air raid

(noun)

An attack on a ground target by military aircraft, especially when dropping bombs.

Related Terms

Examples of air raid in the following topics:

  • Japanese Incursions into China

    • However, the Chinese nationalist government mobilized the army and air force to attack Japanese Marines in Shanghai on August 13, 1937, which led to the Battle of Shanghai.
    • The Japanese government retaliated by ordering massive air raids on civilian targets nearly every major city in China, leaving millions dead, injured and homeless.

  • Dover Castle in England

    • Indeed, the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 saw the tunnels converted first into an air-raid shelter and then later into a military command centre and underground hospital.

  • The Strategic Bombing of Europe

    • It is a military strategy distinct from both close air support of ground forces and tactical air power.
    • The Royal Air Force (RAF) carried out its first strategic bombing raid on Germany at Mönchengladbach on May 11, 1940.
    • In Asia, the Allies dropped over 18 thousand bombs on Thailand and in August 1942, the United States undertook the first air raids in French Indochina.
    • In mid 1942, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) arrived in the UK and carried out a few raids across the English Channel.
    • The USAAF commanders in Washington, D.C. and in Great Britain adopted the strategy of taking on the Luftwaffe head on, in larger and larger air raids by mutually defending bombers flying over Germany, Austria, and France at high altitudes during the daytime.

  • Coral Sea and Midway

    • The Battle of the Coral Sea, May 4-8, 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia.
    • Luring the American aircraft carriers into a trap and occupying Midway was part of an overall "barrier" strategy to extend Japan's defensive perimeter, in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo.

  • The Battle of Britain

    • The Battle of Britain, when the British Royal Air Force defended the UK against the German Air Force attacks, was the first major Nazi defeat and a turning point of World War II.
    • It is described as the first major campaign fought entirely by air forces.
    • This concentrated, direct bombing of industrial targets and civilian centres began with heavy raids on London on 7 September 1940, during the Battle of Britain.
    • Adolf Hitler's and Hermann Goering's plans to destroy the Royal Air Force to allow an invasion of Britain were failing, and in response to an RAF raid on Berlin, which itself was prompted by an accidental German bombing of London, they changed their tactics to the sustained bombing of civilian targets.
    • Office workers make their way to work through debris after a heavy air raid by the German Luftwaffe.

  • Homefront Security

    • La Guardia also formalized the creation of Civil Air Patrol (CAP) - the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force - with Administrative Order 9, signed on 1 December 1941 and published 8 December 1941.
    • The order outlined the Civil Air Patrol's organization and named its first national commander as Major General John F.
    • Under the CAP and its Coast Guard counterpart, the Coast Guard Auxiliary, civilians were trained to spot air raids, participate in search-and-rescue missions, and help with transportation.
    • The air crews of the patrol aircraft were to keep in touch with their bases and notify the Army Air Forces and Navy in the area when a U-boat was sighted, and to remain in the area until relieved.
    • Examine the role of the Civil Air Patrol and the Civil Defense Corps in monitoring home-front security during World War II.

  • Britain's Strategy

    • The first phase saw the capitulation of the Netherlands, Belgium and France during May and June 1940 and continued into an air war between Germany and Britain that climaxed with the Battle of Britain.
    • Emphasis for re-armament was given to air forces with the view that these would be most useful in any future war with Germany.
    • During this period, (known as the Phoney War - the period between the fall of Poland and the German invasion on the Low Countries and France), the RAF carried out small bombing raids and a large number of propaganda leaflet raids (code named "Nickels") and the Royal Navy imposed a coastal blockade on Germany.
    • The operations of the Luftwaffe against the Royal Air Force became known as the Battle of Britain.
    • Air power for the operation was a more even divide.

  • Nimitz in the Central Pacific

    • The JCS designated Nimitz as "Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas," with operational control over all Allied units (air, land, and sea) in that area.
    • Nimitz's staff also concluded that the Japanese operation might include carrier raids on Allied bases in Samoa and at Suva.
    • Nimitz calculated that the aircraft on his three carriers, plus those on Midway Island, gave the U.S. rough parity with Yamamoto's four carriers, mainly because American carrier air groups were larger than Japanese ones.
    • In addition, Nimitz also ordered the United States Army Air Forces to mine the Japanese ports and waterways by air with B-29 Superfortresses in a successful mission called Operation Starvation, which severely interrupted the Japanese logistics.
    • He held the dual command of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CinCPac), for U.S. naval forces and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinCPOA), for United States and Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II.

  • The Raid on Harper's Ferry

    • Brown's raid was quickly defeated by a detachment of U.S.
    • Douglass had prudently turned down Brown's invitation to take part in the raid.
    • Many Northern reactions to John Brown's raid are best characterized as baffled reproach.
    • The South found the North's ambivalent attitude toward John Brown's raid flabbergasting.
    • Compare how Southern and Northern states responded to John Brown’s raid

  • Air Wedge

    • An air wedge can be used with nearly any light source, including non-coherent white light.
    • An example of an air wedge interferometer is shown in .
    • Because of this extremely thin air-gap, the air wedge interferometer has been successfully used in experiments with femto-second high-power lasers.
    • The second reflection occurs when the beam exits the first plate and enters the air wedge, and the third reflection occurs when the beam exits the air wedge and enters the second glass plate.
    • Describe how an air wedge is used to visualize the disturbance of a wave front after proagation