Arthur Travers Harris
13 April 1892 – 5 April 1984
Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris
Nickname	Bomber Harris, Butcher Harris
Place of birth	Cheltenham, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Air Force
Years of service	1914 – 1945
Rank	Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Battles/wars	World War I, World War II
Other work	Manager of the South African Marine Corporation

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet GCB OBE AFC RAF (April 13, 1892 - April 5, 1984), commonly known as "Bomber" Harris by the press, and often within the RAF as "Butcher" Harris^[1], 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 area bombing of German cities. Harris implemented Churchill's policy vigorously and encouraged the development of tactics and technology to perform the task more effectively. He was an architect of Great Britain's most devastatingly effective attacks against the German infrastructure at a time when the country was limited in its resources and manpower. April 13 is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... April 5 is the 95th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (96th in leap years). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (538x658, 41 KB) Description: Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, Commander in Chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command, seated at his desk at Bomber Command HQ, High Wycombe. ... An Air Chief Marshals sleeve/shoulder insignia Air Chief Marshal is the most senior rank active in the Royal Air Force (RAF) today, after the inactivation of Marshal of the Royal Air Force as a substantive rank in peacetime during defence cuts of the 1990s. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_England_(bordered). ... Shown within Gloucestershire Geography Status: Borough Region: South West England Admin. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links Ensign_of_the_Royal_Air_Force. ... RAF redirects here. ... Marshal of the RAF sleeve/shoulder insignia Marshal of the Royal Air Force was the highest rank in the Royal Air Force. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert Henry Asquith Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Marshal of the RAF sleeve/shoulder insignia Marshal of the Royal Air Force was the highest rank in the Royal Air Force. ... Badge of a Companion of the Order of the Bath (Military Division) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath)[1] is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. ... Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire (Military division) The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority... The Air Force Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom Armed Forces, and formerly also to officers of the other Commonwealth countries, for an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying, though not in active operations against the enemy. The... RAF is an three letter acronym for: Royal Air Force -- the Air Force of the United Kingdom (see also Air Ministry) Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) -- a German terror organisation Rigas Autobusu Fabrika -- a factory making buses in Riga, Latvia Rapid Action Force in India Računarski Fakultet RAF... April 13 is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... April 5 is the 95th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (96th in leap years). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Bomber Command badge RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... In the Politics of the United Kingdom, the Cabinet is a formal body comprised of government officials chosen by the Prime Minister. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Terror bombing. ...

Harris's preference for strategic area bombing over strategic precision targeting in the last year of the war remains controversial, because by this time in the war most of the senior Allied air commanders thought it less effective than precision targeting^[2] and by others for the large number of civilian casualties and destruction this strategy caused in Continental Europe.

Pre-World War II

Harris was born in Cheltenham in 1892 during a visit by his parents to England, while his father was on leave from the Indian Civil Service. He was educated at Allhallows School in Dorset, his brothers were educated at Sherborne and Eton. Not considered academically gifted by his parents, he was given the choice of "either army or the colonies"^[3] at the age of 16. He chose the colonies and went to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), where over the next few years he flourished earning his living "gold mining, driving coaches [and] general farming"^[3]. In 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, Harris joined the 1st Rhodesian Regiment as a bugler, and served with them in South Africa and in the German colony of South-West Africa (now Namibia). In 1915 he returned to England and joined the Royal Flying Corps, serving with distinction on the home front and in France during 1917 as a flight commander and ultimately CO of No. 45 Squadron, flying the Sopwith 1½ Strutter and Sopwith Camel. He claimed 5 enemy aircraft destroyed before he returned to England to command No. 44 Squadron on Home Defence duties and was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC).^[4] Shown within Gloucestershire Geography Status: Borough Region: South West England Admin. ... Indian Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym ICS, was the elite civil service of the Indian Government. ... Dorset (pronounced DOR-sit or [dÉ”.sÉ™t], and sometimes in the past called Dorsetshire) is a county in the south-west of England, on the English Channel coast. ... The school buildings Sherborne School is an English public school for boys in the affluent town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset, England. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is an internationally renowned public school (privately funded and independent) for male students, founded in 1440 by Henry VI. It is located in Eton, Berkshire, near Windsor in England, situated north... Anthem: Rise O Voices of Rhodesia (from 1974) Capital Salisbury Language(s) English Government Republic President¹  - 1970-1975 Clifford Dupont  - 1976-1978 John Wrathall Officer Administering the Government¹  - 1965-1970 Clifford Dupont Prime minister  - 1965-1979 Ian Smith Historical era Cold War  - Independence (UDI) November 11, 1965  - Republic declared March... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert Henry Asquith Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow... The First Rhodesia Regiment was formed from the communities of Northern and Southern Rhodesia (mostly the latter) as part of the British Empire forces at the start of WWI. ... Military bugle in Bb The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments; it is essentially a small natural horn with no valves. ... Flag German South-West Africa (black), other German colonies in red Capital Windhoek (from 1891) Political structure Colony Governor  - 1898-1905 Theodor von Leutwein  - 1905-1907 Friedrich von Lindequist  - 1907-1910 Bruno von Schuckmann  - 1910-1915 Theodor Seitz Historical era The Scramble for Africa  - Established 7 August, 1884  - Genocide 1904... The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of World War I. Origin and Early History Formed by Royal Warrant on May 13, 1912, the RFC superseded the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. ... Rosie the Riveter represented civilian wartime mobilization in the United States during World War II. Home front is the informal term commonly used to describe the civilian populace of the nation at war as an active support system of its military. ... 45 Squadron - Royal Air Force. ... Sopwith 1½ Strutter The Sopwith 1½ Strutter was a British one or two-seat biplane multi-role aircraft of the First World War. ... The Sopwith Camel Scout was a British World War I single-seat fighter aircraft that was famous for its maneuverability. ... No. ...

