Scorched Earth (disambiguation)
Scorched earth is the military strategy or operational policy of destroying everything useful to the enemy in areas that cannot be defended.
Sherman's March to the Sea
By employing the scorched earth policy that ripped through Georgia, Sherman demonstrated for the first time in the modern era the power of total war in breaking an enemy's will to resist. This concept would come into full bloom during World War II when both Axis and Allied powers deliberately and indiscriminately bombed enemy and enemy-controlled cities to create terror or disrupt war production in order to win the war by any means at their disposal—including extensive incendiary raids and the dropping of two atomic bombs.