Area bombing is not a dirty word.

60 years of hindsight with some revisionism thrown in have obscured the
original intent of attacking an enemy from the air. I only flew one (of 50)
mission
over cloud cover using GEE. We didn't call it area bombing. We didn't call it
blind bombing. Those are words are now used to stake out an agenda against
bombing in general. We flew the mission because it had to be flown and GEE was
the only way to get it done. And there was a war on. A very nasty unpleasant
war.
The name of the game was to go for the enemies throat. Hit him night and day
in good weather and bad with no let up and no relief. We flew the missions,
came back, buried our dead and went out again.We always hit a specific target
that had to be hit. .The idea of having the enemy hit us without our hitting
back any way we could was unthinkable. It shows weakness and gives the
inititive to the enemy, and once you have lost the initiative, you have lost
the war.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer