Trying to win by bombing civilians was a common theme in world war two. From British Air Staff papers (1941)[1]...

  The ultimate aim of an attack on a town area is to break the 
  morale of the population which occupies it. To ensure this, 
  we must achieve two things: first, we must make the town
  physically uninhabitable and, secondly, we must make the people 
  conscious of constant personal danger. The immediate aim, is
  therefore, twofold, namely, to produce (i) destruction and
  (ii) fear of death.

Whilst that strategy may have worked in Japan with the atomic bombs it was hardly successful in Europe. And surely the impact was on the high command and political leadership rather than normal people.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_...