The Bomber Command in the 1930s

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In 1940, or 39, when the RAF thought about doing this, there was no evidence that a sustained bombing campaign would do either of those things. The serious bombing in the 1930s was in the Spanish Civil War. And it explained why the Soviet Air Force, the German Air Force, and the French Air Force, by 1940-41, were more or less air forces committed to combined arms operations in support of the surface forces.

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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