![]() When Mussolini's warplanes struck the capital city, causing many civilian casualties, the world again condemned the slaughter of innocent people. In 1936, Italian dictator Mussolini ordered an attack on the largely defenseless east African country of Ethiopia. The outrage did not stop Japan from bombing civilian areas of other Chinese cities. In 1932, Japanese warplanes bombed a worker district in Shanghai, China, an incident that produced worldwide outrage. In the years leading up to World War II, Japan became the first power to attack civilians from the air. But the conference broke up before approving a final agreement. At the Geneva Disarmament Conference of 1932, most of the world's powers agreed that air attacks on civilians violated the laws of war. or of injuring noncombatants." The participating governments, however, never ratified these rules, so they were not legally binding. One article prohibited bombing from the air "for the purpose of terrorizing the civilian population. In 1923, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States agreed to a set of rules for air warfare. He predicted that they would become quickly demoralized by such bombing and would force their leaders to surrender.ĭespite the theories of Douhet, most at this time felt that bombing civilians was uncivilized and should be prohibited. An influential Italian military writer, General Giulio Douhet, actually argued for the sustained bombing of civilians. Throughout the war, zeppelin and airplane attacks on English and German cities killed almost 2,000 civilians.Īfter World War I, European and American military strategists debated what would happen if civilians became the main targets of air-bombing attacks. In 1915, the first-reported victim was an English child killed by a bomb dropped from a German zeppelin (an airship more rigid and larger than a blimp). World War I saw the first civilian casualties from air bombing. European powers agreed at The Hague (a Dutch city) to prohibit dropping explosives "from balloons or by other new methods of a similar nature." The Hague Convention of 1907 went further by banning bombardments "by whatever means" on "undefended" towns. In this new "total war," military strategists purposely tried to destroy entire cities and their civilian populations.Īttempts to control warfare from the air occurred as early as 1899. The painting, which he titled "Guernica," became an icon for the terror experienced by civilians in war.īut the attack on Guernica turned out to be only a preview of a new type of war. The intentional slaughter of innocent people so enraged Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist, that he immediately went to work on a painting based on the bombing attack. For the first time in history, bombing from the air had destroyed an entire town. About 1,000 civilians were slaughtered during the three-hour assault.Īccounts of the attack on Guernica in French newspapers shocked the world. A third wave of fighter planes then machine-gunned terrified men, women, and children as they ran for their lives. ![]() People were blown up in their houses, crushed by collapsing structures, and set afire in the streets. Legs, arms, heads, and bits and pieces flying everywhere.Īnother wave of heavy bombers followed, destroying most of Guernica's buildings, even a church and hospital. ![]() They were lifted high into the air, maybe 20 feet or so, and they started to break up. An eyewitness described what happened:Ī group of women and children. A squadron of experimental aircraft dropped the first bombs on the plaza in front of the railroad station filled with war refugees. They aimed their explosive and incendiary (fire) bombs into the center of the town. In the assault on Guernica, German pilots left a small munitions factory and other possible military targets untouched. ![]()
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