I watched last night with mixed feelings. Although it had a good 'narrative', supported by great imagery, it was also selective, with only one en passant mention of the other 'heavies' (and no mention of their proportionately higher casualty rates). This compares with the Battle of Britain Spitfire myth. Moreover, I was a little disturbed at the moral equivalency of comparing the death camps with the area bombing campaign. After all, it was total War, and as one of the AGs stated, 'they started it!'.
Coincidentally, I was back in the UK last week and picked up a copy of Sir Arthur Harris's 'Bomber Offensive' which he wrote in 1947 (Oxfam - GBP 2.99). It is a cracking read - his description of pre-war and waritme inter-service rivalries would ring true today. He also gives particular attention to the merits of area bombing (well, he would, wouldn't he?) by describing the industrial dislocation that the campaign caused (and backed up by OPRE and the US Strategic Bombing Survey). It cross-references well with the post war interrogations of Speer and Goering, amongst others (see Richard Overy's chilling book 'Interrogations'). One point to recall (again, hardly mentioned last night) was that this was a Combined Bomber Offensive, with the aims and objectives agreed by the US and UK. Having spent time in Germany and researched some of the local aspects of the CBO, I soon learned that the dislocation spread to the remotest parts of the country, due to huge population and industrial displacement - and the concommitant load on the assailed transport infrastructure. I also spoke with one old dear who 'preferred' to be bombed at night by the RAF - as she claimed these raids were more accurate in Upper Bavaria than daytime USAAF raids (supported by the evidence on the round-the-clock raids on Memmingen night-fighter clusters, for example).