The Second World War in Europe Was Going to End in May 1945

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The strategic bombing offensive as a whole greatly accelerated Soviet advances on the Eastern Front and almost certainly shortened the war. Chief Marshal Harris, the head of bomber command, did not give a jot about anything except his own self-defined mission of breaking German resistance. We must remember that while we know today that the Second World War in Europe was going to end in May 1945, that was far from clear at the time. They had been taken hostage by their own leader, who was determined that they should die with him.

No one doubts the bravery of the thousands of men who flew and died in Bomber Command. The death rate was an appalling 44%. And yet until the opening of a monument in Green Park this year they have received no official recognition, with many historians claiming that the offensive was immoral and unjustified. How can it be right, they argue, for the Allies to have deliberately targeted German cities causing the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians? Even on a strategic level the offensive failed to bring about the collapse of civilian morale that was its intention. Others, however, maintain that the attacks made a decisive contribution to the Allied victory. Vast numbers of German soldiers and planes were diverted from the eastern and western fronts, while Allied bombing attacks virtually destroyed the German air force, clearing the way for the invasion of the continent. In this debate from October 2012, philosopher and author A C Grayling and Professor of History at Exeter University Rochard Overy...

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