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Old 11th Feb 2012, 16:11
  #183 (permalink)  
Chugalug2
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
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Age: 82
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Pr00ne:
There was wide spread opposition to the mass bombing as early as 1943. It was raised in the House of Commons and it was raised in the House of Lords. It was raised by the Church of England and it was raised by certain Bomber Command crews.
It was frequently raised indeed by Bomber Command's Head Chaplain, and it is a tribute to Harris, IMHO, that he allowed him to do so instead of having him replaced by someone more amenable. But none of the worthies that you mention said what should be done with BC in place of the Night Bombing Offensive. Aspirations are all well and good, but practicalities dictate what can and cannot be done. I repeat, BC Main Force bombed cities by night because it could. In doing so it paved the way to Victory and, perhaps more importantly for Western Europe, frustrated Germany doing the same thing. It was a terrible and awful thing to do, but not doing it would have been worse. We would all (possibly even including the USA) be living under tyranny to this day.
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