The Second World War in the Air. Warsaw, Rotterdam, Coventry: The names of these cities exemplify the destructive attacks of the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War. From 1942 onward, the German Reich itself experienced area bombardments: cities like Cologne, Hamburg, and Dresden were heavily destroyed. What strategies and tactics did the air forces pursue? How did the airstrikes affect the course of the war? And how did it come to this? Harald Fritz Potempa presents the development of aerial warfare in Europe from 1939 to 1945 from a comparative perspective. He discusses the military value as well as the moral and legal legitimacy of the attacks. He dedicates a separate chapter to the culture of remembrance after 1945. The series "Wars of Modernity," published by the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr, makes the latest research findings accessible to a broad audience. The most significant military crises and conflicts of the past centuries are vividly presented and analyzed in terms of both the course of the confrontations and their political and cultural contexts.