It is the anniversary of the darkest day in WWII (or The War Of Jewish Aggression, as it's known in civilized countries) — when the ZOGGED """"Allies"""" wantonly murdered a gorillion civilians for NO REASON in a country that NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER targeted civilians for ANY REASON.

How did it not work?

Not only did the bombings gradually erode German and Japanese industry — both countries never completely lost their heavy industry but it's not like their war industry benefited from so many factories burned to the ground — but they destroyed the air power of the Axis. This is a major aspect of the bombing campaign that people always forget

Part of why Germany won in France is because of their close air support. The Luftwaffe generally had air superiority over the allies. Individual German soldiers could pull out a radio and call down air strikes on enemy positions while the French and British rarely if ever had the same advantage

So when it came time to counterattack into Fortress Europa, one of the main purposes of the bombing campaigns was to tie down the Luftwaffe. Even before D-Day was a possibility, the bombings were the quickest and easiest way to open up the second front Stalin wanted so bad. To force a growing fraction of Germany's fighter power away from the eastern front

As the war went on, Germany all but ceased production of non-fighter planes. They were so desperate to stop the bombings that they only wanted to make high altitude interceptors; no more dive bombers, tank busters, mine layers, even transports. Just V2s and FW190s Kraut-rigged into ground strikers at best. That was when both the Soviets and the western allies basically won on the fronts. Every allied offensive would enjoy close air support, and every Wehrmacht operation would go without it

The Pacific War played out differently due to the geographic distances involved. There was no allied Great Britain sitting right next to Japan that allowed constant bombings. But once B-29s came online and the allies captured appropriate airbase locations, the strategic bombings began to play out the same way. By the end of the war Japan's air power was largely depleted, and mostly shot down over China and the waters of the Pacific, but what little development potential they had left was still spent on high altitude interceptors to counter B-29s. Had a ground invasion come to pass, they would have also forfeited the chance for close air support. And in the context of hitting factories, bombing Japan was easier because so many of their buildings were made out of paper. Fires would start and spread to industrial districts even if the bombers missed, nor could they succeed at hiding factories inside of other buildings for the same reason

You bring up Korea and Vietnam, and I say those air campaigns were even more advanced than what was seen in WWII. The air war is one thing that always went right for America even when other things went tits up.

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I think bombing civilians does work but should still be avoided barring exotic extenuating circumstances (i.e. Hiroshima and Nagasaki)

Lots of horrible inhuman things that shouldn't be done work

Bombing civilians was pretty gosh darn effective in ending WWI

It's not that it doesn't work, it's that it was shocking to the conscience and incompatible with a national self-conception as an honorable and civilized society.

usa is blue in video games while germany is red/black so its justified

It's an incredibly r-slurred take. the reason why "we learned" that it "doesnt work" isnt because it's not effective militarily. It's because the world powers saw the sheer scale of death that an all-out war between the big powers, if conducted the normal way.

To compare pre ww2 civilian deaths to something like vietnam is r-slurred

even comparing Korea and Vietnam this way is r-slurred

"it just leads to partisanship!" is a post-ww2 small scale minor conflict logic

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It works if you kill them all