January 1, 1970

Introduced by Richard M. Langworth

Aviation, air power and bombing strategy were part of Churchill’s life. As a young man he learned to fly. As First Lord of the Admiralty he founded the Royal Naval Air Service. When German bombers struck at London in 1917–1918, he urged retaliation on Germany. Between the World Wars he authorized the use of aerial bombardment three times (though the gas bombs he proposed for Iraq contained tear gas, not phosgene). Early in the Second World War he favoured air bombardment against ‘strictly military objectives’, not supporting the bombing of cities until the Germans bombed London. Yet Churchill was the only allied leader to question the moral implications, and the fire-bombing of Dresden was not at his but a Soviet request. Churchill supported use of the atomic bomb against Japan, hoping it would bring a speedy end to the war, but he later realized its apocalyptic possibilities and hoped the awful secrets which science has wrung from nature [would] serve mankind instead of destroying it.

Read the full article here: ‘Churchill and Bombing Policy’, by Sir Martin Gilbert. Fifth Churchill Lecture, 2005.