Was It Right To Bomb Germany As We Did in the Second World War?
I have felt for a long time that the bombing of German cities by the RAF and the USAAF was rather a pointless exercise driven more by vengeance and revenge than any strategic purpose to defeat the Nazis.
Remember, I was brought up in London and many of my relatives experienced the bombing first hand. My grandfather’s premises close to the Barbican, where he worked as an engraver, were completely destroyed in the Blitz. Many of these people weren’t too bothered about the bombing as it just made them angry and anyway they survived. Others might have felt different, but most just felt that you had to deal with what happened and get on with life. Supposedly, one of the reasons for bombing civilians was to break their moral and hopefully get them to turn against the government. I think that London and other British cities that were bombed showed that it didn’t work. If anything it just stiffened their resolve to carry on.
Was it any different in Germany, when we bombed their cities? I’ve only met a couple of Germans, who endured the bombing from the RAF and the USAAF and they didn’t seem to react any differently to the way we did. And they probably suffered a lot more.
But also remember that a 250,000 from both the RAF and the USAAF either died or went missing in the bombing of Germany. So in some ways we lost the trained personnel that we really needed to support the invasion.
I also remember reading the history of the de Havilland Mosquito. Initially this superb design wasn’t really wanted by the RAF, as they felt who in his right mind would want to fly across to bomb Germany in an unarmed aircraft built out of ply and balsa wood. To them and the USAAF, a heavily armed four engined bomber would obviously be better. But statistics proved them wrong, as the Mosquito, which carried virtually the same bomb load as a B-17, but with a crew of two instead of ten, had a much higher return rate and much lower losses of crew. It was also much faster and could bomb Germany twice in one night.
In my view it should have been used strategically to take out German infrastructure, such as important factories and rail junctions. Wikipedia says this.
Mosquitos were widely used by the RAF Pathfinder Force, which marked targets for night-time strategic bombing. Despite an initially high loss rate, the Mosquito ended the war with the lowest losses of any aircraft in RAF Bomber Command service. Post war, the RAF found that when finally applied to bombing, in terms of useful damage done, the Mosquito had proved 4.95 times cheaper than the Avro Lancaster.
Yesterday, the obituary of Flight Lieutenant Don Nelson was published in the papers.
He was an RAF navigator, who helped to plan the destruction of German infrastructure in the run up to D-Day.
This is an extract from The Times.
In the spring of 1944 Bomber Command under its redoubtable but stubborn leader, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, was ordered to divert a proportion of its energies from the strategic bombing of Germany, of which Harris was the architect, to attacking targets in northern France and Belgium — railways, bridges, tunnels, marshalling yards — whose destruction would materially expedite the forthcoming Allied invasion of German-occupied Europe.
Although Harris dug his heels in against what he was convinced was a misuse of his strategic bomber force, a trial raid against a railway centre at Trappes, south west of Paris, in early March resulted in such spectacular destruction and dislocation of rail traffic that it became evident that a sustained assault by Bomber Command would be capable of virtually paralysing the German capacity to move troops against whatever beach heads the Allies might establish before, and not after, the projected invasion. This was a vital discovery. In spite of Harris’s protests his best bomber squadrons were from then until June 6, 1944, and afterwards, employed on this momentous interdiction work.
The Telegraph tells a very similar story.
Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, I think we probably could have done better in our bombing campaign against Germany, by bombing infrastructure important to the war effort, rather than the general population.
We also never learn from the past, as if we look at Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya, we continue to make the same mistakes we always do. Inevitably vengeance seems to get mixed up with the simple objective of defeating a vile and hideous regime and its leader.
US Troops Turn to a Tricycle
The third leader of The Times today is unusual in that it tells the story of how the Pentagon has commissioned two command performances of The Great Game, by North London’s Tricycle Theatre. Here’s an extract.
The idea of staging The Tricycle Theatre’s production in Washington is so that generals, and soldiers heading to Afghanistan, might come away thinking what General Sir David Richards, Chief of the Defence Staff, thought after seeing the show in London; that “if I’d seen the plays before being deployed to Afghanistan for the first time in 2005 it would have made me a much better commander”.
Let’s hope we see more education of those who go to war, as we always tend to forget the lessons of history. I would also hope that they also read the thoughts of Aircraftsman Shaw.
