What Was Goal of Operation Pointblank?

Even now, it is not clear what the original architects of the Allied air warfare strategic bombing and fighter strategy against Germany really thought they might accomplish. The so-called “strategic” aerial offensive that was launched from bases in England in mid-1942 was, at the time, something new and untried, something theoretical. Was it to be aimed at terrorizing German civilians—a shock tactic the Germans had invented—or was it to be aimed at bringing German industry inexorably to its knees? Moral posturing aside, no one really knew what the end results of a successful strategic-bombing campaign might be; no one had ever thought through the goals of a sustained strategic-bombing offensive.