what is your opinion of Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris?

Answer 1

you must remember that history is often not a completely accurate and comprehensive account of facts, but only what the victor in any given situation has recorded for posterity. so we British see him as a hero the Germans see him as a villein it depends on what side your on.

Answer 2

As a leader of a military wing he worked with the tools that he had to try to shorten the war. However the tools at the beginning of the war were basically those that had been used during the First war. The German air force started by bombing the airfields and if they had continued would have had the country open for invasion within a couple of months. However they changed their tactics and started to bomb cities and factories which is when Harris started the same tactic. the whole bombing of civilian populations was distasteful but if important munitions factories are placed in populated areas then collateral damage, as you call it today, was inevitable. The fire bombing of Dresden was however one of the things that could be construed as a war crime as there were no factories there to be destroyed and it was merely an act of revenge.

All in all he was the man of his time and did what had to be done, while waiting for the Yanks to get off their behinds and help.

Answer 3

No. He claimed each and every of the deaths and destruction in Germany brought about via his bombers have been "no longer nicely well worth the bones of a single British grenadier." interior the episode of 'the international At war' television series protecting the bomber offensive,there is an in intensity interview wherein Harris strongly defends his strategies. notwithstanding if the unique thought for bombing German cities got here from Churchill,it grew to become into Harris that stronger a planned approach of focused on civilians with carpet bombing.Harris believed that if RAF Bomber Command killed sufficient German civilians,German civilian morale could cave in, and a insurrection against the Nazi regime could result and for that reason end the war.His reasoning grew to become out to be completely defective. Even in the process the war,interior of senior stages of the RAF Harris grew to become into basic as 'Butcher Harris' with the aid of his debatable approach.Bomber Command crews weren't presented a separate marketing campaign medal,so harris refuse a peerage immediately after WW2,yet Churchill insisted he settle for a knighthood in 1946.He then emigrated to South Africa and labored as supervisor of a marine agency. In 1953 Harris finally commonplace a peerage,and returned to Britain the place he lived till his loss of existence. He wrote 'Bomber Offensive' wherein he justified his WW2 coverage.

Answer 4

He was and is respected by his crews who died in thousands.
Much I any civilised person is saddened by the bombing of
Germany I note that they attacked UK in some very serious raids. My own home town suffered at a peal in May 1941. I did not recall any heart beating at the end of the war from members of my own family who lost their homes. So Harris may not have won the war but the damage to German industry did make life difficult for their industry. The very Germans who now complain would have been stamping all over us had they won the war. Do not ever forget Hitler declared total war and the Germans agreed with joy. They got total war and the consequences

Answer 5

Sir Arthur [Bomber] Harris was leader of Royal Air Force Bomber Command during WW-2.

His strategy was to bomb Nazi factories and then bomb the homes of the Nazis who worked in them, so that they had nowhere to live.

Around the clock bombing was maintained by the United States Army Airforce - daylight raids and the RAF at night.

It does no one any good trying to see Bomber Harris in terms of the 21st century. We're talking 'total war', a concept dreamed up first by Joseph Goebells - well he got his total war all right, only thing is, it came down heavily on his head. Good riddance.

Bomber Harris had the right idea! A hero.

You can see his statue outside St. Clement Danes Church in the Strand - London.

Edit: I had to live through that bloody war and see all the destruction done to London by the Nazis. The attitude at the time was strike back and hard.

As Winston said in the House of Commons of the Nazis, "you do your worst and we'll do our best", and we did and with the Americans at the helm we won a great and glorious victory for freedom, liberty and democracy.

So what if a couple of million Nazis got killed?

What my dad said, "the only good German is a dead Nazi".

When WW-2 ended, nearly half a million UK citizens lay dead as a direct result of Nazi bombing of our towns and cities. Ask them!

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Answer 6

There are two responses to this long debated question. There is the 'moral' argument of bombing civilian targets as a military tactic, then there is the 'strategic importance' side.

I take the latter side. As a traditional Clausewitzian military leader Harris' decisions to strike/bomb are a continuation of the fact that war is a 'continuation of politics by other means'.

I base my argument on the fact that both sides were using this tactic, a tradition that has been used throughout most theatres of combat since the birth of man. Harris' decisions will forever be debated well into the future, it is only when we draw morality into the equation of combat we only add to the 'fog of war'.

Answer 7

Those who complain he was bombing civillians in Germany - oh and just what exactly was Hitler's Luftwaffe doing every night to London, Liverpool, Cardiff, Newport, Manchester Birmingham etc etc etc? My mum was a small child in Newport during the war and she remembers a huge parachuted landmine being dropped on the end of her street!!! Whole families were wiped out!

"Bomber" Harries was a Great Man, helped us win WWII. Threw back at Hitler everything he threw at us.

The Germans who suffered in the RAF raids have only old Adolf to blame. He started it, we finished it.

Answer 8

A great man who had a lousy job to do and did it to the best of his ability. By his actions alone he shortened the war. Yes, many were killed in the thousand bomber raids, but consider how many would have died had the war dragged on.

Answer 9

A man who helped us win the war against facism and oppression.

His actions were not made 'right' by the actions of Germany in Coventry and the like, they were right because it was war. War is nasty, horrible and people die. When you fight a war, you fight it to win, and you fight it to win with as few casualties as possible.

Germany did not have to start the war. We did not need to fight it either. But we did, and we did the right thing. Using the limited rescources at the begining of the war, he inflicted the maximum damage possible. Towards the end, his actions helped end the war sooner. More allied troops would have died if it was not for him.

Answer 10

Never met him. Stand his round at the bar, did he?


Those bombing raids of his were a tad ineffective though! read the casualty figures , they were surprisingly low, and did very little to halt armament production too!