Bombing States And Peoples In Western Europe 19401945

From the cover. Over the six years of the Second World War, most of urban Europe was subject to bomb attack, from the French Atlantic ports to the major cities of central Germany, from the Dutch and Belgian cities to the ports and towns of Sicily. Throughout the whole region perhaps as many as 700,000 were killed. In this collection, an international panel of historians explores the immediate effects of that wartime disaster for both the urban communities that suffered it and for the surrounding society and political order that has to cope with evacuation, higher levels of crime or non-compliance and changing attitudes towards authority. Considering the cultural, social and political responses to bombing rather than the strategic and ethical dimensions which have formed the core of the discussion thus far, this collection makes it clear that the bombing had ripple effects far beyond the areas immediately targeted by the bombers.