Abstract
In this project we are trying to see how successful aerial bombing of the allied forces were in World War 2. We have accounted for the intensity of the bombing and how frequent the bombing was conducted. By our understanding we have analyzed how bombing played a major role in World War 2 and how it gave the allied forces upper hand. This project also helps us to understand various techniques used for bombing and also how effective it was to turn the table for allied forces in World War 2.
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE)
ww2 = read.csv("D:/MyRWork/Data512/THOR_WWII_DATA_CLEAN.csv")
library(ggplot2)
library(leaflet)
ww2$MSNYEAR <- as.Date(as.character(ww2$MSNDATE),"%m/%d/%Y")
ww2$MSNYEAR <- format(ww2$MSNYEAR, format="%Y")
#summary(ww2$MSNYEAR)
Map showing all the recorded locations of World War II
Year vs. # Ariel Bombings (Location)
This graph primarily indicates the number of operations that were deployed, from year 1939 to 1945. Within the bar graph, each based is further categorized based upon the location of the operation. As per this visual, it shows an increase of operations over the years. The most operations were in 1944, the turn of WW2, when the Allied Forces starting showing promise of victory.
library(rworldmap)
require(ggmap)
require(maps)
newmap <- getMap(resolution = "coarse")
plot(newmap, xlim = c(0, 150), ylim = c(-30, 70), asp = 1)
points(ww2$LONGITUDE, ww2$LATITUDE, col = "red", cex = 0.3, pch = 20)
Map showing Take-off locations during World War II
library(rworldmap)
require(ggmap)
require(maps)
newmap <- getMap(resolution = "coarse")
plot(newmap, xlim = c(0, 150), ylim = c(-30, 70), asp = 1)
points(ww2$TAKEOFF_LONGITUDE, ww2$TAKEOFF_LATITUDE, col = "red", cex = 1, pch = 17)
Map showing different Theater Operations and its Take-off locations during World War II
library(rworldmap)
require(ggmap)
require(maps)
newmap <- getMap(resolution = "high")
plot(newmap, xlim = c(0, 170), ylim = c(-50, 80), asp = 1)
points(ww2$TAKEOFF_LONGITUDE, ww2$TAKEOFF_LATITUDE, col = ww2$THEATER, cex = 1.6, pch = 25, bg = "grey")
Main
Year vs. # Ariel Bombings (Country) The data of the country taking part in flying mission is represented in this graph. It starts off with no flying missions, then with the advancement of airborne technology, flying missions involving rampant bombarding take place. Based upon the NAF, it is a logical conclusion that with the entry of USA in WW2, the turn of victory occurred. Year vs. # Ariel Bombings Based upon the number of bombings per each base of operations the Allied Forces had, this graph is primarily made. Upon further analysis, each of the bar graph is divided not only per base of operations, but per the country in each base of operations. According to this data, the European Base of Operations had the highest activity, which makes sense as most of WW2 was in Europe.
As per Overy(2011) the major cause of allied power’s victory as per a statement from Joachim von Ribbentrop the Finance Minister of Nazi Germany was success of Air mission conducted by Allied Forces.
ggplot(ww2, aes(MSNYEAR, fill = ww2$THEATER)) + geom_bar() + theme_classic() + labs(x = "Year", y = "# Aerial Bombings")
#ggplot(ww2, aes(x = MSNYEAR, y = NAF)) + geom_bar(stat = "identity") + theme_classic() + labs(x = "Year", y = "# Aerial Bombings")
NAF
Year vs. # Ariel Bombings (NAF) This graph indicates the number of aerial bombings, per each Numbered Air Force aka squadrons used in air strikes. The biggest changed in within the bars of the chart; as the years pass, the number of various NAF increases as more countries are involved/being pulled into W2. The most NAF are eventually the Allied Forces.
ggplot(ww2, aes(x = MSNYEAR)) + geom_bar(aes(fill=ww2$NAF)) + labs(x = "Year", y = "# Aerial Bombings")
ggplot(ww2, aes(x = MSNYEAR)) + geom_bar(aes(fill=ww2$COUNTRY_FLYING_MISSION)) + labs(x = "Year", y = "# Aerial Bombings")
ggplot(ww2, aes(x = MSNYEAR, fill = ww2$COUNTRY_FLYING_MISSION)) + geom_bar() + facet_wrap(~ww2$THEATER, scales = "fixed") + theme(legend.background = element_rect(fill="lightblue", size=0.5, linetype="solid")) + labs(x = "Year", y = "# Aerial Bombings")
Priority Bombing
Year vs. # Ariel Bombings (Priority) Going one step further to the previous graph, with the base of operations representation, instead of showcasing the countries, this graph indicates the priority of the bombings. As seen in the graph, the European Base of Operations had the highest primary targets, and there are not many to none of target of opportunities. Year vs. # Ariel Bombings This graphs represents, only the number of bombings each country was involved in, during WW2. There is a huge difference between the number of bombings between the Allied Forces and the Axis Forces, nearly 2x the number of bombings. This definitely puts into perspective the scale of destruction during WW2.
