The Ruling Elite

by Deanna Spingola

  Bomber Command: Victory through Air Power

  Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.” 1405

  On September 1, 1939, after years of the Polish persecution of the ethnic Germans, Hitler finally invaded Poland. Roosevelt asked Britain, France, and Germany to abstain from bombing innocent civilians. He said, “The ruthless bombing from the air of civilians in unfortified centers of population during the course of the hostilities… has sickened the hearts of every civilized man and woman, and has profoundly shocked the conscience of humanity.” Two weeks later, Neville Chamberlain told the House of Commons, “Whatever the lengths to which others may go, His Majesty’s Government will never resort to the deliberate attack on women and children and other civilians for purposes of mere terrorism.” Yet, that was apparently just rhetoric for the benefit of their respective populations, for both countries resorted to doing exactly what they had so nobly denounced. Not only did they target civilians, they also used the most destructive weapons available—incendiary bombs devised to cause catastrophic fires in residential areas. 1406

  Britain began aerial warfare against Germany on September 4, with nineteen bombers. They targeted naval installations on the North Sea coast and maintained daylight raids in order to make certain they were hitting only military targets. Likewise, Germany demonstrated the same consideration. 1407 Germany’s Luftwaffe aggressively assaulted Warsaw, the capital of Poland on September 17. Polish officials unwisely decided not to surrender. Germany also invaded them from the north, west and south with 1,250,000 German soldiers. Within six weeks, they killed at least 66,000 Poles and wounded 200,000. The Germans captured 694,000 Polish soldiers. Poland then surrendered. 1408 Germany, in their attack on Poland, only targeted military targets in a city that refused to surrender. Yet the British accused the Germans of ignoring FDR’s admonition. On October 16, Britain abandoned all restraints when Germany attacked the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. 1409

  By early November, Hitler invaded Belgium, the Netherlands and France in order to try to force a decision by the West to join him in his military efforts against the Bolsheviks. By summer of 1940, Hitler’s armies were victorious in Europe and he sought an alliance or at least a peace agreement with Britain. Hitler, in a broadcast, remarked, “I can see no further use for the continuation of this conflict. Let us think of the unbearable hardships our women and children in both lands will have to endure, if we allow this senseless war to go on. I am speaking now, not as a beaten man begging for peace, but as the leader of a victorious armed forces asking for reason.” Although Germany had the power to triumph over Britain, he did not make any unreasonable demands from Britain but rather proposed complete cooperation, an irregularity for a conqueror to offer an enemy. 1410

  Hitler resisted engaging in military actions against Britain and offered to withdraw his armies from all the territories that they occupied except Danzig. He also offered twenty-five divisions of the Wehrmacht to Britain. Hitler, along with the King of Sweden, Pope Pius XII and Queen Elizabeth, sought a way to persuade Winston Churchill to terminate the war. He failed to disclose Hitler’s offer to government officials or to the British population except for certain cabinet members. After France’s collapse, those cabinet members endorsed Hitler’s offer and over fifty percent of the anti-war British population opposed the continuation of the war. Churchill understood that, should the people discover his deception, and Hitler’s magnanimous proposal, they would have dissented. 1411

  On May 10, 1940, Churchill, an advocate of total war, replaced Chamberlain as Prime Minister. Churchill’s methodology, since the Boer War, required a decisive victory of such great magnitude that it would prevent further war and permit the Allies to dramatically alter Germany and eradicate Prussian militarism. 1412 While we typically think of the blitzkrieg as German, Major General John F. C. Fuller, the British writer, historian and military officer and strategist originated the shock and awe tactic. 1413 They did not use it immediately. Interestingly, he criticized the Allies, opposed total war and unconditional surrender, and denounced strategic bombing as barbaric. 1414 Deliberately targeting civilians is against the Geneva Conventions, which both the United States and Britain signed.

