What is Strategic bombing?
'''Strategic bombing''' is a [[military]] [[strategy]] used to destroy the [[Enemy|enemies']] [[economy|economic]] ability to fight a [[war]]. It is an attack from the air. Strategic bombing [[mission]]s usually attack targets such as [[industry|factories]], [[railroad]]s, [[oil refinery|oil refineries]] and [[city|cities]]. Missions would attack targets such as [[military base]]s, [[command and control]] facilities, [[airfield]]s, and [[ammunition]] dumps.<ref>Biddle, Tami Davis. 2004. ''Rhetoric and reality in air warfare: the evolution of British and American ideas about strategic bombing, 1914–1945''. Princeton Studies in International History and Politics.</ref><ref>Longmate, Norman 1983. ''The bombers: the RAF offensive against Germany 1939–1945''. Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-151580-7</ref> The [[United States Air Force]] (USAF) has used strategic [[bomber]]s in later conflicts. == History == Strategic bombing was an idea first tried in [[World War I]]. It was used by the German [[Luftwaffe]]. They bombed [[Antwerp]]. [[Zeppelin]]s were used to bomb [[England]]. However, the strategic bombing in [[World War II]] was on a far larger scale than anything which went before. First, In the [[Battle of Britain]] the German Air Force almost defeated Britain by attacking the [[Royal Air Force]] planes on the ground. This was partly successful, and some think it was a mistake to switch to other targets. The British had primitive [[radar]], good enough to know whereabouts each attack was going. There was time to get the fighters in the air to intercept and damage the attacks. Despairing of victory this way, the attack was switched to the cities. German bombing of [[London]] and the larger provincial cities such as [[Coventry]] (an industrial city). They used high explosives and [[incendiary]] devices to cause fires. Once the attacks on British air bases was diverted to the city targets, the [[Luftwaffe]] began to lose planes to the defences. The German air force, which had previously fought easy targets (for exampl