[tcolvin]

I'm sorry, Bruce, but I am obviously failing to engage fully in your concern.

To my view Lübeck's status can only be said to be singular because of its being the first British attempt at town destruction to break morale and make Germans cry Uncle. Dresden was perhaps the last in the series which ended after Churchill's belated change of heart.

To take your phrase and finish it.

Lübeck was an ineligible target because:
1. it was chosen to fulfill the February 15, 1942 directive from the Air Staff that “the primary object of your operations should now be focused on the morale of the enemy civil population, and in particular of the industrial workers”. The 1922 Hague Conference proposed; “In cases where the objectives specified in paragraph 2 (Aerial bombardment is legitimate only when directed at a military objective) are so situated that they cannot be bombarded without the indiscriminate bombardment of the civilian population, the aircraft must abstain from bombardment”. The military objectives specified by Harris were the port where iron ore was trans-shipped, and the U-boat yard or training station. But these were not targetted. The Innenstadt was targetted. The aircraft therefore had to abstain from bombardment, but did not and committed a crime.
2.it was a flammable mediaeval city vulnerable to incendiaries. The Air Staff chose Lübeck as an experiment. But Article XXIV, Para 1 of the 1922 Hague Conference, stated that, “Aerial bombardment is legitimate only when directed at a military objective”. No military objective was targetted.
3. Harris believed unshakably “that war was to be won by attacking the morale of an enemy population until its will to resist was broken”, (Grayling 'Among the Dead Cities', page 120). This contravened Article XXII of the 1922 Hague Conference; “Aerial bombardment for the purpose of terrorising the civilian population, of destroying or damaging private property not of a military character, is prohibited".

Tony