Quote:
Originally Posted by winny
Sadly that's what it took to get Germany to finally surrender, to blame the British for fighting back in the exact same way as they were attacked seems unfair.
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Great post Winny, but before someone jumps on the above statement I'd like to add two points -
1) The bombing campaign itself was conducted by both Britain and America, but people continue to believe the American propaganda of 'precision bombing', which was there only to placate the Germanic and Italian American voters at home and is still widely espoused today.
2) The bombing campaign didn't bring about a surrender, but had the finances and resources earmarked for the invasion of Europe been handed over to the American bomber forces and Bomber Command, this would've been the case, as Speer himself stated in the past.
Unfortunately, what Arthur Harris failed to realise (having read his book) was that the invasion of Fortress Europe was entirely necessary in order to put Western Allied troops on the ground in Europe. Otherwise there was a potential for Stalin to march right on to the channel coast and down through Italy himself. Harris was commited to forcing Germany to surrender by using the Bomber force, and may have managed this given the resources, but seems not to have seen the potential further consequences of this. All he was concerned with was saving the lives of the Allied soldiers sent to invade by rendering an invasion unnecessary. Hence the 'bones of a British Grenadier' statement.
Alternatively, Harris may have been fully aware of this but foresaw a potential return to the horrors of 'Trench warfare' of 14-18, whether initially against Germany, but also subsequently against Russia. Maybe he was afraid of the cold war warming up a few degrees, and the existence of an unstoppable Bomber force would be enough to dissuade Stalin from further terratorial gains.
But again, if my Auntie had........