After the war he chose to remain in the newly formed Royal Air Force. In the RAF he served in different functions in India, Mesopotamia (now Iraq and Syria), and Persia (now Iran). He said of his service in India that he first got involved in bombing in the usual annual North West Frontier tribesmen trouble. In Mesopotamia he commanded a Vickers Vernon squadron. "We cut a hole in the nose and rigged up our own bomb racks and I turned those machines into the heaviest and best bombers in the command"^[5]. Harris also contributed at this time to the development of bombing using delay-action bombs, which were then applied to keep down uprisings of the Mesopotamian tribes fighting against British occupation. Despite the many civilian victims of these air raids, Harris is recorded as having remarked "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand." RAF redirects here. ... Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and Southwest Iran. ... The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP)-(also known as, Subha Sarhad)- is the smallest of the four provinces of Pakistan and is home to the Pashtuns (Afghans) and various other groups. ... The Vickers Vernon was the first dedicated troop transport aircraft of the RAF, entering service in 1921. ... A delay-action bomb is an aerial bomb designed to explode some time after impact with the ground. ...

In 1924 Harris was posted to England to command the first post-war heavy bomber squadron (No. 58). His commander in Iraq had been the future Chief of the Air Staff Sir John Salmond, who was also one of his commanders back in England. Together they developed "night training for night operations".^[5] Chief of the Air Staff can also refer to the head of the Canadian Forces Air Command or the head of the Indian Air Force. ... Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Maitland Salmond was born on 17 July 1881. ...

From 1927 to 1929 he attended the Army Staff College at Camberley where he discovered that at the college the army kept 200 horses for the officers' fox hunting. At a time when all services were very short of equipment, the army high command - which was still dominated by cavalry officers - clearly had a different set of priorities from technocrats like Harris, who quipped that the army commanders would only be happy with the tank if it could learn to eat hay and defecate like a horse. He also had a low opinion of the Navy, he commented that there were three things which should never be allowed on a well run yacht "a wheel-barrow, an umbrella and a naval officer". Bernard Montgomery was one of the few army officers he met at while at the college whom he liked; possibly because they shared certain underlying personality characteristics.^[5] This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A fox hunt Fox hunting is a form of hunting for foxes using a pack of scent hounds. ... The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore the Senior Service). ... Bernard Law Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (November 17, 1887 - March 24, 1976) was a British military officer during World War II often referred to as Monty. ...

