Bombing of Germany and War in Europe 1944-45 Flashcards
Intro: Bombing
Churchill and Hitler in first few months of war avoided bombing anything other than military objectives (fearing tit-for-tat campaign). Churchill did not believe outright in civilian bombing (such as Spanish Civil War), HE, Germany had put their economy on war footing, so Churchill thought that manufacturing and communication centres were fair game and so civilians would become targets.
Reasons for bombing:
- Taste of own medicine
- Let occupied people’s know they’re not forgotten
- Allow Churchill to claim to Stalin that Britain was doing something to weakne the German war effort Best writes that ‘he was thankful that Bomber Command enabled him to claim that Britain was doing something that could broadly be understood to weaken the German resistance to the Russian offensives’.
In first 12 months of war, Air Ministry claimed it was hitting targets with great success. In 1941, Lindemann (Lord Cherwell) claimed that numbers Bomber Command were producing were wrong and night bombing was so inaccurate so virtually no impact on Germany’s war effort.
TF in February 1942: Sir Arthur Harris put in charge of Bomber Command and changed its strategy area bombing instead of specific targets. Best = ‘instead of aiming at particular targets and often missing them, the object now was to drop bombs within particular areas which they could hardly miss’.
Germany had ‘sowed the wind and now they are going to reap the whirlwind’… Lindeman said strategy would involve people being ‘de-housed and demoralised’, ie civilians were to be killed.
Impact is hard to measure… Overy sates that ‘it prevented the increase [in arms production] from being very considerably greater than it was’, meaning the war would have been longer and a ‘far more costly battle for the final defeat of fascism’… may have needed atomic weapons. Roberts also notes that although German arms production increased in 1943, ‘it did not do so at anything like the rate it would have otherwise’.
Justifiable?
Churchill after watching one Air Ministry film, burst out: ‘Are we beasts? Have we taken this too far?’
As early as April 1942, Sir Charles Portal, Chief of Air Staff (Harris’ senior) updated the Defence Committee about 4 consecutive days of raids on Germany. Churchill responded ‘Don’t make too much of this in the Press – we’re hitting them three times as hard’.
HE, six months later, individauls like Bishop Bell of Chichester, began criticising the bombing campaigns anyway.
Attack on Dresden (February 1945) provoked outrage. Estimated 25,000 lives lost. Harris replied after Colville asked about the effect of the raid… ‘Dresden? There is no such place at Dresden’.
In March 1945, Churchill sent a minute stating that he felt ‘the destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing’. – him attempting to distance himself from the raid and shift blame onto Harris. HE, Jenkins points out that in January 1945, Churchill gave Harris ‘a largely free hand to unleash terror on Berlin and eastern German cities’.
HE after war, Churchill conceded that the bombing ‘did go on too long’, HE, in 1977 interview with BBC, Harris said he would have ‘destroyed Dresden again’.
Bomber Harris
Known by his men as ‘Butch’ Harris seeming indifference to losses his aircrews were suffering.
Very close to Churchill. ‘never, indeed, in Britihs history had such an important Commander-in-Chief been so continuously close to the centre of government power’ said an official history.
In 1944, Portal, Chief of Air Staff ‘Harris’ only superior other than Churchill), directed Harris to move away from area bombing and focus on oil and transportation targets. Harris refused and defied Portal to sack him. He did not. So from that moment, only Churchill had power to intervene, and he never did.
Only in 1992, was a statue unveilved to commemorate Harris. Now kept under 24 hour surveillance to deter similar vandalism.
War in 1941-43
Blitz failed, Soviet Union invasion, Pearl Harbour, El Alamein…. Tide of battle had turned such by mid-1943, the Allies had control of north Afric and were able to launch an invasion of Sicily. At the same time, the war in the east had turned in Allies’ favour: the Red Army had successfully defended the city of Stalingrad and captured the German 6th Army, who surrendered on 2nd February 1943.
In July, Mussolinin was removed from power, August, Sicily had falled, September Italy had surrendered (although did not take Italy as Germans still defended).
In late November, the Allies meet at the Tehran Conference to discuss war strategy. On 30 November, they agree a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe (Operation Overlord). December Ewin Rommel is appointed head of ‘Fortress Europe’, chief planner against expected Allied offensive. General Eisenhower becomes Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
D-Day 1944
First half 1944 was spent preparing for D-Day whilst, in the east, the Soviets’ counter-offensive gathered pace.
Run up to D-Day. ‘every rational calculation suggested that the Allies, aided by surprise, air power and massive resources, should get ashore successfully.’ HE if D-Day failed, consequences would be terrible. Hitler’s defeat would still be assured, but no new invasion till 1945, crippled morale (people already tired of war). Confidence in leader would be shattered, Eisenhower and Montgomery would need to be sacked and ‘replacements identified from a meagre list of candidates’. With Presidential election that year, Roosevelt might go out of power, and ‘at Westminster and in Whitehall there were already plenty of mutterings that Churchill himself was no longer fit to lead the country’
Brief timeline of D-Day
- 6th May onwards: the Allies carried out heavy bombing of the Continent in preparation for the D-Day landings.
- 15th May: 130 Allied political leaders and military officers met at St Paul’s School for a final joint briefing for D-Day.
- 4th June: Operation Overlord is postponed by 24 hours due to high seas.
- 5th June: there is heavy bombing of the Normandy coast. Paratroopers are scattered from Caen southwards.
- 6th June: D-Day begins with the landing of 155.000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allies break the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
D-Day to VE Day
With foothold established, Churchill became ‘little more than a spectator’. Churchill remarked to his doctor Lord Moran that ‘up to July 1944 England had a considerable say in things; after that I was conscious that it was America who made the big decisions’.
9th September, CdG able to from Provisional Government of the French Republic.
In mid-December, the Battle of the Bulge began, the last major German offensive campaign on the western front. It was designed to split the Allied lines which potentially cocould have allowed the Germans to encricel and destroy the Allied forces. Hitler’s hope was to force Western Allies into a peace treaty so he could focus on repelling Red Army. Allies win in January 1945.
By mid-March, Germany under attack from all sides, 27th April, Berlin was surrounded, and on the 30th April he and his wife committed suicide.
On 8th May 1945, victory was declared in Europe. Japan surrendered 3 months later on 15 August 1945.
