Originally Posted by
JustinHeywood
To be fair, there was plenty of criticism of Harris’s performance at the time - it’s not simply revisionism for its own sake. Harris consistently went his own way on area bombing despite directives from above. As I recall, Hastings suggests in Bomber Command that a stronger commander than Portal may well have sacked him.
The problems surrounding Portal would have solved lots of problems in the RAF, which opens yet other cans of worms. The 'plenty of criticism' at the time was only only really evident after these events in question. It's a little like the 'look at me, I didn't agree' reactions that many of the OKW & OKH upper echelons displayed. It all stems really from weak leadership.