City Busting Exam

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Created on April 21, 2023

City Busting, the Nuclear Weapons Revolution, and Precision Guidance

1 / 13

The experience of the Gotha Raids on London during World War I led many Inter-war air war theorists to conclude

A. Daylight aerial bombings were not ever feasible; attacks should only happen at night

B. Air power should always be subordinate to and coordinated with the operations of the army and navy

C. The bomber will always get through

D. The best approach to defend against an offensive strategic campaign is to knock out the enemy’s air bases

E. All of the above

2 / 13

At the beginning of WWII, the British decided to focus first on:

A. The strategic bombing of German cities

B. Increasing defensive fighter interceptors and improving ground air defenses

C. Attacking German urban-industrial centers

D. Destroying the German submarine pens in France

E. None of the above

3 / 13

American public opinion supporting President Truman’s 1944 decision to drop two nuclear bombs on Japan has:

A. Remained the same to present day

B. Decreased

C. Increased

D. Fluctuated and shown no clear trend

4 / 13

What is the relationship between a nuclear weapon’s yield and its lethal radius?

A. Increases in yield are directly proportional to increases in lethal radius

B. Increases in yield have no effect on lethal radius

C. A nuclear weapon’s lethal radius is proportional to the cube root (Y 1/3 ) of its yield

D. A nuclear weapon’s lethal radius is proportional to half of its yield

E. There is no relationship

5 / 13

Under the just war theory, proportionality is a critical test of whether warfare is justified or not. This concept refers to

A. Whether or not the commander intends to hurt innocents

B. Whether the harm against innocents is outweighed by the military benefits of inflicting that harm

C. Whether the number of innocents killed is greater than the number of combatants killed

D. Whether the cause of the attackers is more just than the cause supported by those attacked

E. None of the above

6 / 13

According to Digby, the use of non-nuclear precision guided munitions in war:

A. Would decrease the rate and number of conventional munitions fired

B. Would increase the rate and number of conventional munitions fired

C. Could increase the risk of escalating a conflict to nuclear war when stores of conventional precision munitions were used up

D. A and C

E. B and C

7 / 13

Digby argues that the advent of precision guided munitions and their use in war:

A. Increasingly validate the proposition that if a target can be seen, it can be hit and destroyed

B. Put a premium on mobility

C. Would cause the yield (and weight) of munitions necessary to knock out a target to be less

D. All of the above

E. None of the above

8 / 13

In 1952, the United States successfully tested its first thermonuclear weapon, “Ivy Mike.” It had a yield of 10.4 megatons. Roughly how many times greater is this yield than that of the Hiroshima fission bomb “Little Boy,” which had an estimated yield of 15 kilotons?

A. 7

B. 60

C. 700

D. 7,000

E. 70,000

9 / 13

A weapon with a yield of 3.5 mt is equivalent to a weapon with a yield of:

A. 35,000 tons

B. 3,500,000 kt

C. 3,500,000,000 kg

D. A and B

E. None of the above

10 / 13

The Allies rationalized the bombing of Dresden as being militarily justified to disrupt military production and communications. What facts, however, suggest the bombing was aimed against innocent civilians?

A. The munitions dropped included bombs to blow off residential roofs to ensure homes would be burned by subsequent dropping of incendiaries

B. The Allied war propaganda against Germany argued that they only did precision bombing

C. Delayed fused anti-personnel weapons were dropped to kill those fleeing their burning home

D. A and C

E. All of the above

11 / 13

The Butt Report assessed the effectiveness of British bombing. It concluded that in night-time attacks on industrial targets in the Ruhr:

A. Fifty percent of the bombers came within 1/8th of a mile of their targets

B. Ten percent of bombers came within 75 miles of their targets

C. Five percent of the bombers came within 1,000 yards of their targets

D. Seventy five percent of the bombers came within 10 yards of their targets

E. None of the above

12 / 13

The revelations made in the Butt Report led the British to:

A. Coordinate air attacks on Germany with the Americans

B. Increase the number of fighters for bombing raids

C. Emphasize destroying enemy morale by prioritizing the bombing of urban targets

D. Target major industrial sites in the Ruhr

13 / 13

The Butt Report refuted the inter-war theory that:

A. The air force should be independent from the Army and Navy

B. Bombers could fly in daylight

C. Bombing attacks could be highly effective at destroying specific industrial targets

D. The most effective way to conduct strategic strikes against cities was to employ chemical weapons

E. A and B

Your score is

The average score is 66%