Bombing of Civilians in World War II

Perhaps Jorg Friedrich has forgotten a few things in his account of the bombing of Germany in World War II (“Beyond Slaughter: Memories of ‘45,” Commentary, March 28). First, it was Germany that started the bombing at the beginning of the war, when German bombers flew over England every night for months on end and bombed the major English ports and cities, among them Coventry, whose center was razed, including the great medieval cathedral, and London, whose entire East End disappeared. It was called the Battle of Britain, in case he has forgotten, and thousands upon thousands died in it.

There is also the small matter of the German V-1 and V-2 rockets, sent over to kill at random later in the war. They would appear with almost no warning and blow up anything they landed on. All that bombing, by the way, did not work either.

Friedrich said the Allied bombing strengthened the Germans’ resolve. I daresay it did. For what? So they could kill even more Jews, which most of them knew about and went along with? The fact is that the Allied bombing shortened the war and saved a lot of lives, just as the atom bomb did. And the fact is that the allied bombing will shorten this war, despite the whining of the cowards and the fainthearted.

Anne Burley

Huntington Beach

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Re the deaths by Allied bombs and the resulting firestorms of World War II: I would ask about my 40 relatives who also went up in smoke. They were civilians -- not just German but also Polish and Russian. The civilized Germans thought they should die for the crime of being Jews. Please don’t ask me to mourn the innocent Germans; there were some, I’m sure, but what’s a few, more or less?

Frank Horowitz

Long Beach