I’d love to hear Sarah Palin’s thoughts on US forces being educated by Britain’s leading political playhouse.
Lawrence of Afghanistan
The Times today has an article about T. E. Lawrence, who as well as his efforts in Arabia, served in the RAF as Aircraftman Shaw in Afghanistan. We should listen to what he said.
Here is an extract from the article.
With the help of Hollywood, he would become a legend, Lawrence of Arabia, but today he might more aptly be termed Lawrence of Afghanistan: he understood more clearly than any of his contemporaries (and many of our own) the futility of trying to bomb an insurgency into peace; he put into action the tactics of modern guerrilla warfare; and he pioneered the improvised explosive device (IED), the most important weapon of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In Britain Lawrence is revered as a figure of romance, the camel-mounted scholar-warrior in flowing robes, but his reputation comes tinged with a distinctly British embarrassment. Lawrence was stupendously strange: a diminutive, ruthless, obsessive, sexually repressed oddity, who spent his life striving for attention, and then rejected it.
What is too often forgotten in the mythologising (and debunking) of Lawrence is his enduring legacy as a military strategist of genius and cold-eyed guerrilla leader.
I like one particular statement.
Lawrence believed that “winning hearts and minds” (a term that would have made him snort) could only be achieved by education or cash, and never by coercion. “The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armoury of the modern commander,” he wrote. The Arab rebellion was fought with new British tactics, and bought with new British gold.
The trouble is the Americans used to think that the only good Indian was a dead one and their thinking hasn’t changed much to reflect the modern age.
Every politician and military man, from the highest general to the lowest private, should read Ben MacIntyre’s article and then be tested on it.
My father was a printer and one of the most interesting things I saw in Belarus was this battlefield printing press from the Second World War.
Battlefield Printing Press, Minsk
The Russians and Belarussians obviously know their T. E. Lawrence and it served them well, when they turned the Nazis in 1941.
I share two things with Lawrence;stature and birthday.
The Oldest Mosque in Australia
In Adelaide, C and I visited the mosque and the associated museum to the Afghan camel drivers, who opened up the middle of the country in the nineteenth century. I have talked to Australians about this part of their history and few actually know of the story. It’s here in an article in the Guardian, which offers advice to those visiting for the cricket.
Australia’s oldest mosque (1888) was built in a back street for Afghan camel drivers employed in the South Australian desert. A simple stone affair with whitewashed brick minarets, it now serves city workers and a new wave of Afghani refugees. You can enter (avoid prayer times) but the wood-lined interior makeover now bears unfortunate resemblance to a Swedish sauna. The camels’ descendants have gone feral but their pure bloodline means they are in demand back in the Middle East. Those not exported can end up as camel pastrami at Wild Oz in the Central Market (wildoz.com.au), which also deals in wild goat, wild boar and, of course, Skippy.
In fact the Afghans, were a mix of people from all over those places where camels are a beast of burden, and as soon as they had done their work, they left, leaving behind the camels, wich quickly went feral. At least the Australians have seen fit to call the train that links Adelaide to Alice Springs and Darwin, The Ghan.
One of my regrets is that when I flew round Australia with C, we only allowed four weeks for the trip. We should have allowed a lot more time. But then C was a typical barrister, who believed that if you were away too long, your colleagues would nick your best cases. We did fly along the southern part of the route of The Ghan from Adelaide to Alice Springs, with stops at Coober Pedy and Yulara. One day I’ll put all of the Australian photos on the web, but sadly, many are missing and I don’t have the negatives any more.
How To Survive Tragedy – 2
Having lost both my wife and son in recent years, I can sympathise deeply with the Norgroves, who lost their daughter, Linda, in Afghanistan.
But they refuse to apportion blame and just want to celebrate the good times and the work their daughter did.
The Mirror in common with other papers describes their feelings.
There is never any point in apportioning blame, as that gets in the way of trying to make sure that it doesn’t happen again, by changing attitudes and making the world a better and safer place.
This extract shows that they are doing that.
Mrs Norgrove said: “She knew I wasn’t keen on her going back but there was no way as a parent I would stop her doing that. I knew that she’d grown to love Afghanistan and love the people and I knew that that’s where her heart was and she wanted to do humanitarian work there.”