His next command was of a flying-boat squadron where he continued to develop night flying techniques. He was posted to the Middle East Command in Egypt, as a senior Air Staff Officer. In 1937 he was promoted to Air Commodore and in 1938 he was a put in command of No. 4 (bomber) Group. After a purchasing mission to the USA, he was posted to Palestine and Trans-Jordan and as an Air Vice Marshal he was Officer Commanding the RAF contingent in that area. He returned to England in September 1939 to take command of No. 5 Group.^[6] During World War II The British Middle East Command was based in Cairo with responsibility for the Middle East theatre which included North Africa, East Africa, Persia, the Middle East, and the British forces in the Balkans and Greece. ... An Air Commodoress sleeve/shoulder insignia Air Commodore is the fourth most senior rank active in the Royal Air Force today, after the deactivation of Marshal of the Royal Air Force as a substantive rank in peacetime during defence cuts of the 1990s. ... Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Corresponding geographically to todays Kingdom of Jordan, the Emirate of Transjordan was an autonomous political subdivision of the British Mandate of Palestine, split off in April 1921. ... An Air Vice Marshals sleeve/shoulder insignia An Air Vice Marshals command flag Air Vice Marshal is the third most senior rank active in the Royal Air Force today, after the inactivation of Marshal of the Royal Air Force as a substantive rank in peacetime during defence cuts... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... No. ...

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^[7]. 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. An air marshals sleeve/shoulder insignia Air Marshal (Air Mshl or AM) is a rank in the Royal Air Force. ... Commander-in-Chief (in NATO-lingo often C-in-C or CINC pronounced sink) is the commander of all the military forces within a particular region or of all the military forces of a state. ...

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. 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 housing areas were to be targeted because they had a higher density and fire storms were more likely. This would displace the German workforce and disrupt and reduce their ability to work. 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 something to relieve the pressure on the Eastern Front. Professor Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell (April 5, 1886 - July 3, 1957) was a physicist who became an influential scientific adviser to the British government and a close associate of Winston Churchill. ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was an English statesman, soldier, and author, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... Area bombardment is the policy of indiscriminate bombing of an enemys cities, for the purpose of destroying civilian morale. ... Strategic Bombing during World War II was unlike anything the world had previously witnessed. ... Total war is an unqualified, all-out war conducted without scruple or limitation. ... The Eastern Front was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ...

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."^[8] In February 1945 Harris wrote "I do not personally regard the whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier."^[9][10] In his memoirs he writes "In spite of all that happened at Hamburg, bombing proved a relatively humane method".

At first, the effects were limited because of the small numbers of aircraft used and the lack of navigational aids that meant bombing was scattered and accuracy was poor. As production of better aircraft and electronic aids increased, Harris pressed for raids on a much larger scale, each to use 1,000 aeroplanes. In Operation Millennium Harris launched the first RAF "thousand bomber raid" against Cologne on the night of May 30/31, 1942. This operation included the first use of a bomber stream, which was a tactical innovation designed to overwhelm the German night-fighters of the Kammhuber Line. The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II. During the war the Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed Cologne more than thirty one times. ... Coordinates: Time zone: CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country: Germany State: North Rhine-Westphalia Administrative region: Cologne District: Urban district Mayor: Fritz Schramma (CDU) Basic Statistics Area: 405. ... May 30 is the 150th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (151st in leap years). ... May 31 is the 151st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (152nd in leap years), with 214 days remaining. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... A map of part of the Kammhuber Line showing the belt and nightfighter boxes through which the bomber stream flew The bomber stream was a tactic developed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command to overwhelm the German aerial defences of the Kammhuber Line during World War II. The... The Kammhuber Line was the name given to the German night air defense system established in July 1940 by Colonel Josef Kammhuber. ...

Harris was just one of an influential group of high ranking Allied air commanders who 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 following the success of the Battle of Hamburg codenamed Operation Gomorrah, 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. Firestorm in Hamburg Operation Gomorrah was the military codename for a series of air raids conducted by the Royal Air Force on the city of Hamburg beginning in the end of July 1943. ... The term Battle of Berlin is sometimes restricted to the Royal Air Force for a bombing campaign on Berlin and other cities between the night of November 18 1943 and March 1944. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg, German-Franconian dialect: Nämberch) is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. ... March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (90th in a leap year). ...

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 it compromised the continuing pressure on German industry and it was using Bomber Command for a purpose it was not designed or suited for. 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. The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allies. ...