  Germany only bombed cities that contained military forces that refused to surrender, the whole purpose for their bombing campaigns. Germany’s goal was to provoke surrender, not purposely kill civilians or demolish their homes. Germany, on May 14, 1940, attacked Rotterdam. The media deceptively reported that the attack killed 30,000 civilians, after the city had surrendered. In fact, they killed approximately 1,000 people in the attack, following negotiations in which German officials tried but were unable to abort the bombing mission. Britain claimed that Germany attacked the city and deliberately killed civilians. Thus, on May 15, Churchill directed the RAF to execute a night raid on several German cities in the Ruhr, the industrial region. However, major damage occurred in the residential area. Nine days later, Hitler responded with a massive air assault against Britain. 1415

  On July 20, 1940, Lord Lothian requested a copy of Hitler’s peace proposal from the Germans. Churchill learned of Lord Lothian’s request via his control of the communications system and immediately directed him to terminate all interaction with German officials. He then notified the British ambassador to halt any dialogue with Berlin representatives, especially those who sought to disclose Hitler’s proposals to politicians in London. Churchill and his warmongering cohorts did everything they could to conceal Hitler’s magnanimous offer from the public. 1416

  Churchill also told the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Charles Portel to consider launching a large-scale terror-raid on Berlin which was illegal given that the Luftwaffe had not bombed any facilities other than military targets. Britain and Germany had both signed the international law stipulating that a nation could not bomb an enemy’s capitol. Churchill told U.S. Ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy, that he hoped that Hitler would bomb British residential areas which would then frustrate the growing peace movement. 1417 On August 24, 1940, a German pilot inadvertently overran his target and dropped two or three bombs just within London’s city limits which did not result in any deaths or injuries and with minimal property damage. German officials notified the Red Cross via Switzerland, which then transmitted the message to British authorities. Churchill, exploiting the ill-fated incident to meet his own objectives, directed 100 Wellington and Whitney bombers to attack Berlin, an action that merited criminal prosecution. He did not obtain the approval of Parliament, his Cabinet or Bomber Command beforehand. The British, in this bombing, killed some civilians, including women and children while not damaging any military facilities. Hitler prohibited the Luftwaffe from reacting in kind. 1418

  Over the next ten days, Britain conducted seven assaults in residential areas dramatically increasing the civilian death toll. Hitler did not respond by counterattacking. Instead, he and his representatives continued their diplomatic efforts for a peaceful settlement. Nevertheless, Churchill directed his agents to reject all peace proposals. Meanwhile, outraged German citizens wanted retribution for the senseless slaughter. Ultimately, Hitler grudgingly directed the first Luftwaffe bombing assault on London with high-tech planes which caused a firestorm in London. Churchill, instead of being concerned for the citizens, was ecstatic. Newsreel photos seen worldwide sensationalized the images of dead British civilians while concealing the pictures of hundreds of dead civilians in Berlin. Churchill initiated the bombing of civilians in what people currently refer to as carpet-bombing. 1419

  Hitler, because of Churchill’s terror-attacks, decided that reward and punishment diplomacy was his only option. He reluctantly resorted to bombing Britain as a way of inducing them to negotiate. Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the Army and Kriegsmarine devised Operation Sea Lion though Hitler never really considere
d bombing Britain because he still desired an Anglo-German reconciliation. Britain, with its superior intelligence gathering, readiness, and technology had a distinct advantage over Germany. Beginning in mid-September 1940, Britain had relayed the Luftwaffe’s target destinations, its hours of arrival, and the number of aircraft, everything they needed to counter Germany’s element of surprise. Britain’s Supermarine Spitfire was similar to Germany’s Messerschmitt ME-109, which had fuel limitations, something that did not affect RAF pilots as they would just parachute to safety, and obtain another plane. Luftwaffe pilots who parachuted over Britain were not so fortunate after the enemy captured them. 1420

  Because of those German losses, Hitler terminated all arrangements for Operation Sea Lion. However, Britain experienced severe destruction of infrastructure before that. The Germans had also destroyed factories while the RAF lost a lot of aircraft and dozens of pilots. The British population was also confronted by starvation rationing which would have caused grievous suffering. Meanwhile, Germany’s non-aggression pact with the Soviets was about to expire and they were militarily preparing to invade Germany. 1421

