Ep 25. The Bombing of Germany

National Geographic Documentaries season 2010 episode 25, titled "The Bombing of Germany," explores one of the most devastating events of World War II: the bombing of Germany by Allied forces.

The episode starts by painting a picture of Germany in the early 1940s - a country controlled by the Nazi regime, with Hitler at the helm. The Allies, made up of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, were determined to bring the war to an end and believed that bombing Germany was the way to do it.

The documentary delves into the tactics used by the Allied forces in their bombing campaign. They started out by targeting military installations, but soon moved on to bombing cities and towns. The idea was to destroy the morale of the German people and destroy their industrial base.

The episode features interviews with historians and military experts, who provide insight into the thinking behind the bombing campaign and its effectiveness. They also discuss the human cost of the bombing - both for the German civilians who were killed or injured, and for the Allied pilots who risked their lives to carry out the bombing runs.

The documentary also features archival footage and photographs from the time, which give viewers a sense of the destruction caused by the bombing. They show entire cities reduced to rubble, and survivors sifting through the debris in search of loved ones.

Throughout the episode, the viewer is left to ponder the morality of the bombing campaign. Was it justified, given the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime? Or was it a war crime in its own right, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians?

Overall, "The Bombing of Germany" is a powerful and thought-provoking episode that sheds light on one of the darkest chapters of World War II. It raises important questions about the cost of war, the ethics of bombing civilian populations, and the human toll of conflict.