After D-Day (June 6, 1944), with the resumption of the strategic bomber campaign over Germany, Harris remained wedded to area bombardment. Historian Frederick Taylor argues that, because Harris lacked the necessary security clearance to know about ULTRA, he had been given some information gleaned from ENIGMA, but not informed as to where it had come from. According to Taylor, this directly affected Harris' attitude concerning the effectiveness of the post-D-Day 1944 directives (orders) to target oil installations, as Harris did not know that the Allied High Command was using high-level German sources to assess exactly how much Allied operations were impairing the German war effort. As a consequence Harris tended to see the directives to bomb specific oil and munitions targets as a high level command "panacea" (his word), and a distraction from the real task of making the rubble bounce in every large German city.^[11] Frederick Taylor is a British historian, author of , Bloomsbury 2004 (ISBN 0747570787) about the bombing of Dresden in World War II. He was educated at Aylesbury Grammar School and read History and Modern Languages at Oxford University. ... Ultra (sometimes capitalized ULTRA) was the name used by the British for intelligence resulting from decryption of German communications in World War II. The term eventually became the standard designation in both Britain and the United States for all intelligence from high-level cryptanalytic sources. ... The plugboard, keyboard, lamps and finger-wheels of the rotors emerging from the inner lid of a three-rotor German military Enigma machine (version with labels) In the history of cryptography, the Enigma was a portable cipher machine used to encrypt and decrypt secret messages. ...

The most controversial RAF raid of the war took place in the late evening of February 13, 1945 with the bombing of the city of Dresden resulting in a lethal firestorm which killed several tens of thousands of civilians. Raids such as that on Pforzheim late in the war as Germany was falling have been criticized for causing high civilian casualties for little apparent military value. 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 April/22 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 April/26 April. February 13 is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... The bombing of Dresden, led by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and involving the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945, remains one of the more controversial Allied actions of World War II. Historian Frederick Taylor says: The destruction of Dresden has an... A firestorm in Hamburg (Germany) during WWII A firestorm is the mass movement of air resulting from fire, creating a fire of extreme intensity over a wide area. ... During the latter stages of World War II Pforzheim, a town in south west Germany was bombed on a number of times. ... April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). ... April 22 is the 112th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (113th in leap years). ... County Vestfold District Viken Municipality NO-0704 Administrative centre Tønsberg Mayor (2004) Per Arne Olsen (FrP) Official language form BokmÃ¥l Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage Ranked 381 107 km² 106 km² 0. ... April 25 is the 115th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (116th in leap years). ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ...

Post war

Within the post war British government, there was now some disquiet about the level of destruction created by the area bombing of German cities towards the end of the war. However, Harris was made Marshal of the Royal Air Force in 1945. He retired on September 15, 1945 to write his story of Bomber Command's achievements in Bomber Offensive. He was the sole commander-in-chief not made a peer in 1946. Bomber Command's crews were denied a separate campaign medal (despite being eligible for the Air Crew Europe Star and France and Germany Star) and, in protest at this establishment snub to his men, Harris refused a peerage^[12]. Disappointed by the criticisms of his methods, Harris moved to South Africa in 1948, and was the manager of the South African Marine Corporation from 1946 to 1953. Marshal of the RAF sleeve/shoulder insignia Marshal of the Royal Air Force was the highest rank in the Royal Air Force. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... September 15 is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years). ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... For other uses, see Peerage (disambiguation). ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... The Air Crew Europe Star was a campaign medal of the British Commonwealth, awarded for service in World War II. Specifically, the medal was awarded to Commonwealth aircrew who participated in operational flights over Europe, from UK bases. ... The France and Germany Star was a campaign medal of the British Commonwealth, awarded for service in World War Two. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ...

In 1953 Churchill, now Prime Minister again, insisted that Harris accept a baronetcy and he became 1st Baronet of Chipping Wycombe^[13]. In the same year he returned to the UK and lived his remaining years in Goring-on-Thames, in Ferry Cottage. Harris never expressed any remorse for his actions during the war. 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Churchill redirects here. ... A baronet (traditional abbreviation Bart, modern abbreviation Bt) is the holder of a species of knighthood known as a baronetcy. ... High Wycombe in the UK High Wycombe, (previously Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe as late as 1911[1]) South Buckinghamshire, is 29 miles (45 kilometres) west-north-west of London, England. ... Railway bridge near Goring Goring-On-Thames is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in the English county of Oxfordshire. ...

