Arthur Travers Harris

Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet (April 13, 1892 - April 5, 1984), commonly known as "Bomber" Harris, and often within the RAF as "Butcher" Harris{{ref|butcher}}, was commander of RAF Bomber Command and later a Marshal of the Royal Air Force during the latter half of World War II. In 1942 the Cabinet agreed to the aerial bombing of German cities by carpet bombing. Harris implemented the policy vigorously and encouraged the development of tactics and technology to perform the task more effectively.

World War II

Harris quickly rose through the RAF hierarchy. In 1941 he was promoted to Air Marshal and Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of 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.

Related Topics:
Air Marshal - Commander-in-Chief

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Professor Lindemann was liked and trusted by Winston Churchill. Churchill appointed him the British government's leading scientific adviser with a seat in the Cabinet. In 1942, Lindemann presented a seminal paper to the Cabinet advocating the area bombing of German cities 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.

Related Topics:
Professor Lindemann - Winston Churchill - Area bombing - Strategic bombing - Total war

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Professor Lindemann's paper put forward the theory of attacking major industrial centres 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.

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Harris said at the start 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 hundred 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".

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At first, the effects were limited due to small numbers of planes on the raids. As aircraft production continued to increase, Harris pushed for huge raids with 1000 planes each. The first of Harris' "thousand bomber raids" was launched against Cologne on May 30th, 1942.

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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. By this time, however, 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.

Related Topics:
Battle of Berlin - Berlin - Nuremberg

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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.

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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 ordnance in the entire war. The last raid on Berlin took place on the night of 21/22nd of April; 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. The last major strategic raid was the destruction of the oil refinery in Tønsberg in Southern Norway by 107 Lancasters on the night of 25/26 of April.

Related Topics:
February 14 - 1945 - Bombing of the city of Dresden - Firestorm - Tønsberg

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