Originally Posted by
OJ 72
Asturias56...I suspect that any of Harris' surviving 'Old Lags' would take deep exception to your comment that:
'Bomber Harris? Not a great leader - he rarely ever went anywhere near an operational station...'
As Squadron Historian and Adjutant in the early 90s I had the immense privilege of meeting, talking with (in depth) and, best of all, drinking with dozens of ex-Bomber Command aircrew, groundcrew and their families..and almost to a man and woman they would not hear anything bad said about 'Butch' as he was very affectionately known to them. They would have followed him to hell and back, and to the survivors it must have felt like that at times.
The main problem with 'Bomber', 'Bert', or 'Butch' Harris has been the revisionist view of the strategic bomber offensive that was started as early as Feb/Mar 45 by one Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, who, after Dresden, feared that his legacy could be tarnished by association with Bomber Command and Harris.
OJ – Glad to see your conversations with veterans did not include the misnomer 'Butcher', which I moaned about some years back on this forum after Andrew Marr used it in his British history series.