by Ian Hardy

Created on: March 08, 2009

Considering the bombing methodology of the Allied powers in World War II, the answer is an unequivocal "no." Unlike modern day militaries, a bombing campaign from 25,000 feet in World War II meant dropping hundreds of tons of munitions at once, and hoping some of them hit critical targets. In other words, it was like firing very large, explosive shotguns from the sky. Lots of damage, not a lot of control over what got damaged. Collateral damage was high. Civilian casualties during World War II bombing campaigns are nothing short of offensive to modern sensibilities regarding the rules of war.

It is understandable why someone might see the wisdom in bombing concentration camps from a modern perspective. Indeed, if the United States Army Air Corps had the kind of weaponry in World War II that the Air Force has today, there would be no practical reason not to bomb a concentration camp. A single, precise, GPS-guided JDAM 500lb bomb would have put the gas chambers completely out of commission.No such technology existed, however, but for the sake of argument, let's say it did. We'll pretend the Allies developed a secret bomb capable of hitting any target precisely from 25,000 feet. All other technology remains the same, we just give the Allies this one "anti-Auschwitz" bomb.

Which brings us to the next significant issue: the lack of range on Allied bomber aircraft. Auschwitz was in present-day Poland. Up until mid 1944 with the advent of the B-29 Superfortress, the longest range Allied strategic bomber was the B-17 Flying Fortress. Its combat radius was 2000 nautical miles. The distance between the air bases in the UK and Auschwitz Poland is in the neighborhood of 900 nautical miles. That gives the bombers only ~200 miles of wiggle room for their flights. At a cruising speed of 213mph, the bombers would only have one hour of reserve fuel. Any significant delay, such as an aerial dogfight over Germany, would have quickly depleted the fuel tanks of their reserve. Bombing Auschwitz would, therefore, have been a suicide mission. Even if the bomber groups could have made it past German anti-air defenses (unlikely, as any Allied escort fighters would have to turn back somewhere in Germany because they lacked range) the likelihood of any survivors would have been so low that the mission was not one worth carrying out in terms of lost war materiel and manpower.

This is not to say the lives in Auschwitz were not worth saving. But imagine how many more innocents would have died

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