| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
the Cabinet agreed to the aerial bombing of Geman cities by carpet bombing. Harris implemented the policy vigorously and encouraged the development of tactics and technology to preform the task more effectively. This remains controversial to this day for the death and destruction it caused among civilians in Germany.
Harris was born in England, but his parents moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) when he was still a child. He was raised and educated there. At the outbreak of World War I, Harris joined the 1st Rhodesian Regiment, and served with them in South Africa and South West Africa ( Namibia). In 1915 he returned to England and joined the Royal Flying CorpsThe Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of World War I. Origin and Early History Formed by Royal Warrant on May 13, 1912, the RFC superseded the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. By the end of that ye, and after the war transferred to the newly founded Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF is the air force of the United Kingdom. History Formation and Early History The Royal Flying Corps was formed by Royal Warrant on May 13, 1912 superseding the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. The Royal Na in 1919. In the RAF he served in different functions in IndiaThe Republic of India is a large multicultural country in South Asia, with a population of over one billion. The Indian economy is the fourth largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, and is the world's second-fastest growing economy., IraqThe Republic of Iraq is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia encompassing the ancient region of Mesopotamia. It shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south, Turkey to the north, Syria to the north-west, Jordan to the west and Iran to, and IranIran ( Persian: ) is a Middle Eastern country located in southwestern Asia that until 1935 was referred to in the West as Persia''. It borders Pakistan (909km of border) and Afghanistan (936km) to the east, Turkmenistan (1000km) to the northeast, the Casp. Since 19301930 is the common year starting on Wednesday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 6 The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed ( Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City). January 27 Miguel Primo de Rivera resigns January 30 G he was member of the air staff in the Middle EastThe Middle East is a geographical and cultural area comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Middle East is a subregion of Afr ( 19301930 is the common year starting on Wednesday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 6 The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed ( Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City). January 27 Miguel Primo de Rivera resigns January 30 G- 19321932 is the leap year starting on Friday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 3 British arrest and intern Mohandas Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel January 8 In Britain the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids church remarriage of divorcees Jan).
Harris contributed at this time to the development of terror bombing using delay-action bombs, which were then applied to keep down uprisings of the Iraqi tribes fighting against British occupation. In spite of the many civilian victims of these air raids, Harris is recorded as having remarked that "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand."
Harris quickly rose through the RAF hierarchy, and was promoted to Air Commodore in 1937, Air Vice-Marshal in 1939, Air Marshal in 1941, and Commander in Chief of the Bomber Command in February 1942. At the time the RAF's night bombing role had had little effect on the German economy. By 1942 however, larger numbers of four-engined heavy bombers were becoming available, allowing for a change in tactics.
Professor Lindemann was liked and trusted by Winston Churchill. Churchill appointed him the British governments leading scientific adviser with a seat in the Cabinet. In 1942 Lindemann presented a seminal paper to the Cabinet advocating the aerial bombing of German cities by carpet bombing in a strategic bombing campaign. It was accepted by the Cabinet and Harris was appointed to carry out the task. It became an important part of the total war waged against Germany. Professor Lindemann's paper put forward the theory of attacking major industrial centrers in order to deliberately destroy as many homes and houses as possible. Working class homes were to be targeted because they had a higher density and fire storms were more likely. This would displace the German workforce and reduce their ability to work. His calculations showed that the RAF Bomber Command would be able to destroy the majority of German houses located in cities quite quickly. The plan was highly controversial even before it started, but the Cabinet thought that bombing was the only option available to directly attack Germany, (as a major invasion of the continent was years away,) and the Soviets were demanding that the Western Allies do somthing to relieve the pressure on the Eastern Front.
At first the effects were limited due to small numbers of planes on the raids, but aircraft production continued to increase while Harris pushed for huge raids with 1000 planes each. Harris launched the first of his "thousand bomber raids" against Cologne on May 30th, 1942.
Harris continued to believe that the bombing alone would force Germany to surrender. On a number of occasions he wrote to his superiors claiming the war would be over in a matter of months, first in August 1943, and then again in January 1944. However by this time Bomber Command had been involved in what became known as the Battle of Berlin, a series of massive raids on Berlin that started in November 1943, and lasted until March 1944. During this time the British lost 1,047 bombers, with a further 1,682 damaged, culminating in the disastrous raid on Nuremberg on March 30, 1944, when 94 bombers were shot down and 71 damaged, out of 795 aircraft.
With the leadup to the D-Day invasions in 1944, Harris was ordered to switch targets for the French rail network, a switch he protested because he felt the war was nearly won (again). By the end of the year the Allied forces were well inland, and in January 1945 he was allowed to resume his earlier policy. The several months of rest and refit had been useful to Bomber Command, and they were now able to put up well over 1,000 planes per raid.
