate, killed more civilians than factories.

Overall message: Aerial bombing is inaccurate and less effective than claimed.  Duh.