Friday, November 28, 2014

On What Happens When You Give a Lunatic Like Bomber Harris Leeway

While Portal (Sir Charles) opposed Harris's Strategy of carpet bombing and Churchill was at the most ambivalent initially, they both ultimately left it up to the Bomber as to whether the Brits would bomb the primary targets (oil installations, railroads, communications) or civilian areas on any given day (weather ostensibly being the prime determinant). Of course, the end result of this senseless, unearned discretion was the fact that only 6% of the bombs ended up hitting oil fields while a significantly larger amount went to the bombing of cities that were already predominantly rubble (Cologne, Leipzig, etc.) - the sole goal being to terrorize the population. How anybody in his right mind can say that this "strategy" helped to win the war sooner, a) is perplexing and b) shows a serious ignorance of the facts (to their credit, the Americans - at least in Europe - focused more on tactical operations such as oil fields and factories, and it was this approach that ultimately moved the needle - NOT the Bomber's terrorism) in that it isn't terrorist actions that win wars but strategy.

7 comments:

dmarks said...

I'd believe Sir Charles. He faced off against Godzilla, after all.

Z said...

I can't tell what your politics are, except for the title of your blog, but I sure do approve of your taste in food (you might not know I have a political blog AND the food blog "Mac 'n Geeez", you commented on.
We probably disagree politically but the films on your profile blew my mind; THE HEIRESS, JEZEBEL, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN, etc etc...some of my ALL TIME favorites. We have a LOT in common with film.
AND food...the couscous/winter veg/vinaigrette would have been overkill for a dinner with plenty of veggies (string beans, sweet potatoes, salad, corn) and starches (savory bread pudding and mashed potatoes) like the Thanksgiving one I I had (featured on my blog) but I REALLY like the sound of that dish you described...
thanks for commenting!

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

A lot of people (sometimes myself) have a hard time figuring out my politics (liberals think that I'm a conservative, conservatives think that I'm a liberal). I guess that the best way to describe it would be to call me a small l libertarian (kind of like Constitutional Insurgent but a little more moderate) and/or an independent who likes to hammer both sides. It doesn't make me a lot of friends but I enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by, Z, and, yeah, we'll have to talk about movies and food a lot more.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

P.S. If you ever get to Northampton MA, you gotta try out Cafe Amanouz. It's one of the best Middle-Eastern joints in the whole country. Hands down.

dmarks said...

As long as it isn't like that middle eastern joint my brother wandered into, where he had the best chicken dinner he ever had. And they were airing documentaries praising Hitler on the TV.

BB-Idaho said...

An interesting tidbit regarding
Harris and his carpet bombing of
German cities: Albert Speer was furious that Hitler insisted on
keeping some 10,000 Flak 88 weapons around the cities, weapons that also served as the
deadly anti-tank 88. Speer opined that had those been at the Russian front, the war in that
sector might have been different.
Along with those military metrics,
we note that Harris was indifferent to crew losses-those
serving in the bomber sorties had
a shorter life expectancy than even the British Tommies of the WWI trenches. He was called the Butcher by both the German and British servicemen.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Can't say much for the politics, dmarks, but the moussaka and babaghannouj are pure heaven.............BB, it sounds as if Harris is a disciple of Douglas Haig and his policy of serving up men as fodder.