A bombardment's an attack by artillery fire directed against fortifications, troops or towns and buildings. In its strict sense the term's only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, etc., by an assailant with the object of disheartening his opponent, and specially to force the civil population and authorities of a besieged place to persuade their military commander to capitulate before the actual defences of the place have been reduced to impo… (More on Bombardment)