Heavy Bombing
As per Biddle(2007) Royal Airforce and USAAF spenct 50% and 35% of their war expenses on Air force. The heavy bombers were one of the keys which inflected heavy damage and played a key role in WW2. Technological advancement in Air Force cariers such as British Mosquito and B-17 which could carry heavy bombs and also be at par with German MesserschmittF 109G helped to decide the outcome of the war.
ggplot(ww2, aes(x = MSNYEAR, fill = ww2$TGT_PRIORITY_EXPLANATION)) + geom_bar() + facet_wrap(~ww2$THEATER, scales = "fixed") + theme(legend.background = element_rect(fill="lightblue", size=0.5, linetype="solid")) + labs(x = "Target Priority", y = "# Targets by Theater Operations") + theme(axis.text.x=element_text(angle = 90, hjust = 1, vjust = 1))
1944 Bombing
The year of 1945 as per Mearsheimer (1991)the heavy bombing played a major role as Germany’s output of Aircraft and Tank’s wwas reduced by 31% and 35% respectively. Bombing helped Allied forces to get an edge over Axis forces. Heavy bombing led to infracstuctural failure of Germany and resistance by red army were the major reason’s the war ended sooner.
ggplot(ww2, aes(ww2$TGT_COUNTRY)) + geom_bar(stat="count") + labs(x = "Year", y = "# Aerial Bombings")
library(ggplot2)
ggplot(ww2, aes(ww2$TONS_OF_HE,fill=ww2$NUMBER_OF_HE))+ geom_density(alpha=0.6)
## Warning: Removed 32080 rows containing non-finite values (stat_density).
##ggplot(diamonds, aes(diamonds$carat,fill=diamonds$color))+geom_histogram()
##ggplot(mpg, aes(class)) + geom_bar(aes(fill = trans)) + guides(fill=guide_legend(title="Transmission"))
Intensity
Year vs. # Ariel Bombings (Explosives) The explosives are showcased in the last three graphs, based on the density of bombings vs. the tons of each of these bombings. It can be seen that the lesser the tons of explosives, the higher the density in which they were dropped. An interesting observation, although the ETO had the highest number of bombs that were deployed based on the number of bombs and countries involved, the CBI had the highest density of bombs deployed upon the Axis Forces.
Based upon the data of all of these graphs, it clear that the Allied Forces eventually used more brute and force as the war progressed and additional countries were pulled in. So yes, the use of aerial bombardment did play a crucial role in the victory of the Allied Force as shown per the above pictorial representations.
Damage #1944-45
As per the article in (//humanities.exeter.ac.uk) World War II approximately 400,000 German civilians were killed by Allied air raids. From July 1944 to January 1945, an average of 13,536 people were killed every month. In Hamburg alone about 49,000 civilians were killed by Allied bombing, and in Berlin about 35,000. During a single attack carried out at night from February 1st to 14th 1945, more than 20,000 civilians were killed in Dresden . But not only cities had fallen victim to the Allies’ strategic bombing.
Allied Forces attacked cities like Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Essen, Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Emden, Duisburg, Hamburg, Saarbrucken, Düsseldorf, Osnabrück, Mainz, Lübeck, Münster, Kassel, Cologne, Schweinfurt, Jena, Darmstadt, Krefeld, Leipzig, Dresden, Brunswick, Munich, Magdeburg, Aschersleben, Halberstadt, Chemnitz, Halle, Plauen, Dessau, Potsdam, Erfurt, but also towns like Cailsheim, Freudenstadt and Hildesheim.
Town like Nordhausen lost 20% of its population and Pfortzheim lost 22% of its poppulation.
library(ggthemes)
ggplot(ww2, aes(ww2$NUMBER_OF_HE)) + geom_density(aes(group = ww2$TGT_PRIORITY_EXPLANATION, col = ww2$TGT_PRIORITY_EXPLANATION, fill = ww2$TGT_PRIORITY_EXPLANATION), alpha = 0.2) + xlim(0, 200) + labs(title = "High Explosives Density", x = "Number of High Explosives", y= "Density") + theme_economist_white()
## Warning: Removed 144041 rows containing non-finite values (stat_density).
library(ggthemes)
ggplot(ww2, aes(ww2$TONS_OF_HE)) + geom_density(aes(group = ww2$THEATER, col = ww2$THEATER, fill = ww2$THEATER), alpha = 0.2) + xlim(0, 200) + labs(title = "High Explosives Density", x = "Tons of High Explosives", y= "Density") + theme_economist_white()
## Warning: Removed 33508 rows containing non-finite values (stat_density).
Conslusion
We can see from our analysis and Data vizualization that bombing played an major role and was the deciding factor of the war.As the intensity of frequency of bombing increased in the year of 1944 and 1945.We can conclude that because of the high intensity of bombing the Allied Forces were able to win the war early. Air attacks on infrastructer and cities confirmed the victory for allied forces.
Reference
Gentile, G. P. (2001). How effective is strategic bombing?: lessons learned from World War II to Kosovo. NYU Press.Retrieved January 16, 2018
Schaffer, R. (1988). Wings of Judgment: American Bombing in World War II. Oxford University Press. Retrieved January 16, 2018
Horowitz, M., & Reiter, D. (2001). When does aerial bombing work? Quantitative empirical tests, 1917-1999. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 45(2), 147-173.Retrieved January 16, 2018
Pape, R. A. (2014). Bombing to win: Air power and coercion in war. Cornell University Press. Retrieved January 16, 2018
Overy, R. (2011, February 17). World War Two: How the Allies Won. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/how_the_allies_won_01.shtml
Mearsheimer, J. J. (2001). The tragedy of great power politics. Retrieved February 19, 2018, WW Norton & Company.
Bombing, States and Peoples in Western Europe 1940-1945. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/history/research/centres/warstateandsociety/projects/bombing/germany/
Biddle, T. D. (2007). The Fire: The Bombing of Germany, 1940-1945. The Journal of Military History, 71(4), 1281-1282.