  By March 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt strategized about combined aerial warfare against Germany, before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. The Allies determined that air strikes were necessary prior to an allied land invasion of Europe. In June, FDR reorganized the military forces with the creation of the Army Air Forces. In July, the U.S. Army Air Forces Air War Plans Division, a separate task force, developed a wide-ranging six-month plan, called AWPD-1, to totally decimate Germany’s economy through precision daylight bombing of essential infrastructure such as power plants, transportation systems, and oil facilities through the use of 4,000 bombers. The plotters figured that within six months, Germany would be in ruins and then the allies could simply walk in. 1422

  In July 1941, Roosevelt asked War Secretary Henry Stimson and Navy Secretary Frank Knox to enlist six skilled staff officers to plan an aerial war against Germany. They chose men who had been engaged in a clandestine naval war in the Atlantic with Germany’s U-boats. The planners were, for the air war segment, Major General Henry Arnold, commander of the Army Air Corps, renamed U.S. Army Air Forces; Lt. Colonels Kenneth Walker and Harold George and Majors Haywood Hansell, Jr. and Laurence Kuter. They had all been at the Army Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field in Alabama. The team commissioned two Wall Street bankers, Richard Hughes and Malcolm Moss who were responsible for determining strategic targets. It had ten days to devise a plan, called Air War Plans Division, 1 (AWPD-1), Munitions Requirements of the Army Air Forces for the Defeat of Our Potential Enemies. Three tasks were of utmost importance, (1) wage a sustained air offensive against Germany; (2) conduct strategically defensive air operations in Asia; (3) provide air defense for the continental U.S. and Western Hemisphere. Four goals for an air offensive against Germany, (1) reduce Axis naval operations; (2) restrict Axis air operations; (3) undermine German combat through destruction of basic supplies, production and communication facilities; (4) facilitate an ultimate land invasion. AWPD-1 suggested a force of 2,165,000 men and 63,500 aircraft. 1423

  The U.S. military constructed model German cities and towns to test logistics and general vulnerability. Their tests revealed that residential areas were the most suitable targets for creating the kind of hell fires the Allies envisioned, using their fleet of several thousand heavy bombers, the American B-17 and the British Lancaster, which weighed about twenty-five tons, complete with bombs. They were slower and the government later replaced them with lighter planes that could still withstand civilian bombardment efforts. The Allies dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe, 1,356,828 tons on Germany with 389,809 sorties in 1,481 nights and 1,089 days. 1424 Sir Arthur Harris, a disciple of Hugh Trenchard, the British expert on strategic bombing, directed the British Bomber Command. He had encouraged, after World War I, the expansion of the British bomber force in the likely event of a future war. 1425

  In the summer of 1940, the RAF had tried to destroy Germany’s grain harvest by dropping incendiary devices. They also wanted to burn down the High Harz and the Black and Thuringian forests with incendiaries. However, the forests were too lush and moist so they did not catch fire. One year later, they tried using fifty-pound canisters of a rubber-phosphorous mixture but again, they failed. However, on September 8, 1941, rather than waste the phosphorous-filled canisters, the Royal Air Force (RAF) dropped them on several cities—Lichtenberg and Pankow, two Berlin suburbs and on Wuppertal, where they dropped 30,000 canisters. 1426 Britain and America declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, twenty-four hours after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. The AWPD-1 drew up a list of 177 military and industrial targets within Germany, all designed to destabilize Germany’s economy and inhibit the country’s ability to fight. 1427

  Frederick Lindemann

  Frederick Lindemann, a Jew from Alsace, after attending Oxford studied physics in Berlin with Walter Nernst. Then, Lindemann taught physics at Oxford. He hated NS Germany and, like Churchill, he considered them a threat. Lindemann acquired vital information from the worldwide Jewish network, inaccessible to the government. People often speculated about where Churchill got his array of interesting information. When he became Prime Minister, he immediately selected Lindemann to his cabinet, as the government’s scientific adviser. He developed scientific defenses like radar. In 1941, officials awarded Lindemann the title of Lord Cherwell, the name of the river that runs into the Isis at Oxford. 1428 In 1942, the Cabinet accepted Lindemann’s proposal of area bombing of German cities through a strategic bombing campaign. Lindemann had designated, with maps, some of the operations that Harris’ Bomber Command would use. The Air Ministry Intelligence Directorate created maps, categorizing cities and towns, showing population densities and other statistics. 1429

