Who is Harris, you ask?

Arthur Harris, born April 13th 1892, (not that that’s important), was the guy who paved the way for real bombing offensives on German land. In 1942 up until 1945, when the British Cabinet agreed to allow bombing on German soil, Harris was the dude faced with implementing Churchill’s policy of force upon the Germans.

Commonly known as “Bomber” Harris because of his reputation with the press, Harris’ take of leading the bombing of Germany is often seen as unpopular and, in some cases, unsuccessful. But how effective really was his acts of aggression?

Evidence To Suggest A Positive Impact.

• Before attacking, Harris said “The Nazis entered this war with the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them.” DAMN. He really does have it in for those Germans. To elaborate, he added “They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.” Thinks he’s hard, that Harris. Well, we’ll see…

• By 1944, technical and training improvements had been made. Perhaps most importantly, the development of the H2S RADAR showed the Germans who was boss. Lethal attacks that were also accurate? You betcha.

• Speer argued that a few more attacks on Hamburg would have resulted in a collapse in the German war economy.

• The offensive reduced German war production. The US estimated that by 1944, German war production was down by 17%, part of which was impacted by the Harris Bomber Offensive. He’s not just a pretty face, that Harris.

• The offensive caused a HUMONGOUS diversion of resources from Germany, costing them fuel and 20% of their ammunition.

• Harris diverted the Luftwaffe from the Eastern Front, meaning that the USSR gained air supremacy and Hitler would now have to face a war on 2 fronts. This also made the invasion of France possible.

• 1944 – Operation Crossbow marked the successful destruction of V1 and V2 launch sites in Germany. UNLUCKY, GERMANZ.

• After the final attack between 1944 and 1945, German Luftwaffe could no longer provide effective backlash and defence. The RAF and the USAAF carried out day and night attacks on the German cities and the damage was devastating for the Germans.

Evidence To Suggest A Mixed Impact.

• The bombing of Dresden in Germany resulted in a lethal firestorm. This killed several tens of thousands of civilians. Why is that bad? Well, they were bombing innocent people. But it was good, because it caused public uproar and damage.

• The large number of civilian casualties gave Britain superior military value.

Evidence To Suggest A Negative Impact.

• The Butt Report noted that “only 1 in 3 attacking aircraft got within 5 miles of their targets” between 1940 and 1941.

• Harris’ bomber campaign on Cologne in Germany failed – 40 aircraft were lost and over 100 were damaged. However, within weeks, Cologne was back to normal.

• Germany didn’t surrender because of Harris’ attacks. Least we tried, eh?

• Historian Mierzejewski (good luck remembering that one… try this acronym: Many Igloos Eject Round Zebras, Even JEWS Kill Iguanas. No?) argued that both bombing and attacking of German fuel plants were ineffective in stopping Germany’s thriving coal and rail-based economy.

• The bombing raids did not destroy the Sorpe Dam – a dam essential to industrial Ruhr production.

• 1942-3 – German munitions production doubled. How on Earth did they manage that with all our death and destruction?!

• The offensive absorbed a grand total of 25% British war production. That’s a lot. And as you know, we didn’t have enough money to re-build effectively.

• German morale didn’t collapse, it just strengthened their determination. You’d have thought we’d have learnt that after the Germans tried that with the Blitz, wouldn’t you?

• 40,000 were killed in Hamburg. BUT the city had a strong anti-Nazi sentiment about it. We practically killed our support there!

So overall, there were ups and downs to Harris’ little plans. Mainly, we didn’t destroy as much of the stuff as we wanted to; the Sorpe Dam was possibly the biggest failure here.

However, the Harris Bomber Offensive made Hitler and Nazi Germany aware that Britain could do damage if they wanted: they were re-armed, had advanced radar technology and their RAF were brutal.

WHAT’S THAT?! A VICTORY?!

A WIN FOR BRITAIN!

(Although it wasn’t all positive. But we’ll be quiet about that for now…)

P.s. We’re not mentioning the failures for now, but be sure to mention them in the exam!