De-Housing!

This is coolbert:

That strategic allied bombing offensive of the Second World War [WW2], controversial as it has become in hindsight, thought to have been NOT as effective as desired.

Area bombardment of the Royal Air Force [RAF], the obliteration by firestorm of significant portions of German cities, the intent with almost a malicious intent to deprive the German worker housing. De-housing  disruptive to the industrial output and war munitions production vital to the Nazi war effort.

"Lord Cherwell's [Professor Frederick Lindemann] . . advocated attacking major industrial centers in order to destroy as many homes and houses as possible (de-housing). Working-class housing areas were to be targeted because they had a higher density and firestorms were more likely. This would displace the German workforce and disrupt and reduce their ability to work."

Indeed, such was the effort to destroy housing and the quarters of the German worker, special protocols and a malevolently wicked methodology was worked out to exacerbate the bombing, create conditions most conductive to the firestorm, escalating destruction to an unprecedented scale!!

"The bombers tried out what became the standard pattern for attacking a city: flares were dropped to mark the target, then 4,000 pound high-explosive 'cookies' were used to blast open doors and windows, accompanied by incendiaries to create huge fires."

De-housing without killing the workers evidently an effective technique, German workers, presumably highly skilled and important to industry, fleeing the cities for the countryside and relative safety in numbers!!

From the book: "The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War By Andrew Roberts"

"De-housing certainly had an effect on Germany's industrial production because, as one study has concluded in many cases after a raid workers did not turn up for work as they were either looking after their families, or physically could not reach their workplaces. many left the devastated city for the countryside where food was more available and stayed with relatives."

"In the BMW factory in Munich, for example, some 20 % of the workforce were absent in the summer of 1944, and in the same years absenteeism rose to 25 % in the Ford plant in Cologne and the Ruhr."

One person instrumental in developing the various techniques for night-time area bombing the much decorated and very brave RAF pilot and commander Leonard Cheshire VC. Leonard post-war noted for his philanthropic and charitable endeavors, Cheshire VOTED ONE OF THE FIFTY MOST ADMIRED ENGLISH OF ALL TIME!!

"Leonard Cheshire VC is one of the most outstanding of all RAF Bomber Pilots. He devised the master bomber technique - flying low over the target marking with flares, allowing the main force to pinpoint the target in the darkness."

That work force reduction of skilled labor being reduced by such percentages [20 % % 25 %] undoubtedly very damaging to war production! Factories even if unscathed not able to function as normal your laborers having taken "to their heels" and with good reason.

The Second World War [WW2] was the first instance of where civilian casualties outnumbered the number of battlefield dead and this being so in a conscious and overt effort carefully and coolly calculated !

The "Storm of War" is better entitled "The Fire-storm of War"?

coolbert.