BOMBING WAS DECISIVE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21922, 17 January 1946, Page 2

BOMBING WAS DECISIVE

CIVILIAN BOARD’S REPORT Allied strategic bombing of Germany was the decisive factor in the European war, and “its imprint on the German nation will be lasting ’ a civilian survey board has reported in the United States, according to the New York Herald-Tribune. The board was assigned more than a year ago by the United States War Department to assess the strategic bombing of Germany, which, it reports, cost the Germans 300,000 civilians dead, 780,000 wounded and 7,500,000 homeless. The increasing pressure of the air assault on the German economy, the report states, brought the Nazis to a point where the war would have ended in a few months without actual invasion of Germany proper. During the European war the Allies loosed nearly 2,700,000 tons of bombs, flew more than 1,440,000 bomber sorties and 2,638,000 fighter sorties. A total oi 79,265 Americans and 79,281 British were lost in the air war. The United States lost more than 18,000 planes and the British 22,000. The report adds that only 20 per cent of bombs aimed at precision targets fell within the target area.