What are peoples views of Bomber Harris?
He did go a bit OTT on a few occasions where it wasnât strictly necessaryâŚ
Did what he had to do. There was no other way to attack Germany in those days, he had to use area bombing because thatâs all we could use.
BDL, Dresden? and Firestorm tactics?
Mosquito raid on the prison shows we were capable of accuracy,
Im only playing devils advocate, and trying to start a thread that is reliant on opinion rather than fact.
Not sure what Bomber Harris did? Could you explainâŚmore? I get the general sense but not the specifics.
He was the chief of Bomber Command in WW2, and ordered a lot of the big night-time raids against cities - google or wikipedia to find out more.
The small raids by the Mosquito squadrons were very accurate, but were only made on very small targets and (if I recall correctly) a lot of training before the big day. I also believe they were made in the day?
If the Mossies had attacked Germany during the day in anything other than tiny raids (which would not have been big enough to hurt German industry all that much), they would have been slaughtered in the way that the USAAF was. They had to use large formations of very heavy bombers to move enough bombs to attack the large industrial areas, those heavy bombers were not accurate enough to hit the factories in any kind of precise way. Itâs unfortunate that so many civillians had to die, but it was war and it had to be done (and it was against the country that had invented bombing civillians on a large scale).
IMO Dresden was a legitimate target - one of the main transport hubs for moving supplies to the Eastern Front. Again, what happened is a pity, but these things happen during total war.
He should have been sacked. He was insubordinate in pursuing the massive urban bombing campaign, when he had been directed to focus on key military and economic targets.
I doubt he ordered any act that was egregious enough by the standards of the time to constitute a âwar crimeâ. Area bombing had been advocated by all major military nations as a legitimate instrument of war. However, the bombing of cities (particularly the fire raid on Dresden) caused massively disproportionate casualties for any military advantage gained.
Bomber Command should have focused its efforts on strategic economic targets - particularly fuel production - and on flattening the Wehrmacht to assist the ground offensive.
I think he had too much power and was a law onto himself. Bomber command (BC) got the cream of the crop as far as recruits. Ministry of supply gave priority to BC for equipment and slowed down the introduction of a decent engine for tanks, the meteor based on the merlin.
His refusal to allocate recourses to support ground forces should have got him sacked. He had lost sight of the big picture and could only see his little world. His continuing belief that bombing would win the war showed his inability to see the big picture.
His early work was good and at a time when it was the only method we had of fighting back should not be forgotten. But he lost his way and his commanders lost control over him. If you think of the way that army commanders were treated it is surprising he got away with it.
Having said all this the way he and BC was treated after the war was disgraceful
Well from what I read ill have to go with âA Bastard but âYOURâ Bastardâ 
I understand that Dresden was bombed on request of the Russians, because they assumed that Dresden was a centre for supplies and reinforcements sent to the eastern front.
Jan
Although what he did could be considered a little bit OTT, it was a TOTAL war. Nasty things have to be done to get results, even if that result was the worsening of German morale, lets not forget the Germans bombed British cities as well, in short theyâre all as bad as each other. I have no doubt that had the Axis won then Harris would have been had up for war crimes the same way Goering was, but he was âourâ bastard after all.
Itâs easy with the benifit of hindsight to look back and critisize the tactics used in the air war. Iâm sure that at the time you would be hard pressed to find critics amongst the citizens of London, Liverpool, Birmingham,Glasgow and particularly Coventry. Even with a contolled media you canât hide home losses and this has to have effected the moral of frontline forces.
Area bombing wasnât about hitting strategic targets it was about bringing the war to the front door of the people who put Hitler in power.
Harris may have been a bastard but he was the right bastard at the right time.
Plus, the entire tactic of night area bombing was forced on the RAF by the aircraft technology available to them and with the approval of their political leadership. Harris was merely the executor of civilan policy, and nothing he did violated the accepted laws of war at the time (the Hague convention for example explicitly bans only the bombardment of totally undefended cities and the deliberate destruction of certain types of building). If you want to blame someone for the bombing tactics of WW2, try Douhet.
your bastard.
Hmm, well I suppose Argentina was quite friendly to fleeing Nazis so thatâs a fair point. 
and???
the same.
I suppose I probably ought to point out here that for much of the war the RAF (bombing at night) had an average miss distance from the target smaller than the USAAF (bombing by day). Sounds strange but itâs actually true - by the time the USAAF was actually launching sizeable raids the RAF had largely solved their navigational difficulties and were bombing reasonably accurately.
Oh, and trying to seperate out the actions of the western allies during WW2 is pointless at this level - the US, British and Commonwealth/Imperial forces were integrated to a very deep level and their policies were virtually indistinguishable towards the enemy. The choices made on night/day bombing were actually enforced by aircraft type available rather than doctrine - itâs worth noting here that Curtis E. Lemay was quite happy to have his bombers run night area raids of Japan (including the most lethal raid in history, more so than the A-bomb raids) once he had the B-29s available.
I suppose I probably ought to point out here that for much of the war the RAF (bombing at night) had an average miss distance from the target smaller than the USAAF (bombing by day). Sounds strange but itâs actually true - by the time the USAAF was actually launching sizeable raids the RAF had largely solved their navigational difficulties and were bombing reasonably accurately.
Oh, and trying to seperate out the actions of the western allies during WW2 is pointless at this level - the US, British and Commonwealth/Imperial forces were integrated to a very deep level and their policies were virtually indistinguishable towards the enemy. The choices made on night/day bombing were actually enforced by aircraft type available rather than doctrine - itâs worth noting here that Curtis E. Lemay was quite happy to have his bombers run night area raids of Japan (including the most lethal raid in history, more so than the A-bomb raids) once he had the B-29s available.[/quote]
Agreed. Didnt say we didnt have our own bastards. Just said that this one was your bastard. Yet you cant really make a huge distinction between the US and UK. Never before in History have 2 countries worked together so closely in a war.