Are We Going to Shorten the War?

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There are two very, very practical things that could have been done. The 88-million-inch guns were brought back into Germany and the fighter squadrons were. But exactly the same effect would have been achieved if the bomber effort were directed at railway lines and military installations or oil refineries. If they were capable of it, this is such a crucial point. And we're obviously going to come back to it in one form or another with your questions.

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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