External articles > Aerial bombing of civilians

US to loosen nuclear weapons constraints and develop more 'usable' warheads

Julian Borger, Guardian, 9 January 2018

First paragraph

The Trump administration plans to loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a new low-yield nuclear warhead for US Trident missiles, according to a former official who has seen the most recent draft of a policy review.

Full article on theguardian.com

Veterans throw away their war medals in disgust at British air strikes in Syria

Matt Dathan, Independent, 8 December 2015

First paragraph:

British war veterans have thrown away their medals outside Downing Street in protest against the Government's decision to bomb Syria and to bust the “mythology” of heroism connected to the military.

Full article on independent.co.uk

Eyewitness

John Davison, "Christian Aid news" Winter 2002 Issue 15, page 6

Everyone I spoke at the camp said they had come to escape the bombing. Many had stories of relatives being killed.

Full article: john.davison.html

Legacy of civilian casualties in ruins of shattered town

Justin Huggler, Independent, 27 November 2001

First paragraph

We were picking our way through the bombed-out ruins of Khanabad when we heard the explosion. When we got there, struggling through the collapsed remains of houses, an old man sat in his blood blinking and shaking his head in bewilderment. Beside him, a 15-year-old boy lay bleeding and unconscious.

Full article on archive.org

Going to the Wars

Max Hastings, 2001 Pan Books, page 110

A glimpse of bombing of civilians in Vietnam, from a book by an experienced war reporter who is also a former editor of The Daily Telegraph.

Book excerpt: books/hastings_2001.html

Cluster bombs: the hidden toll

Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian, 8 August 2000

First paragraph

The number of civilians prey to unexploded cluster bombs is significantly higher than admitted by governments, including the British, which have consistently suppressed evidence about the weapon's military effectiveness, according to a devastating report published today.

Full article on theguardian.com

The night the innocents died

Judy Dempsey, Financial Times, 11/12th February 1995, page 1, Section 3

This article contains interviews with survivors of the British and American terrorist bombing of Dresden in 1945. It also includes an interview with one of the bombers of other parts of Germany. Of particular interest is the glimpse he gives of the murderous hand of so-called "intelligence", directing the bombing to target refugees, while, as one of the survivors recalls, factories and railway lines remained intact.

Full article: press_cuttings/dresden_ft_11feb1995.html

Birds of Death

a Wall to Wall television production for Channel 4 MCMXCII director George Case

A documentary about british royal air force bombing and shooting of civilians both in Iraq and Waziristan (near modern Pakistan/Afghanistan border) during the 1920s and 1930s. It includes interviews with some of the perpetrators and some of their surviving victims. David Omissi appears in the credits as a consultant.

Transcript: birds_of_death/transcript.html

Baghdad and British bombers

David Omissi, The Guardian, 19 January 1991 Tenth paragraph:

This "police bombing" was too much for some air force officers to stomach. In 1924, a distinguished Air Commodore, Lionel Charlton, resigned his post as a staff officer in Iraq after he visited a hospital and saw the victims of British bombing recovering from their injuries. The air force recalled him to England, promising not to otherwise damage his career provided he took his protests no further; but they went back on their word and placed him on the retired list in 1928.

Full article: e/omissi_graun_19jan1991.html

The Children of Vietnam

William F. Pepper, Ramparts, January 1967, pp.44-68

The caption on one photograph reads:

After superficial emergency treatment, a child - face and eyes torn by American shrapnel - awaits surgery at Da Nang. A lack of suction equipment - which would have kept him from inhaling the contents of his own stomach - killed him.

Full article on unz.com

The Night Hamburg Died

Martin Caidin, Four Square/New English Library, London, 1966. Originally published in USA by Ballatine Books, Inc, 1960

Photographs from the book.