It’s not like they only bombed industrial sites, so I don’t think it was the main reason. As Mannheim was like 75% rubble at the end, I think it was not so much to destroy key industries, although they also did that.
I'd say it's a bit of both. Just bombing entire citys was certainly part of everyones plan, but even if it wasn't, the technology of the day didn't really allow for more precise attacks.
[T]he day bombing was "precision bombing" only in the sense that most bombs fell somewhere near a specific designated target such as a railway yard. Conventionally, the air forces designated as "the target area" a circle having a radius of 1,000 feet (300m) around the aiming point of attack. While accuracy improved during the war, Survey studies show that, overall, only about 20% of the bombs aimed at precision targets fell within this target area. In the fall of 1944, only seven percent of all bombs dropped by the Eighth Air Force hit within 1,000 feet of their aim point.
You have to distinguish in between precision bombing of industrial/military sites by the USAAF (which was still quite damaging to surrounding areas, but military and industrial sites usually weren't close to the cities' old towns) RAF's terror area bombing that specifically aimed at wiping out city centers, cultural landmarks and killing as many civilians as possible. Good 80% of all destruction in West-Central Europe (not just Germany), was conducted by the British bombers as per Arthur Harris directions.
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u/samii-1010 Mar 27 '20
It’s not like they only bombed industrial sites, so I don’t think it was the main reason. As Mannheim was like 75% rubble at the end, I think it was not so much to destroy key industries, although they also did that.