ihg:-
no further comment
um, well I will if you don't mind...
Wokafans, many thanks for the link to the Peter Hitchens blog, which shares the state of the curate's egg. Like other gainsayers, he thinks that the policy of area bombing, that is bombing cities rather than factories, was made by choice. It wasn't, it was made by the simple fact that Bomber Command could find cities at night (well most of the time), but couldn't find factories (well most of the time). In contradiction of that he cites the Dam Busters, who practiced hard for that one raid, the targets of which were lightly defended or completely undefended, that required favourable met and moonlight conditions, and that still suffered a high loss rate, and Peenemunde that was itself the size of a small city, albeit its power station was its Achilles heel and thus the IP.
I don't blame Hitchens for not grasping the fundamental point that main force was turned against cities simply because they could find them at night to bomb. It needs an aviator to assess the abilities of inexperienced crews (because they weren't around long enough to be otherwise) with little more than DR to fall back on (the later nav aids helped to find the cities, but scarcely the factories).
Those who have that knowledge but who still feel free to cast moral judgements on the events of 70 years ago should ask what, prior to D-Day, the Army or Navy could do to take the fight to Germany other than in defence, which is essentially what the Desert and Atlantic campaigns were about.
As to Harris, he believed in what he was doing. If he were my commander I would prefer he believed in what he was doing. If he issued blood curdling statements against the enemy in order to encourage me and my fellows to go out night after night to face 50% odds of not returning I would feel that he was trying to do his duty, by me, my country, and our Service.
As to Churchill, I have nothing to express other than utter contempt in relation to Harris, Bomber Command, and Dresden.
As to Dresden, it was just another German city. It was of course a pretty one. So what? This was a war that had yet to be won, and as quickly as possible. Dresden stood in the way of the Red Army, whose advance was essential to the ending of the war. It was fortified. It was now its turn to suffer the fate of its fellow cities. What makes it so special?
A war crime?
All war is a crime. There is no such thing as a good war,
they are all bad. The German people appear to have learned that lesson, but some of our liberal thinkers appear not to have .