The most controversial RAF raid of the war took place in the very early morning of February 14, 1945 with the bombing of the city of Dresden resulting in a lethal firestorm which killed several tens of thousands of civilians.
The culmination of the RAF Bomber Command offensive occurred in the raids in March 1945 when the RAF dropped the highest monthly weight of ordinance in the entire war. Cities hit included, April 1st Mannheim:478 aircraft; 2nd, Cologne:858 aircraft; 3rd Kamen:234, Dortmund-Ems Canal:220; 4th small raids; 5/6th Chemnitz:760 and small raids on other targets (ASROT) a total:1,223; 6th/7th small raids; 7/8th Dessau:526, Hemmingstedt:256, Harburg:234 ASROT total:1,276; 8/9th Hamburg:312 Kassel:262 ASROT a total:805; 10th small raids; 11th Essen:1,079 aircraft;12th Dortmund:1,079:13th Wuppertal and Barmen:354; 14th Herne and Gelsenkirchen:195, Datteln and Hattingen (near Bochum):169; 14/15th Lützkendorf:244, Zweibrücken:230 ASROT a total:812 sorties; 15/16th Hagen:267, Misburg:257 ASROT a total:729; 16/17th Nuremburg:231, Würzburg:225 ASROT a total:171; 17/18th small day raids of total of 300 aircraft; 18/19 Witten:324, 277:Hanau ASROT a total:844; 19th RAF No. 617 Squadron using six Grand Slams hit the railway viaduct at Arnsberg; 20/21st Böhlen:224, Hemmingstedt:166 ASROT a total:675; 21st day total:497;21/22nd night total:536, 22nd day total:708; 21/22nd night total:536; 22nd day total:708; 22/23 & day 23 around 300 in small raifs. 23/24 195 Lancasters and 23 Mosquitos of Nos 5 and 8 Groups carried out the last raid on the unfortunate town of Wesel. No aircraft lost. Wesel claims to have been the most intensively bombed town, for its size, in Germany. 97 per cent of the buildings in the main town area were destroyed. The population, which had numbered nearly 25,000 on the outbreak of war, was only 1,900 in May 1945. This was done as a tactical attack to support the British Army crossing of the Rhine on the 24th. 24th flew 537 sorties in support of the Rhine crossings. 25th Attacks on towns with communication support for German troops defending against the Allied Rhine crossing, Hanover:267, Munster:175, Osnabruck:156; 27th, Paderborn:268, Hamm area:150 ASROT a total:541; 31st Hamburg:469.
The Last raid on Berlin took place on the night of 21/22nd of April, 76 Mosquitos made 6 separate attacks just before the Soviets entered the city centre. After that most of the rest of the bombing raids made by the RAF were tactical support roles. For example there April 22nd raid on Bremen: 767. The last major stratigic raid was the destruction of the oil refinery in Tonsberg in Southern Norway by 107 Lancasters on the night of 25/26 of April. About two thirds of the 500,000 to 600,000 casualties of the bombings of german cities died during attacks of the Bomber Command.
Within the British government, there was some disquiet about the level of destruction created by the carpet-bombing of German cities towards the end of the war. However, Harris was made Marshal of the RAF in 1945. He retired on September 15, 1945 to write his story of Bomber Command's achievements in Bomber Offensive. As the sole commander-in-chief he was not made a peer in 1946. Bomber Command's crews were denied a campaign medal and, in protest, Harris refused a peerage in 1951 but accepted a baronetcy in 1953. Disappointed by the criticisms of his methods, Harris moved to South Africa, and was the manager of the South African Marine Corporation from 1946 to 1953. At that point the British appear to have changed their mind about his tactics, and Harris received an honour despite strong protests by the German government. Still despite strong protests from Germany as well as Britain, a statue of him was erected in central London in 1992 and unveiled by the Queen Mother, without a member of the British government present. She looks surprised to be shouted down by peace protesters. The line on the statue reads "The Nation owes them all an immense debt." The statue had to be guarded by policemen day and night for some time as it was frequently sprayed with grafittis.
Some people think that if Harris had been tried in a court authorised to try such a case, he might have been found guilt of war crimes. However as no Axis personnel were tried at the post-war Nuremberg Trials for war crimes for participating in the decisions on, or execution of, assault by aerial bombardment on defended enemy territory, it is not possible to say that that aerial bombardment on defended enemy territory during World War II was a war crime.
Harris said of the bombing campaign that he was unleashing on Germany "The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a dozen other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind." In his memoires he writes "In spite of all that happened at Hamburg, bombing proved a relatively humane method".