Aerial Bombing Operations in World War II - Data visualization and communication

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to visualize all the digitized paper mission reports from WWII.

We will be providing an overview of the date, conflict, geographic location, and other data elements to form a live-action sequence of air warfare from 1939 to 1945. The records include U.S. and Royal Air Force data and some Australian, New Zealand, and South African air force.

My data is taken from “Lt Col Jenns Robertson” of the US Air Force developed the Theater History of Operations Reports (THOR) and posted them online after receiving Department of Defense approval.

To narrow our subject matter, we will focus on the many criteria landscapes all over the world. We will be using Microsoft Power BI to visualize our data in this study.

Definition

The aerial bombing of cities is an optional element of strategic bombing, which became widespread in warfare during World War I. The bombing of cities grew to a vast scale in World War II and is still practiced today. The development of aerial bombardment marked an increased capacity of armed forces to deliver ordnance from the air against combatants, military bases, and factories, with a greatly reduced risk to ground forces.

The Allies have strong air power which has been used a lot to help the army on the ground and, the question to ask is, which country has done the most aerial bombardment in the war and which country has been bombed the most?

Country Targeted

Following the attack on Rotterdam, RAF Bomber Command was authorized to attack German targets east of the Rhine on 15 May 1940, the Air Ministry authorized “Air Marshal Charles Portal” to attack targets in the Ruhr, including oil plants and other civilian industrial targets which aided the German war effort, such as blast furnaces. The underlying motive for the attacks was to divert German air forces away from the land front.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese military launched a surprise attack on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After this attack, on December 8, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked Congress for and received a declaration of war against Japan. On December 11, Germany, and Italy, allied with Japan, declared war on the U.S. The United States entered World War II.

Figure 1: Aerial bombing map of the allies’ air forces.

Main War Theater

1. European Theater

At the beginning of World War II, the bombing of cities before the invasion was an integral part of Nazi Germany‘s strategy. In the first stages of the war, the Germans carried out many bombings of towns and cities in Poland (1939), including the capital Warsaw (also bombed in 1944), with Wieluń being the first city destroyed by 75%. The Soviet Union also attempted strategic bombing against Poland and Finland, bombing Helsinki.

After the Fall of France, the Luftwaffe redirected its full attention to the United Kingdom. The scale of the attack increased greatly in July 1940, with 258 civilians killed, and again in August with 1,075 dead.

After the invasion of Europe by the Axis powers Nazis Germany and Fascist Italy, the allies have shown a powerful response, we can see on the map that they had bombed all the cities using different aircraft, especially the United States Air Forces (U.S.A.F) and Royal Air Forces (R.A.F). (Figure 2)

2. Asian-Pacific Theater

In the Asiatic-Pacific Theater, Japan continued to bomb Chinese cities and expanded its air operations toward others in Asia such as Singapore, Rangoon, and Mandalay. In the first few months of the war with the Western Powers, Japan projected its airpower on settlements as distant as Honolulu, Darwin, and Unalaska.

After the Pearl Harbor attack and the U.S entering the war, its raid first on the Japanese main island the Doolittle Raid of 18 April 1942, when sixteen B-25 Mitchells were launched from the USS Hornet (CV-8) to attack targets including Yokohama and Tokyo and then fly on to airfields in China and end by hitting Japan with two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Aircraft by Country

We can see in the Pie chart that the USA accounted for 81.41% of Aircraft Series of all aerial bombings between Europe and Asian-pacific while Great Britain accounted for 17.24% due to the huge aircraft production by the U.S.A.F.

The United States produced about 324,750 aircraft ahead of R.F.A produced only 131,549 which is about 2.5 more.

Targeted City

In the two charts, we can see that the USA has bombed the greatest number of cities about 144,000 between Europe and the Asian-Pacific.

Germany is the largest bombed country in Europe and the Philippines in Asia.

Time Changing

In our last figure, we can see the number of aerial operations between 1940 and 1945, the end of the war.

Figure 6: total bombing aircraft over time.

Conclusion

We see that the United States has enormous aircraft, which has bombed the most country, and Germany, the main enemy in Europe, was the most bombed. In the end, it doesn’t matter what war we are talking about you won’t find winners there. Both sides lose. Albert Einstein is often quoted as having said: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”.