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This thesis charts the development of area bombing in British theory and practice before its formal adoption in the Second World War, and seeks to discover where its earliest origins can be located. Area bombing was the official policy of Royal Air Force Bomber Command between 1942 and 1945 in its strategic air offensive against Germany, and involved the bombing of industrial cities with the purpose of breaking down civilian morale and disrupting the German war economy. Most historical accounts present area bombing as a gradual development in bombing policy during 1940 and 1941, forced by a lack of success in destroying precise industrial targets from the air. This was the Air Force’s stated policy during the previous two decades, but it proved impossible to implement under wartime conditions. Area bombing was thus gradually adopted by progressively broadening the definition of targets from individual installations to entire towns and cities. This thesis rejects the traditional view, arguing instead that area bombing was at the heart of British bombing policy as early as the First World War. The legacy of this saw an ‘area bombing mentality’ cemented in the strategy of the Royal Air Force during the interwar period. As it was not possible to openly advocate the bombing of civilians during the 1920s and 1930s, this was shrouded in ambiguous language and kept hidden. However, the roots of area bombing come to the surface several times between the wars, and the speed with which area bombing was adopted in 1940 and 1941 shows that they were never deeply buried. While many historians have uncovered individual details that collectively support this contention, none have traced the development of this thought across the period 1917-42. Using a selection of contemporary documents and a thorough review of the secondary literature, this work shows that far from being an improvisation forced by necessity, the adoption of area bombing was unsurprising and can be traced back to 1917.

The goal of this thesis is to do research , as wide as possible, in the most popular part of hobby named reenacting or reenacting (Napoleonic era, Austro-Prussian Wars, American Civil War, Second World War and some new topic - Czechoslovak Peoples Army, Royal Air Force and Czechoslovak Policemen before WW2). Thats mean commemoration and re-enactment of military history and military units in whole its history from time before 1989 to the future. I tried to find grounds of this hobby and describe development of it. As I expected, progress of this hobby or movement is larger, but this hobby existed before 1989 too. Reenactors reenacted and portrayed older conflicts as Napoleonic and Austro-Prussian war. Future reenactors were mainly fencers and tramps. Year 1989 was turning point for all reenactors. Theirs hobby is legal, it is possible to travel, to unite, to ground living history groups, own weapons, speak about all part of our history. It was possible to share and search information, regulation with and in foreign countries, foreigners and archives and museums. Main goal of reenactors is to portray theirs archetypes as good as possible. Public can see not only reconstruction of battles, but open air exhibition - "very interactive museums". This thesis can't be described as "Complete, all history of...