"The Bombing of Germany" is a new program from American Experience, premiering February 8 at 9:00 pm on PBS.

"The lessons we stand to learn from World War II are especially important today, as American troops enter the ninth year of fighting on two foreign fronts," says American Experience executive producer Mark Samels regarding the timeliness of this program.

With all the recent television examinations of various aspects of World War II in Europe—using newsreel film, splashy graphics, talking heads and so on—why is this still a fresh look at a well-covered story? There are new wrinkles here, including some really fine color and black-and-white film from both Allied and Axis cameras. All first-hand accounts are taken from surviving veterans—military and civilian—of the bombings. But what stands out in "The Bombing of Germany" is the theme, which examines the moral dilemma resulting from the style and escalation of the aerial bombardment of Germany.

It was obvious to all that the advent of aircraft technology would create new levels of warfare in World War II, as aerial bombing would be employed for strategic and tactical purposes. Over the years since the war ended much attention has been placed on the horrific situation caused by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Launching the powerful destructive capability of atomic weapons was a shocking new strategy that ultimately—and quickly—led a most fanatical foe of the free world to surrender.

However, for over three years conventional aerial bombing strikes were carried out in Germany to achieve similar results. As 1945 dragged on, area or "carpet" bombing intensified to bring the war in Europe to a close so that the entire Allied effort could focus on defeating Japan.

While the effects of explosive and incendiary devices dropped on Hamburg, Dresden and Berlin did not have the dramatic—and long lasting—effects of Fat Boy and Little Man, the A-bombs that devastated two Japanese cities, they were just as deadly. More than half a million people were killed by the bombings in Germany. The city of Dresden was virtually obliterated. And yet Germany did not surrender solely on the basis of these terror bombings.

So how did things escalate to that point? As writer Donald L. Miller explains, "Wars are uncontrollable and no one knows how and why they get out of control but they do."

When the war started, the film points out, neither Prime Minister Winston Churchill nor President Franklin D. Roosevelt desired bombing of civilian populations. A famous quote from Roosevelt made on the first day of war—"under no circumstances undertake bombardment from the air of civilian populations"—was a warning to warring nations and is typed out on the screen in the film. Though Germany bombed populations on the mainland from the outset, Adolph Hitler initially believed precision military bombing to be the only effective kind. The infamous bombing of London was started by one stray bomber, until Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels saw potential in continuing it, explains Jörg Friedrich in the film.

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