Area Bombing
I have recently been reading a number of books on Bomber Command, Bomber Boys Patrick Bishop, The Doomed Youth of Bomber Command, and Battle for Hamburg and the Nuremberg Raid both by Martin Middlebrook.
What comes across is that Harris was insubordinate against the directive of higher command once his popularity among the British press and public had grown. After the Battle of the Ruhr higher directive was to go for aircraft, tank and gun factories, plus Oil production in the run up to D Day. Harris convinced Portal and Churchill that he could win the war by flattening Berlin at the cost of 400 to 500 Aircraft. By March 1944 he had loss over a 1,000 Bombers and crews plus a similar number so badly damaged they would not fly again, in the meantime German production of weapons peaked in late 1943 early 1944.
Remember in late 1943 the USAAF had been almost withdrawn from the Battle having been shot out of the skies in the late summer of 1943, leaving only Bomber Command ranging over Germany. Yes raids were made against other targets but the main focus was Berlin, and it was knocked into rubble but did not stop theGerman from increasing weapon production. It was at this time rumblings in the Houses of Parliament and in some press questioning the morality of area Bombing and I think that Churchill and higher RAF Command started to distance themselves from what would be coming at the end of the war.
In March 1944 after the disastrous raid on Nuremberg which we lost more RAF flyers in just over an hour than we did in the Battle of Britain, Bomber Command was given over to Supreme Allied Command and Harris was drawn into line, which he did not like, referring to the raids against other targets as raids forthe Oily Boys. It was during the period of the fall of 1943 to March 1944 that Bomber Commands losses were at their peak and they were losing the front line strength of about 800 bombers every 5 or 6 weeks.
What Bomber Command had to do during the War was a terrible act but at a time of total war. The problem was at the end of the war higher command could not face the responsibility of what they had to do to win the war, and AM Harris carried the can along with the brave men of Bomber Command.
During the release of the Film War games in the 1960s about a Nuclear attack on the UK it mentioned that we would have to shoot the worst of the wounded especially the badly burned. It also stated if you don’t think we would do that, that’s what the Germans had to do with their badly burned civilians after the Hamburg Fire raid of July 1943, where we killed about 50,000 German for the loss of 13aircraft. That was one of the reason the film was banned for a long time, as the UK Government did not think the British public wanted reminding of what we had done in the War.
It has been a sad seventy or so years for the veterans of Bomber Command and only now have we given them the Memorial and Medal they deserved, but you have to ask why it has taken so long.
Last edited by SCAFITE; 18th Feb 2013 at 16:46.