Cirrus,
You are applying modern thinking to problems of history - you are making the same point about "carpet bombing" that the French are making about Agincourt.
The maxim in 1939-1940 was that the bomber would always get through and many thousands of civilians would be killed by high explosives and especially poison gas. The German use of bombers during the Spanish Civil War (I can't spell Guernica) led to the belief that total destruction would follow once aircraft started bombing. The French were especially paranoid about German bombing - they were more scared of the prospect of bombing rather than the act itself. (Hence no radio at Gamlon's HQ as I stated above).
When the Germans bombed Rotterdam in 1940, about 900 civilians were killed. The hysterical western media reported 30,000 dead - Holland capitulated soon after. The French army actually blockaded some Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF - 1 Gp deployed supporting the BEF) airfields rather than have RAF bombers drop munitions should retaliation take place. Bomber Command was retricted to dropping leaflets during the phoney war - this backing up the strategy of inaction should the Germans turn the Luftwaffe on the civil population.
Once the Germans did start air attacks, they used their heavy (sic) bombers to create terror and refugees in order to destroy morale. They tried the same during the Blitz, and the RAF, completely in tone with the belief of the period, sowed the whirlwind - this strategy used because of the inaccuracy of night bombing.
Yes, the killing of many civilians was not "cricket" however it was the policy of the day and a method of creating a second front to appease the Russians. It would not be tollerated today, but to put today's politically correct thinking into the past does not fit either the circumstances or the desperate race for survival during those dark days.