Originally Posted by
Chugalug2
So the RAF did not use poison gas in Air Policing, nor it seems even wished to. Your other insinuation is that it used indiscriminate bombing in Air Policing. Where, when? The SOP was to drop leaflets in the local language warning that a village (for example) would be bombed the following day and that the occupants should therefore vacate it beforehand. Severe 'policing' to be sure, but that was to contain armed insurrection in a League of Nations mandated territory by the armed forces of the state authorised to enforce the mandate. But you speak of indiscriminate bombing, so again; where, when?
My understanding was that the RAF had used - or had intended to use - poison gas in Iraq. Archimedes seems to have done a little more research on this than me and they're of the opinion that the RAF did not use gas and likely did not intend to.
As for indiscriminate, in his memoirs Air Commodore Lionel Charlton described it as such, at one point referring to it as close to wanton slaughter. Charlton and other contemporary accounts also refer to very large numbers of civilian casualties. So if the practice was as you described, to warn the occupants before commencing bombing, then it was ineffective at protecting civilians. Even if we were to accept that every measure was taken to prevent civilian casualties, (and dismiss these contemporary accounts) there is a limit to how humane punitive bombing raids can be.