[Jim Oxley]

There is indeed a very misguided belief that the 8th AF (and 15th for that matter) only attacked military targets and did not target, or bomb, cities.

It is of course far from the truth.

That's not to say that there was not a very basic divergence by RAF Bomber Command and the USAAF on strategic bombing at the very highest level. There was. It part it was due to the fact that Britain had had it's cities bombed, America had not. There was definitely a revenge element involved on the part of the political leaders of Britain, from Churchill down. And it should be noted that the policy of night bombing of Cities was well in force before Harris came to control Bomber Command.

The difference in bombing philosphy had much to do with the aircraft each country fielded. Britain found out very early in the war that it's bombers could not survive in the air against the modern fighters of the Luftwaffe. And so switched to night bombing - as did the Luftwaffe when faced with equally strong opponents in the BoB.

The USAAF believed totally in the powerfully armoured bomber, and that it could penetrate successfully in daylight. And because it could bomb in daylight the 8th had the luxury (if you like) of selecting specifc military targets. Yet still they managed to not only miss their targets, and bomb cities, they even on occasion bombed the wrong country!

Mind you Bomber Command also were guilty of this on several occasions.

Aerial bombing is an emotive subject, let alone whether day or night bombing was preferable. Any judgements must be made based on the moral view that applied in the 40's, not now.

The same applies to the USAAF's indiscriminate fire bombing of Japanese cities in late '44 and '45.

There are a number of very fine books on the subject, however most deal in isolation with either Bomber Command or the 8th Air Force. One excellent book that has recently come out deals with the bombing campaign against Germany as a whole, and draws many interesting findings on the bombing campaign based on the combined effects by both Britain and America.

I thoroughly recommend it, it's title is "The Bomber War, The Allied Air Offensive Against Nazi Germany", by Robin Neillands. ISBN 1-58567-457-5