POINTBLANK: A Strategic and National Security Decision making Analysis of theWorld War II Combined Bomber Offensive

摘要

POINTBLANK was the code for the British-American Combined Bomber Offensive ofWorld War II, a campaign that was mandated by the 1943 Allied Casablanca Directive and carried out from May 1944 to April 1945. POINTBLANK has become almost mythical in today's Air Force as the campaign that proved the decisiveness of air power in war and consequently led to the establishment of the Air Force as a separate Service in 1947. With the legacy of notoriety and importance, an analysis of POINTBLANK could be expected to produce national security decision making and strategic insights of general applicability to policy makers and strategists alike, if such insights are to be gleaned from any WW II campaign.