The strategic-bombing idea grew from interwar air-power theory associated with Giulio Douhet. The most extreme version imagined gas attacks and the destruction of urban populations, although Britain and Germany did not adopt that full prescription. The Royal Air Force nevertheless made city bombing a central reason for maintaining an independent heavy-bomber force. That institutional case fed the interwar bomber-versus-battleship debate and shaped the capabilities available in the Second World War. Revenge remained a poor basis for choosing targets.
Notable Point · 1:56:26-1:58:25
Strategic bombing justified an independent RAF
Interwar arguments that bombers could break enemy cities became central to the Royal Air Force's institutional case and its rivalry with battleship advocates.