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Loss of life and war go hand in hand, and in any war, there are countless decisions made each and
every day, both on an individual and Governmental level, that can determine the fate one man,
or a city of people. These decisions are usually justified by the thought that the ultimate good
that comes out of victory, outweighs the negative of the present moment, and since both sides have
opposing views of what that ultimate good is, they each amp up the pressure and brutality to levels
considered mind-boggling inhumane in peacetime. Although when it comes to WW2, we know a lot
about Nazi Germany’s decisions on this frontier, we don’t know much about England’s, and in this
video, I aim to highlight one of England’s most controversial figures in her history,
that man being Arthur Harris, also colloquially known as “Bomber” Harris or “Butcher” Harris.
Born in 1892, Harris, like many other British boys,
was instilled with an innate love for his country and for the crown.
Although he was adventurous by nature and ended up moving to Southern Rhodesia by the age of 17,
once the news of the first world war finally reached him in Africa, he felt compelled to fight.
Initially thinking the war wouldn’t last long, Harris enlisted into the 1st Rhodesia
regiment as a bugler, which is the simple brass instrument you’ve probably seen in
plenty of movies but didn’t know the name of. His regiment was eventually posted in a
campaign throughout South-West Africa, where the combat was admittedly relatively light,
with there being only one German Aircraft present in the area. By July 1915, the campaign was over,
and although Harris felt contented in his service to the queen for a while, he quickly realised the
war in Europe was still raging, and contrary to his first impressions, would go on for
much longer. On the basis of this realisation, he joined the war in Europe as a Rhodesian volunteer
and was drafted into the royal flying corps where he got his first taste of flying.
Discovering he was quite handy with an aircraft,
Harris not only managed to survive the tumultuous early stages of aviation warfare,
where mind you no Britons were given parachutes to wear as it was deemed dishonourable,
but he thrived and scored kills on five enemy aircraft, earning him an Air Force Cross after
the war. The Western front however, did leave a lasting impression on the man,
who would later go on to say that air bombing was preferable to the mass slaughter of the trenches.
Although Harris wanted to initially return to Rhodesia after WW1,
he decided that for the sake of the stability of his family, he would instead continue pursuing an
air force career. In the inter-war period between 1918 and 1939, Harris was present in India,
Mesopotamia and Persia. He directly contributed to the development of bomb warfare during that time
and was quoted as saying “the only thing the arab understands is the heavy hand.”
Harris developed an interesting set of opinions and personality during this time.
He came to have low opinions on Naval officers, saying, I quote,
“there are three things which should never be allowed on a well-run yacht; a wheelbarrow,
an umbrella and a naval officer" and In addition to this, Harris came to the conclusion that
multiple and continuous bombing runs could solve all number of problems, with another
infamous quote in regard to the Palestinian Arab revolt in 1936, stating “One 250 pound
or 500 pound bomb in each village that speaks out of turn would satisfactorily solve the problem”.
When the 2nd world war hit, Harris was one of Britain’s most experienced pilots and was
commissioned to lead RAF bomber command. By 1942, he was directed to carry out the Area bombing
directive, which was a strategy that entailed bombing on the German industrial workforce,
as well as the bombing on German cities and their populations. Ha rris, a firm believer in the Area
bombing strategy, quoted at the start of the campaign, "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 hundred other places, they put their rather
naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."
And with that, “Bomber” or “Butcher” Harris begun to earn his nickname. In May of 1942,
he innovated the first thousand bomber raid under the name Operation Millennium and devastated the
unexpecting city of Köln. The end result of the first raid was over 45000 Germans made
homeless and 469 killed. The industrial parts of the city were rendered effectively useless,
and the Brits came away losing only 40 bombers, a mere 4% of the total force.
This raid on Köln however was just a fraction of what was to come, and in another one of
“Butcher” Harris’ Operations, codenamed Operation Gommorah, the German city of Hamburg was targeted.
This time however, the Area bombing directive was put into full practise,
and in 8 days of non-stop bombing, with the allies using the newly innovated firebombs,
an estimated 34000-43000 died and the entire city of Hamburg ablaze. The extent of the
damage would later be compared to Japan, with many calling it the German Nagasaki.
Harris was triumphant and this continued to show him that the war could be won through bombing,
bombing and more bombing. His political contemporaries including Winston Churchill however
were coming to disagree with the methods promoted by Harris. Churchill was under immense political
pressure and still maintained that the area bombing directive was intended only for
specific industrial and economic targets. Harris however, emboldened by his recent
success at Hamburg and frustrated with Churchill’s hesitance to endorse his tactics whole heartedly,
urged the Government to be more transparent as to the true nature of the bombing campaign. To quote
Harris once again, "The aim of the Combined Bomber Offensive ... should be unambiguously stated [as]
the destruction of German cities, the killing of German workers, and the disruption of civilised
life throughout Germany ... the destruction of houses, public utilities, transport and lives, the
creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale, and the breakdown of morale both at home
and at the battle fronts by fear of extended and intensified bombing, are accepted and
intended aims of our bombing policy. They are not by-products of attempts to hit factories."
Due to Harris’ close circle of political support, the Area bombing directive stayed active,
however although Harris wanted to replicate his success of Hamburg on other cities like Berlin,
the German’s became all the more wise to the strategies used by the RAF under the command
of the Butcher, and in the attacks to Berlin between November 1943 and March 1944, the results
spoke for themselves with the British losing over 1000 bombers with a further 1700 damaged.
During D-Day however, much to Harris’ dismay, he was forced to pause his operation on Germany
and was ordered to switch targets to France for the time being. After this hiccup however,
“Butcher” Harris continued his campaign, bombing many industrial and civilian targets,
specifically in the city of Ruhr where he aimed to halt German oil production.
He was awarded the American Legion of Merit for his bombing campaign in Ruhr
as American official history notes that Harris was ordered to cease attacks on oil in November 1944,
as the combined bombing had been so effective that none of the synthetic plants were operating
effectively. ‘
In one of his last, and most controversial raids of the war, “Bomber” Harris targeted
Dresden, where yet another fire storm caused extremely heavy casualties, with an estimated
25,000 victims. As Germany was falling, Harris was criticised for ordering raids
on places such as Pflorzheim for little to no military value and needless civilian deaths.
His bombing campaign lasted all the way up until April 23rd 1945,
just as the Soviets were knocking on the gates of Berlin, and as a result of this,
Harris was also awarded the Russian Order of Suvorov First Class, as the 10 thousand
German anti aircraft guns could have easily been redirected to soviet tanks and ground forces.
After the war, Harris was aware of the controversy he garnered all across the world, and although
he received medals of appreciation from Poland and all the way to Brazil, many could still not
stomach the fact that his bombing campaigns resulted in tens of thousands if not hundreds
of thousands of German deaths. In response to this, I’ll leave his final quotes from his post
war memoirs with you and let you decide. Harris wrote In his postwar memoirs "In spite of all that
happened at Hamburg, bombing proved a relatively humane method", "I ... assume that the view
under consideration is something like this: no doubt in the past we were justified in attacking
German cities. But to do so was always repugnant and now that the Germans are beaten anyway
we can properly abstain from proceeding with these attacks. This is a doctrine to which I could never
subscribe. Attacks on cities like any other act of war are intolerable unless they are strategically
justified. But they are strategically justified in so far as they tend to shorten the war and
preserve the lives of Allied soldiers. To my mind we have absolutely no right to give them up
unless it is certain that they will not have this effect. I do not personally regard the
whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier.”