Despite protests from Germany as well as some in Britain, the Bomber Harris Trust (an RAF veterans organisation formed to defend the good name of their commander), erected a statue of him outside the RAF Church of St Clement Danes, London in 1992. It was unveiled by the Queen Mother who looked surprised when she was jeered by protesters. The line on the statue reads "The Nation owes them all an immense debt." The statue had to be guarded by policemen day and night for some time as it was frequently sprayed with graffiti. Italic textOranges and lemons! // Headline text St Clement Danes at night St Clement Danes is a church in the City of Westminster, London. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (Elizabeth Angela Marguerite; 4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was the Queen Consort of King George VI from 1936 until his death in 1952. ... Graffiti (strictly, as singular, graffito, from the Italian — graffiti being the plural) is graphics applied without authorization to publicly viewable surfaces. ...

5 years after Harris' death a one off feature length drama about Harris' tenture as Commander in Chief of Bomber Command was produced and broadcast on BBC Television with John Thaw portraying Harris in the title role.

Bibliography

• Sir Arthur Harris: Bomber Offensive, Reprinted 2005, First published 1947. ISBN 1-84415-210-3 Harris’s account in his own words

References

• Cross, Robin; Fallen Eagle; London: John Wiley and Sons Inc; 1995
• Longmate, Norman; The Bombers: The RAF offensive against Germany 1939-1945; Pub. Hutchinson; 1983; ISBN 0-09-151580-7
• Probert, Henry; "Bomber" Harris: His Life and Times; Published; 2003; ISBN 1-85367-555-5; A good rounded modern biography, neither defending or condemning Harris.
• Shores, Christopher; Above the Trenches; Grub Street; 1990
• Taylor, Fredrick; Dresden:Tuesday 13 February 1945; Pub (NY): HarperCollins; ISBN 0-06-000676-5; Pub (Lon): Bloomsbury; ISBN 0-7475-7078-7.

Further reading

• Grayling, A. C. (2006). Among the Dead Cities. New York: Walker Publishing Company Inc.. ISBN 0-8027-1471-4.  Extensively discusses, in philosophical terms, Harris' rationale behind the area bombardment of German cities.
• Biography at spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
• Personality Profile: Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris
• Royal Air Force Bomber Command 60th Anniversary, Campaign Diary, March 1945
• The Destruction of Dresden - Die Zerstörung Dresdens
• The 'Bomber Harris Trust' Homepage
• Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation - MRAF Harris

Anthony Clifford Grayling MA, DPhil (Oxon) FRSA (born 3 April 1949) is a British philosopher and author. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ The RAF Aircrew's nickname for Harris, "Butcher" or "Butch", was not given as a comment on the morality of his bombing policy. It was meant, at least semi-affectionately, to refer to his seeming indifference to the losses his aircrew were suffering.
2. ^ Longmate References page 137
3. ^ ^{a b} Longmate References page 138
4. ^ Christopher Shores Above the Trenches, Grub Street 1990, Page 185
5. ^ ^{a b c} Longmate References page 139
6. ^ Longmate References page 140
7. ^ Longmate References page 138,140
8. ^ The statement "They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind" was taken from the Old Testament (Hosea 8-7).
9. ^ Robin Cross ,Fallen Eagle (London: John Wiley and Sons Inc, 1995), p. 78.
10. ^ The phrase "worth the bones of one British grenadier" was a deliberate echo of a famous sentence used by Bismarck "The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier." Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945. By Frederick Taylor, page 432
11. ^ Taylor References page 202
12. ^ Probert References pages 346-351
13. ^ Probert References page 374

Alternate meanings: See Bismarck (disambiguation). ... No. ... Air Chief Marshal Sir Norman Howard Bottomley KCB CIE DSO AFC (September 18, 1891 - August 13, 1970) was the Yorkshire-born successor to Arthur Bomber Harris as Commander-in-Chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command in 1945. ... Air Marshal Sir John Eustice Arthur Baldwin KBE,CBE,OBE,CB,DSO (April 13, 1892 – July 28, 1975). ... Bomber Command badge RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ... Air Chief Marshal Sir Norman Howard Bottomley KCB CIE DSO AFC (September 18, 1891 - August 13, 1970) was the Yorkshire-born successor to Arthur Bomber Harris as Commander-in-Chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command in 1945. ... // The Baronetage of Nova Scotia was devised in 1624 as a means of settling the plantation of that province. ... There have been four creations of baronets for people with the surname Harris, two in the Baronetage of England and two in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. ...