The Lancaster Bomber

Last week there was a fascinating documentary on the Lancaster bomber on Sky.

The Lancaster was the elite aircraft of Bomber Command which under Air Marshal ‘Bomber’ Harris raised German cities to rubble.

This is a remarkably prescient topic given the Israeli Air Force bombing of Gaza.

In logistical and strategic terms the Luftwaffe was committed to the defence of German cities and the Ruhr valley, weakening  Stalin’s demand that the Allies open a second front.

The airmen were young and extraordinarily brave and as veterans baffled that they are now regarded as murderers.

Winston Churchill at the end of the war changed strategy from precision bombing, sacking Harris who could claim with some justification that precision bombing represented his orders.

Finally it must be said that that Germans were hardly oblivious to civilian bombing: Rotterdam, Warsaw, London, Coventry, Liverpool, Belfast were all targeted.

Dresden is often cited as the worst example.

It was not just the centre of pretty Meissen porcelain but a transport hub containing many German soldiers fleeing in the face of the Red Army.