Figure 1.--.

Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris watched London burning during the Luftwaffe's Blitz of London (1940). He famesously said at the time. "The Garmans have sown the wind, and so they shall reap the whirlwind." At the time the RAF did not have the capability of retailiating in force. Harris and others seethed to bring the population centers and war industry of the Reih under the bomb bays of a modern force of four-engine heavy bombers. He did more than watch. He carefully studied the results of the Luftwaffe coperations and concluded that Bomber Command could do better. It should not be missed that ghe tatuics he is know for was derived from studying German tactics during the Blitz. Harris replaced J. E. Baldwin as head of RAF Bomber Command (February 1942). He would acquire the name of Bomber Harris. He was a fervent advocate of winning the war through air power. And he took command at the same time thatv the redoubtable Avro Lancaster squadrons began to be activated giving Bomber Command the capability of hirtting the Reich hard for the first time. Harris adopted a policy of area bombing which Propaganda Minister Goebbels called terror bombing. Goebbels of course did not mentined that German Führer Adolf Hitler had from an early pointed threatened and carried out terror bombing. Goebbels and the NAZIs did not so much object to the concept, their complaint was that German cities were being subjected to it. Harris is perhaps the most controversial major Allied military commanders of the War. He was a proponent of bombing German cities to disrupt the German war economy. He is often accused of targeting civilians. This is not entirely true. Most importsant German industrial targets were located in the cities. Harris became head of Bomber Command just as the famed Lancaster came into service giving the RAF the capacity to strike with foirce deep into Germany. And at a time when American had etered the War and was building up the 8th Air Force to join in the strageic bombing campaign. A British reader writes, "Air Marshall Harris was vilified not many years ago for his alleged indiscrimiate bombing of German cities, particularly Dresden. It seemed to be a bit harsh. The tone of the vilification was such that some people wanted to dub him a War Criminal. One of the difficults the RAF had was finding the target. This improved with the developed of more sophisticated radar and the 'Pathfinder' force. (Light bombers would fly ahead of the main bomber force, come in at low level and pin point the target with incendaries.) Harris' view was that carpet bombing achieved the desired result, but not only because the target would be 'down there somewhere', but it was total war. After all who started it! The contiuation of the destruction of the cities was becoming questionable later in the war. The Americans tended to bomb by day, sufferering higher casualties than the RAF, but finding the target was easier. Nonetheless they carried out 1,000 bomber raids and carpet bombed the cities." The morality and effectiveness of the strategic bombing campsaign are two open questions. It should be born in mind that the critiism of Air Marshal Harris are easy to make today with the NAZIs safely defeated.

Created: 1:26 AM 1/3/2012
Last updated: 3:22 AM 5/8/2023