  On February 20, 1942, “Bomber” Harris implemented a total war against German civilians. He became head of the RAF Bomber Command on February 22. 1430 He was awarded the Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath for his military service to the crown, as announced in the Times of London, June 11. 1431 After Harris took command, Lindemann, introduced the “de-housing” tactic wherein they targeted German workers as a way of demoralizing the entire German work force. Homeless people are less likely to follow their regular routine when they have lost all of the material things that give structure to their lives. 1432 Lindemann calculated that Bomber Command could destroy most of the German houses within the cities based on the Luftwaffe’s British bombing campaign. His plan was extremely controversial but the Cabinet approved it as the way to attack Germany without executing a land invasion which was not feasible.

  Harris masterminded the pervasive, indiscriminate area bombing of Germany (1942-1945). He directed the RAF dispersal of over 850,000 tons of bombs on Germany in which 600,000 civilians were immediately killed. In Harris’ first assault, on March 28, 1942, he directed 400 tons of bombs to be dropped on Lübeck, a port with no military significance. Two-thirds of the bombs were incendiaries, dropped into the middle of the medieval town where most of the houses had been constructed of wood. At least 3,400 buildings were severely damaged or demolished while more than 1,000 civilians were killed. In April, Harris directed bombing assaults on Essen, Hamburg, Duisburg, Dortmund, and Rostock, an old medieval town like Lübeck, again with no military significance. 1433

  Hitler always wanted a friendly relationship with the British because he thought that the Empire, Germany’s racial and natural ally, was indispensable to world stability. While Hitler wanted to preserve Britain, FDR had very different goals according to Henry A. Wallace, FDR’s vice president. Wallace recorded in his diary what the Secretary of State said in a Cabinet meeting in May 1942, “the destruction of the British Empire is the President’s aim, beginning with India.” 1434

  America began aerial warfare against Germany during daylight hours on August
12, 1942 using twelve bombers. In subsequent days, they targeted railroad junctions, military manufacturers and submarine bases in German-occupied Europe. They encountered little aerial resistance. In August, British and American collaborators, after lengthy discussions, replaced AWPD-1 with AWPD-2. America continued daylight bombings while Britain handled night bombings, an arrangement reaffirmed at the Casablanca Conference (January 1943). On January 27, ninety-one bombers headed towards Germany’s Wilhelmshaven naval base. Germany lacked heavy-duty aircraft but responded with a hundred fighters and destroyed three of the American bombers.1435

  Americans initially committed to daylight bombing of military and industrial targets to limit civilian casualties. Day or night, the civilians were still struck. During 1943, America maintained its daylight bombing policy pursuing identifiable military targets in Germany and in German-occupied countries. Britain and America executed bombing raids against Hamburg in July, aiming at specific targets. Britain, with its incendiaries, created a hellish firestorm. 1436 Germany, by necessity, improved its anti-aircraft and radar systems and improved their fighter capability. These enhancements increased the number of American casualties in July and August, whose losses continued to increase until the middle of October, when Germany destroyed almost twenty percent of the American planes during just one attack. 1437

  During World War II, more bombs were dropped on Berlin than on the entire country of Britain. An American correspondent wrote, “The capital of the Third Reich is a heap of gaunt, burned-out, flame-seared buildings. It is a desert of a hundred thousand dunes made up of brick and powdered masonry. Over this hangs the pungent stench of death… It is impossible to exaggerate in describing the destruction… Downtown Berlin looks like nothing man could have contrived. Riding down the famous Frankfurter Allee, I did not see a single building where you could have set up a business of even selling apples.” 1438