Bombardment
Encyclopedia
A bombardment is an attack by artillery
fire directed against fortifications, troops or towns and buildings.
Prior to World War I the term term was only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, it was only loosely employed to describe artillery attacks upon forts or fortified positions in preparation for assaults by infantry. Since then it has come to mean any mass attack delivered by artillery
or short range tactical missiles, and also as aerial bombardment if delivered by aircraft or long range missiles.
d place to persuade their military commander to capitulate before the actual defences of the place have been reduced to impotence. The practice of employing artillery to achieve these ends was especially common up until World War I; since then long range artillery bombardment has been joined by aerial bombardment delivered by aircraft and missiles.
Bombardment can only achieve its objective when the amount of suffering inflicted upon non-combatants is sufficient to break down their resolution, and when the commander permits himself to be influenced or coerced by the sufferers. A threat of bombardment will sometimes induce the target to surrender, but instances of its fulfillment being followed by success are rare; in general, with a determined commander, bombardments fail in their objective. Further, intentionally intense fire at a large target, unlike the slow, steady and minutely accurate artillery attacks directed upon the fortifications, requires the expenditure of large quantities of ammunition and wears out the guns of the attack. Bombardments are, however, frequently resorted to in order to test the temper of the garrison and the civil population, a notable instance being the Siege of Strasbourg
in 1870.
The term has evolved during the twentieth century to incorporate border massed artillery attacks by one army against another, for example the front wide bombardment prior to the 1916 attack on the Somme or the massed bombardments proceeding Operation Uranus
during World War II
.
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
fire directed against fortifications, troops or towns and buildings.
Prior to World War I the term term was only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, it was only loosely employed to describe artillery attacks upon forts or fortified positions in preparation for assaults by infantry. Since then it has come to mean any mass attack delivered by artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
or short range tactical missiles, and also as aerial bombardment if delivered by aircraft or long range missiles.
History
In its old strict sense the term was only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, etc., by an assailant with the object of disheartening his opponent, and specially to force the civil population and authorities of a besiegeSiege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
d place to persuade their military commander to capitulate before the actual defences of the place have been reduced to impotence. The practice of employing artillery to achieve these ends was especially common up until World War I; since then long range artillery bombardment has been joined by aerial bombardment delivered by aircraft and missiles.
Siege of Strasbourg
The Siege of Strasbourg took place during the Franco-Prussian War, and resulted in the French surrender of the fortress on 28 September 1870.-Background:...
in 1870.
The term has evolved during the twentieth century to incorporate border massed artillery attacks by one army against another, for example the front wide bombardment prior to the 1916 attack on the Somme or the massed bombardments proceeding Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus was the codename of the Soviet strategic operation in World War II which led to the encirclement of the German Sixth Army, the Third and Fourth Romanian armies, and portions of the German Fourth Panzer Army. The operation formed part of the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad, and was...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.