Jacko, posting effectively the same message over and over hardly advances the debate. A swipe at Harris, a reminder of the sacrifice and achievements of Coastal Command, an attempt to rope in all the other Operational Commands with Bomber as part of an integrated European Air Campaign, for which a medal was struck, a swipe at the ineffectiveness of the Bomber Campaign once again culminating in your killer phrase that a Coastal 4 engine aircraft had twenty times greater impact on German industrial production than a Bomber one (which other than labelling it "official" you never substantiate), seem to constitute your manifesto, always the same words, though not necessarily in the same order, sunshine!
Well let's address them yet again. We are not discussing Harris, we are discussing his campaign and his men. He may have been a right "B", in which case he was in very good company, for RAF wartime career ladders seemed to favour the Leigh-Mallorys and Baders rather than the Dowdings and Parks, so what? Once again no-one is trying to detract from Coastal's record, it is you who keep raising it. They fought a long and arduous campaign and helped save us from defeat. They should, and do, wear their Atlantic Star with pride. As I have said before you could have had just one Aircrew Star, but it was more appropriate that those who fought the vitally important Battle of the Atlantic, be it on or above the waves be so acknowledged. Equally (I say no more than that!) it is fitting that those who fought the vitally important Battle of Germany, without which there might have been peace but no victory, should be so acknowledged. It wasn't in 1945, for political reasons, but should be now. As Hugh has said, there was a gradual improvement throughout the war of the effectiveness of the Bomber Offensive, despite a similar increase to the enemy's counter measures. As it prevailed towards the end, its destructive power was awesome. That is surely the measure of military success? Why did the Luftwaffe virtually cease flying at the end, why wasn't it thrown against the beaches on D-day, why did German industrial production scarcely rise, despite the total mobilisation mentioned earlier, by sinking u-boats?
You seem to be approaching this from a personal angle. You say that your father served in Coastal Command. It is a recorded fact that the 4 engined bombers went first to Harris, and the delay and scarcity of them had its detrimental effect in the u-boat war. Naturally he was aware of that, naturally he resented it. It doesn't follow that they were wrongly allocated. The Atlantic was for us a defensive war, the Bombing of Germany was an offensive one (and for some years the only one). To paraphrase Churchill, wars are not won by defensive measures, rather they are thus not lost. Who is to say that if those 4 engined aircraft had not gone to Harris, Speer could have pushed out the Tigers to stop the T34s, and refined and transported the fuel to keep the Luftwaffe flying. We sink every single one of Donitz's u-boats but get turned back on D-day! Either Hitler or Stalin would have ruled continental Europe from Siberia to Brest. A bit OTT? No more than the repeating a mantra about a Liberator having twenty times the impact on German industry with Coastal rather than Bomber Command.
BTW, my background is transport, so everyone alike can have a sneer, and my father was in LAA, so had it in for all of us!