ABSTRACT
In 1939, after Hitler’s occupation of Poland, Britain and France declared war on
Germany, and the Second World War opened to a new type of air war, despite
pleas from President Roosevelt for restraint. In particular, ‘under no circumstances
[to] undertake the bombardment from the air of civilian populations or of unfortified
cities’. This diabolical form of warfare was already known to the world – the Italians
had pioneered it against the peasant villages of Abyssinia, the German dive
bombers had refined it in Spain.
