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Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet (April 13, 1892 - April 5, 1984), commonly known as "Bomber" Harris, and often, in the RAF, as "Butcher" Harris, 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. This remains controversial to this day for the death and destruction it caused among civilians in Germany.
Pre-war
Harris was born in England, but his parents moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) when he was still a child. He was raised and educated there. At the outbreak of World War I, Harris joined the 1st Rhodesian Regiment, and served with them in South Africa and South West Africa (Namibia). In 1915 he returned to England and joined the Royal Flying Corps, and after the war transferred to the newly founded Royal Air Force in 1919. In the RAF he served in different functions in Iraq, and Iran. Since 1930 he was member of the air staff in the Middle East (1930-1932).
Harris contributed at this time to the development of terror bombing using delay_action bombs, which were then applied to keep down uprisings of the Iraqi tribes fighting against British occupation. In spite of the many civilian victims of these air raids, Harris is recorded as having remarked that "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand."
Wartime Harris quickly rose through the RAF hierarchy, and was promoted to Air Commodore in 1937, Air Vice_Marshal in 1939, Air Marshal in 1941, and Commander in Chief of the 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.
Professor Lindemann was liked and trusted by Winston Churchill. Churchill appointed him the British governments leading scientific adviser with a seat in the Cabinet. In 1942 Lindemann presented a seminal paper to the Cabinet advocating the aerial bombing of German cities by carpet bombing 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 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.
At first the effects were limited due to small numbers of planes on the raids, but aircraft production continued to increase while Harris pushed for huge raids with 1000 planes each. Harris launched the first of his "thousand bomber raids" against Cologne on May 30th, 1942.
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. However by this time 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.
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.
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 ordinance 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 stratigic raid was the destruction of the oil refinery in Tonsberg in Southern Norway by 107 Lancasters on the night of 25/26 of April.
Post war Within the British government, there was some disquiet about the level of destruction created by the carpet-bombing of German cities towards the end of the war. However, Harris was made Marshal of the RAF in 1945. He retired on September 15, 1945 to write his story of Bomber Command's achievements in Bomber Offensive. As the sole commander-in-chief he was not made a peer in 1946. Bomber Command's crews were denied a separate campaign medal (despite being eligible for the Air Crew Europe and France and Germany stars) and, in protest, Harris refused a peerage in 1951 but accepted a baronetcy in 1953. Disappointed by the criticisms of his methods, Harris moved to South Africa, and was the manager of the South African Marine Corporation from 1946 to 1953. At that point the British appear to have changed their mind about his tactics, and Harris received an honour despite strong protests by the German government. Still despite strong protests from Germany as well as Britain, a statue of him was erected outside the RAF Church of St Clement Danes, London in 1992 and unveiled by the Queen Mother. She looked surprised to be shouted down by peace 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.
Some people think that if Harris had been tried in a court authorised to try such a case, he might have been found guilty of war crimes. However as no Axis personnel were tried at the post-war Nuremberg Trials for war crimes for participating in the decisions on, or execution of, assault by aerial bombardment on defended enemy territory, it is not possible to say that that aerial bombardment on defended enemy territory during World War II was a war crime.
Harris said 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 dozen 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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