Letter: No vitriol from the bombed
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.PHILLIP Knightley's comment (Letters, 14 August) on the early, chance escalation of the bomber war, is true enough, but let us not forget that Hitler's Luftwaffe had already set the pattern in 1940.
Despite claims that its targets were solely military, the Luftwaffe War Diaries admit that on 25 September 1939 and 14 May 1940, German bombers wiped out civilian areas of Warsaw and Rotterdam respectively, using the excuse that their actions were legitimate because the armed forces of the countries concerned were (impertinently]) trying to defend their cities from the Nazi onslaught.
In fact, the pattern had already been set several years earlier, when the Luftwaffe 'practised' on the defenceless Spanish City of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, killing hundreds of civilians in one air raid.
During the 1940 German invasion of France Luftwaffe fighter pilots used their aircraft's machine-guns and cannon to clear the French roads of helpless refugees so that Hitler's tanks could get through.
I would suggest that this kind of behaviour had already warned us that Hitler's idea of warfare included the word 'total' from the start.
Len Clarke
Uxbridge, Middlesex
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments