He built Bomber Command into a mighty force, but his reputation has suffered. Bomber Harris By Rebecca Grant N THE gallery of controversial IWestern military airmen, a few names truly stand out. At the top of Photo by Leonard McCombe/Picture Post/Getty Images this list is Bomber Harris. Sir Arthur Travers Harris, Mar- shal of the Royal Air Force, was the head of RAF Bomber Command in the period 1942 through 1945. Dur- ing that time, the RAF dropped al- most a million tons of bombs. Half fell on German cities. Harris is forever linked with im- ages of the destruction of German cultural landmarks. His outspoken RAF Air Marshal Harris and Royal Navy officials go over plans to use RAF advocacy of razing German cities bombers to drop mines. Bomber Harris is at the top of the list of controversial and winning the war with bomber World War II airmen. offensives made him a polarizing public figure even during that all- out, no-holds-barred fight to the fin- ish. Those World War II exploits have fighting fleets overcame poor equip- tional results—including surprisingly echoed far beyond 1945. When ad- ment and training and pioneered such effective support for land force opera- mirers erected a statue of Harris in essentials of modern warfare as elec- tions in the last year of the war. Per- London in 1992, mobs of protesters tronic countermeasures (ECM). haps no airman had ever been given a took to the streets in both Britain and On the other hand, Harris also more difficult job: to create from scarce Germany. opposed the diversion of airpower resources a bomber force that would The fact that Harris was a stern to support the Normandy invasion, be the one sure means of taking the wartime commander only added to downplayed the need to bomb the war directly to Nazi Germany. That his reputation. German V-2 missile sites, and sup- was Harris’ task from 1942 to 1945. “Harris was incapable of deploy- ported wide-area bombing of Ger- Harris was born in Cheltenham in ing guile, diplomacy, or charm as man cities with high explosives and 1892. His father was a civil servant weapons in his armory, and his ap- incendiaries right through to the end in India. His mother was the daugh- proach was always direct to the point of the war. ter of an Army physician in Madras. of rudeness,” said Sebastian Cox, who Harris lived five years with his par- edited Harris’ long-classified post- In a New Light ents in India and then was sent to war Despatch for publication in 1995. Harris’ record is worth a reconsid- school in England. At age 18, he No one doubts that Harris was hard eration, however. For one thing, he left school to make his career in to take, but one cannot give a fair faced major challenges building up Rhodesia. When Harris arrived in assessment without putting his ac- the kind of Bomber Command that 1910, the British colony was rap- tions in the proper context. His night- could produce such impressive opera- idly expanding. Harris spent four 68 AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2005 years working on farms until, in 1914, general war broke out in Eu- rope. Harris shipped out for the World War with a Rhodesian regiment, but, through an uncle, found his way into the Royal Flying Corps. Two weeks in the cockpit won him a pilot’s li- cense and an officer’s appointment. Photo by Central Press/Getty Images Ten more hours of flying time at Upavon, over a two-month period, earned him full qualification in Janu- ary 1916 and an assignment to the air base at Northolt to learn night flying against German Zeppelins. The young Harris thrived in the dangerous night-flying environment. By September 1916, he was in com- mand of a fighter squadron headed for France. However, 1916 was a difficult time for British aviators Harris visits with airmen at one of his units in 1943. He overcame major facing superior German Fokker mono- challenges to build Bomber Command into a force that could take the war to planes and pilots. By October 1916, Nazi Germany. Harris was on his way back home with a broken arm, an injury suf- In Washington, Harris befriended cize Bomber Command’s perfor- fered during a crash landing. not only national leaders such as mance to that point. Only one in ev- He returned to the front in the Roosevelt and Gen. George C. Mar- ery three bomber sorties produced summer of 1917 in time for the muddy shall but also airmen such as Adm. attacks coming within five miles of stalemates at Passchendaele and John H. Towers, who offered a train- the target, and many bombers were Ypres. Harris became an ace that ing facility in Florida for British simply dropping their strings in the