WingsQ4Gwen

Assignment #4 Wings

Chapters 10-11

1. Why did some world leaders and theologians feel that flying would be the end of mankind?

Because they feared man’s destructive potential coupled with the power of flight and felt that civilian targets and cities would be razed to the ground by hostile bombers. Tragedies like the Shanghai incident of 1932, a Japanese bombing of a Chinese mob which had attacked some Buddhist priests, lent added credence to these fears.

2. What new technologies revolutionized aerial combat in WWII?

The aircraft carrier, the monoplane, the dive bomber (with its special dive brake), all-metal construction, radar detection, high-octane aviation gasoline, and the bombsight revolutionized WWII aerial combat.

3. What is meant by the phrase “abandonment of all restraint” as it relates to WWII and the military tactics used by both sides?

Both sides, Allied and Axis powers, driven to desperation, engaged in all-out bombing attacks on civilian targets such as towns and cities. Strategic bombing, originally meant to confine itself to targeting factories, military bases and railroads so as to destroy the enemy’s fighting capacity, became an indiscriminate weapon of terror.