During WWII, Why did Germany bomb English cities but not their military bases to weaken the country?

BDZot

Germany bombed English cities to break the will of the people. Without the support of the people, England would have been forced to sue for peace.

Hitler did have a plan to invade England. And yes, it was the RAF that deterred him. The Battle of Britain was a showdown for air supremacy over England. Without air superiority, no invasion could be started.

B rob

They did bomb our cities and our military bases and had a plan to invade but because they couldn't get control of the skies(the battle of Britain) they invaded Russia instead.

Mac they never invaded the isle of wight(A few miles off the south coast) they only actually invaded Guernsey and jersey which are off the coast of France although part of Britain.
Winston Churchill said after the battle of Britain
Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.

shilo9i

The Germans bombed the population centers in an attempt to weaken moral for fighting against Germany.

They did have a plan to invade England. It was called operation sealion. See the link for details.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sealion

Mama Sugar Lump

To demoralize the populace. It wasn't just cities in England, my grandparents (who lived in a small sea town in Scotland) had to take shelter out in the country almost nightly during raids by the Germans.

dastackable

Its called total war. Total war is war on the countries military and its people. They did bomb military targets. But bombing the people also weakens the country because a lot of people die from this which decreases there moral. And the less people there are the less people there are to fight. They didn't invade Mainland England pretty much because they didn't get around to it. The war on the Eastern Front against Russia consumed a lot of there resources. Which would make it hard to invade England. Also Germany hated Russia a lot so they wanted to destroy them first.

Rory M

They did bomb radar towers,airfield,military bases etc.

Oh and haven't you heard of operation sea lion ie. Invasion of britain, well England to be precise.

Its not me Its u

Strategic blunder on Hitler and Goering's part. In the late summer and early Fall of 1940, the Luftwaffe had RAF Fighter Command nearly to its knees, with the bombing of radar stations and air fields. Thanks to the Miracle of 24 August, by accident, some Luftwaffe bombers had dropped their bombs on London. The next few nights, the RAF replied by bombing Berlin. Hitler was angry. On 2 September he ordered his bombers to attack London. On 7 September the Nazi bombing raid was so huge that a false alarm went round the south-east of England: code-word â€˜Cromwellâ€™ â€“ invasion imminent.

The respite, gave fighter command time to recover and thus eventually won the Battle of Britain..or some say, at least a strategic draw against the Luftwaffe.

Mac

The Germans were interested in terrorizing and demoralizing the English people. Even cathedrals were intentionally bombed (witness Coventry Cathedral for one).

They did invade small areas of England - such as the Isle of Wight. If the Allies hadn't mounted an effort to stop German advance through northern France, launching an invasion across the channel to England would certainly have been easier....

The RAF is certainly responsible for defending Great Britain magnificently.

I'm sorry I can't tell you more - I'm American! - but I hope someone will here. :)

OSTALLEN

The RAF was almost destroyed in the Battle of Britain due to the bombing of their air fields. The Royal Navy lost massive areas of Portsmouth, however when one bomber group got lost and bombed London, Churchill ordered the RAF to bomb Berlin. Hitler went nuts (Again), and ordered London destroyed, after that, the RAF air fields were mostly left alone. The V-1, and V-2, were just to help prevent the invasion of France, you can see how well that worked.

thc451

Accuracy in aerial bombardment was notoriously inaccurate at the time. The feeling was that bombing vast city scapes was easier to accomplish and would demoralize the general population. Hitler was hopeful of turning the Brits over to his side, as fellow "Arians". They did take possession of several channel islands at the time. They were too involved fighting for territory on too many other front to contemplate a serious invasion at any time, though surely a plan evolved at some point. My parents, through an unfortunate fate of geography were on the other side in Hamburg being bombed by the British during the day and the Yanks by night. Their first hand stories of the horrors of war made me a life long pacifist except when the need to defend oneself and ones' country became an absolute necessity. Some of the gunge ho present generation has absolutely no concept of total war, thank goodness.---Imagine that you are 12 years old and upon exiting the bunker for the first time you see your neighbor sitting against the brick fence outside of his home, he appears completely normal except for the fact that his eyes are vacant, the top of his head is missing and the downpour of rain is is streaming over the sides of his skull in a pink tide of rivulets.

ZORRROOOOO

The U-2 was limited to targets, because they were just rockets, major cities were the only hittable targets. You bet, the Germans had a plan on invading England, but made the biggest mistake in the world, invaded Russia instead, draining their forces from Africa too.

NY Giants and Yankees Rock!

They bombed the cities, so that the citizens that lived in those cities would get so fed up with the bombings, that they would make their government surrender. Because the USA was teamed up with Great Britain, that is why they could never get in there.

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