summer. Dogfighting over the trench pilots, and Jacqueline Cochrane, who open countryside. Bomber Command lines left him with the impression volunteered her services as a ferry in 1942 had on its books only 51 that “if another war did occur, there pilot. squadrons of about 20 bombers each. must surely be a better way to fight Moreover, 27 percent of the fleet was it,” according to recent Harris biog- “Where We Start” nonoperational due to re-equipping. rapher Henry Probert. Harris and his wife were in Wash- (By spring 1945, Harris would have Assignments in India, Iraq, Egypt, ington when a shocked America re- 108 squadrons with a nonoperational and on the Air Ministry staff fol- ceived word of imperial Japan’s rate of less than one percent.) lowed. In the late 1930s, Harris made sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Harris Most of Bomber Command’s air- several trips to America in a liaison resisted the pleas of Secretary of craft were ill-suited for carrying capacity and met Henry H. “Hap” War Henry L. Stimson to cancel some heavy ordnance loads on deep raids. Arnold, Ira C. Eaker, and other se- RAF contracts and divert the mate- Harris counted 378 serviceable air- nior air leaders. He took charge of riel to US armed forces. When As- craft with crews, of which 69 were RAF 5 Group in September 1939, at sistant Secretary for Air Robert A. heavy bombers. Not a single Lan- the outset of World War II, and spent Lovett pointed out that the US Pa- caster—the four-engine mainstay of the war’s first year improving the cific Fleet was in dire straits, Harris the later war years—was yet on op- operational status of his bomber had a calm reply: “So what?” A few erational status. squadrons. days later, after hearing more grim Bomber Command competed for Harris set up formal training news, he would simply say to Lovett, resources with Fighter Command, units, harped on maintenance, and “This is where we start.” always far ahead in procurement pri- chided RAF Fighter Command for In February 1942, Harris returned orities, and Coastal Command, which its tendency to inadvertently shoot to England as head of RAF Bomber had bomber squadrons dedicated to at friendly bombers. Command. It was not a formidable English Channel activity and to the In November 1940, he became force. Far from it. “During the early guarding of sea-lanes. Even so, deputy chief of the air staff, but he months of the war,” Harris wrote in Bomber Command was obligated to soon was off to Washington again, Despatch, “Bomber Command ac- carrying out the sea mining mission. this time as head of the RAF delega- tivities were limited to spasmodic Harris backed it, but the mission ate tion buying aircraft and arranging attacks on enemy shipping on cer- into the forces he could assemble to pilot training. He arrived in June tain naval installations, and no stra- attack Germany. 1941 and 10 days later found himself tegic bombing of German targets took It took a while for his new com- conferring with President Franklin place.” mand to make its mark. D. Roosevelt at the White House An August 1941 report to Prime Harris’ own postwar report put after Nazi Germany, on June 22, in- Minister Winston Churchill’s War Bomber Command’s 1942 accuracy vaded the Soviet Union. Cabinet used starker terms to criti- against German cities (Berlin ex- AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2005 69 cluded) at an average of just 33 To Harris, Bomber Command was most potent method of impairing the percent. Only fair-weather raids “the only means at the disposal of enemy’s morale we can use at the counted—and “accuracy” was de- the Allies for striking at Germany present time.” fined as bomb release within three itself and, as such, stood out as the Churchill was fond of inviting miles of the aim point. central point in the Allied offensive commanders to late-night dinners Bomber Command, despite short- strategy.” throughout the war. Harris used the comings, was essential to Britain’s First, however, he had to conduct social opportunities to build Church- war. In early 1942, the only thing what he later called “a complete revo- ill’s trust, but he shrewdly condensed grimmer than the feeble status of lution in the employment no less important war business and lobby- RAF Bomber Command was Britain’s than in the composition of the bomber ing for bomber procurement into strategic position. It was still wag- force.” memoranda known as “minutes” so ing a war of national survival. The His most powerful ally in the quest that Churchill could review and act triumphs in North Africa were months to build up Bomber Command was on them.