Well that's just it, "at war" vs "near war". Political disagreement is pretty trivial compared to bombs.
And as an aside, the Germans kept fighting for 2 more years after Hamburg was firebombed. The Allies gave most German cities the same treatment over the next 2 years.
Yes. The video I was watching was focused on the whole idea of fighting a war with bombs. It was thought that you couldn't win by bombing and the English general, or was he a civilian, in charge said "well it's never been tried before and we shall see".
Very good study for a perspective on the petty race bating and bathroom bating that occupies the populous today.
That would be “Bomber” Harris, the RAF general who claimed killing as many German civilians as possible would end the war. He tried it for about 3 years, killed a few hundred thousand women and children, and accomplished nothing but making the Germans more angry and stubborn. Incidentally, the USAF bombed in daylight so they could see where their bombs were dropping, but the RAF bombed indiscriminately at night because it was “safer” for their crews. That part didn’t work out so well when the Germans developed radar-controlled flak guns and radar-equipped night fighters.