Her husband said his daughter was a “very adventurous girl” and was determined to go to Afghanistan four years ago when she worked for the United Nations.
“At the time I said to her that our worst nightmare was that she might be kidnapped,” he said. “But at the end we had to accept that she’d been adventurous, she’d done risky things before.”
The couple, from Lewis, had just climbed a mountain when they were told she had been abducted while looking into the development of agricultural projects in the east of the country.
The couple have now set up The Linda Norgrove Foundation to promote the causes she supported.
The charity will fund women and family-orientated schemes in the war-ravaged country.
Good luck to them and the Foundation.
US May Re-Instate “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” Policy for Gay Servicemen
I have never understood the US’s policy on gay servicemen. My view has always been that if you’re up to the job you can do it and if you’re not you shouldn’t. Whether you’re gay or not is irrelevant.
As the British and other forces have gay recruits and some of these are probably fighting alongside the US forces in Afghanistan, I just wonder if the subject ever comes up. I suspect that professionalism will out!
I just think though that the US should bring its policies up to what is acceptable in the modern world. Let’s start with proper attitudes to gays, women, minorities, religion and the death penalty.
Karzai Wants The Kids To Be In Charge of the Sweetshop!
According to the BBC, President Karzai wants to have more direct control of the foreign aid to his country. Would that mean that more and more of the budget ended up in the Swiss bank accounts of him and his corrupt friends?
Afghanistan has significant mineral resources and of course, they will end up in the hands of the Chinese. Would they provide the funds to rebuild the country? They should, but I doubt they will!
The Chinese though might provide a military solution to the Taliban, when they try to protect their mines and other assets. On the other hand there are quite a few million Muslims in China and they wouldn’t want them to get restless and unruly in consequence, would they!
Killing the Hand That Supports and Feeds You
Yesterday was a grim day, with four British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, three by their supposed Afghan colleagues. And then we had more rioting in Northern Ireland last night, with shots fired at police.
In these times of severe austerity, we should make sure that the monetary and people costs we spend on these trouble spots are well-spent. If we are not wanted in these places, then the troops, police and monetary support should be withdrawn. At least in Northern Ireland, the politicians seem to be condemning the violence. This is from the BBC’s report.
First Minister Peter Robinson and his deputy, Martin McGuinness, said there had been “outright thuggery and vandalism”.
Mr Robinson added: “There is no excuse and no place for violence in civilised society. Both the deputy first minister and I have been, and will continue, to work for a resolution of the difficulties around parading.”
BBC Ireland correspondent Mark Simpson said the violence had brought politicians together, “but the problem was the rioters don’t seem to be listening”.
He said so far police had been unable to stop the violence, but “they had been successful in containing it”.
The problem would seem to be the Orange parades, which give some the excuse for a bit of violence. I can remember these parades in Liverpool, when I was a student. We just used to go out and laugh at them, as to someone brought up in an area, where religious tensions were almost non-existent, they were an alien concept. Incidentally parades still go on in Liverpool, as this report from the BBC shows. But they are very different to those in Northern Ireland. I haven’t heard of any reports of violence for a start.
Justice – Afghan Style
This case asks a lot of questions about Afghanistan. Surely though, there comes a time, when the country should be left to its own devices, Taliban and all. It has lots of mineral resources, so what will happen in the end is its neighbour, China, will make commercial deals to get it out and Karzai and his cronies will run to some tax haven and live in comfort for the rest of their days. We will just suffer more and more crime and corruption due to the increasing amount of drugs flowing our way. Somehow we must find some way of stopping people taking the damn things!
The sad thing about the country is that a friend visited in the 1960s. Then Afghanistan provided masses of fruit like apples for the whole of the region. Since then it has been one sorry tale after another.
Now we just get more and more grief exported from this sorry, perverted and corrupt country. We should get out immediately.
Lord Heseltine
Lord Heseltine is on Radio 5 at the moment. What a sensible man! I did like his comment about Labour being good in opposition, but hopeless in government. How true? He also said they will be pumping scare stories about the Budget like mad and the media will dance to their tune.
Is Lord Heseltine the best Prime Minister we never had? Possibly, but his views may well come to the fore. He’s just been taling so sensibly about how we reinvigorate our great cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and others.
He’s just giving very sensible views on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Anonymous Widower 