Posted on 10/28/2017 6:57:11 AM PDT by DFG
One of the last survivors of the Dambuster missions has lashed out at revisionist historians who criticise Britain's tactics of razing German cities to the ground. Johnny Johnson MBE, 95, hit out at historians who were not there at the time, telling them to 'keep your bloody mouth shut,' as he demands bomber crews are finally recognised with a medal. The former bomb aimer for a Lancaster bomber was a part of the top-secret Operation Chastise, that sought to breach dams and flood munitions factories in the Ruhr valley.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Good for him. Its shameful the way the British government has treated Bomber Command.
War is hell, best to bomb highly populated cities with their banks and insurance companies, shopping centers, high rise apartments, schools, etc. at night and then whine when it comes back at you? Let the Americans fly during the day and bomb the oil fields, factories, rail centers, and fortifications. Flying through those flak boxes in easily spotted aircraft. Burn cities to the ground like Dresden and Hamburg then wonder why the civilians threw the bailed out pilots into the fire? A dinning room table in an apartment house with a bomb stuck in it, isn’t what one could call a target of military importance. Hog wash, targeting civilians, is not being heroic in my book. This is going to lead to a long thread for sure with all the pros and cons. Even Senator Mc Govern felt bad for years after the war for a jammed 500lb bomb he released that hit a farm house at noon time.
Those evil rotten Brits — they started the bombing of civilian populations. The Germans could do nothing but retaliate with The Blitz. Right?
The Lancaster. Very good bomber capable of carry up to 22,000lbs of bombs.
Bullshit. The Germans had no compunction when it came to flattening Warsaw, Rotterdam and Coventry. Tough shit for them. The war is over and we won. Had the Germans won they wouldn’t be sitting around some seventy odd years later navel gazing and saying “Gee, we shouldn’t have done that’’’. Grow up.
Yup. “The Germans sowed the seed. Now they’ll reap the whirlwind’’.- Arthur “Bomber’’ Harris, 1944.
Even at the time, the Brits never rewarded Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris with the kinds of awards & titles the reserved for Army (Montgomery) and Navy (Mountbatten) leaders. Seems even while they were doing what was necessary the high command was a little bit squeamish about it.
Another saying comes to mind. “War is the solution our enemies have chosen, and I say, lets give them all they want.” General William T. Sherman
Any country that takes away effective options to defend itself greatly increases the opportunities for the aggressor.
I say the world should have bombed the Hell out of Germany—far more than was ever done. Nuclear bombs would have been beautiful to have dropped on Germany, as it would have wiped out the aggressors more quickly.
What hacks me off is that their are people on our side of the aisle that echo some of those criticisms.
Germany was a cancer on Europe, and cure was heavy metal chemo from the sky.
Might have worked a bit too well would be the only thing to think in hindsight.
There is an old saying..”The AGRESSOR in war makes the rules.”
At Warsaw, Coventry, Rotterdam, Lidice the German military, under Hitler, wrote down the rules to be followed in WWII.
In Asia, the Japanese followed the same rule book.
All the Allies did was win a war by following the pre-written rulebook.
So-called “do gooders” do not understand the basic result of ALLIED victory.
Where the AXIS stood victorious the slaughter really BEGAN.
Where the ALLIES stood victorious, In 3 simple words, “THE BUTCHERY STOPPED!!”
The Germans deserved every single thing that happened to them.
L
As Lord Mountbatten said of the American use of the atomic bomb, “The decision to use the atomic bomb was made in a total war context and it has never been viewed that way since.”
We were playing for keeps in those days.
Many years ago, I had a T-shirt with a mushroom cloud on it. Underneath was printed, “Don’t start a war if you can’t take the ending”.
And it isn’t as though American daylight “precision bombing” was in any way precise. There really wasn’t a good alternative. Look at the American firebombing of Tokyo:
“Speed would be crucial, and the crews were warned that if they were shot down, all haste was to be made for the water, which would increase their chances of being picked up by American rescue crews. Should they land within Japanese territory, they could only expect the very worst treatment by civilians, as the mission that night was going to entail the deaths of tens of thousands of those very same civilians. “You’re going to deliver the biggest firecracker the Japanese have ever seen,” said U.S. Gen. Curtis LeMay....
...dropping 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo over the course of the next 48 hours. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history...
...The human carnage was so great that the blood-red mists and stench of burning flesh that wafted up sickened the bomber pilots, forcing them to grab oxygen masks to keep from vomiting.
The raid lasted slightly longer than three hours. “In the black Sumida River, countless bodies were floating, clothed bodies, naked bodies, all black as charcoal. It was unreal,” recorded one doctor at the scene. Only 243 American airmen were lost-considered acceptable losses.”
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/firebombing-of-tokyo
The Russian did it the old fashioned way. They leveled German cities from the ground. War is hell. The Germans got what they deserved.
Lets see, which accomplished more, the bombing of civilians or strategic bombing of factories and energy sources? Did the bombing of civilians stop the production of aircraft? Did the bombing of the oil fields stop the supply of fuel? There was plenty of planes being made in Germany in 1945 but no fuel to fly them. There were tanks still being produced but no fuel to drive them. Seems to me, Spatz and Le May had it right. The Brits changed over to night bombing because they were taking too many hits. Hey no problem when the Yanks arrive they can do it in the daytime. Yeah they sure did, 3 of my mom’s relatives died doing it. Had they survived they may have flown out of the town the family came from. (Not in Germany) The allies won, Britain was on the ropes until we entered it. Even Ambassador Kennedy gave up on Britain winning on it’s own. The tactic of getting the Germans to stop attacking the airfields and defense industries in Britian was to attack their cites so they would in turn attack theirs? Coventry? They knew it was coming and they didn’t warn the population because it would tip off the Germans that they knew their code? The invasion of the low lands and the bombings were why? Could it be the Brits were preparing to use the ports as an invasion point? Why the German invasion or Norway? The Germans knew of the plan to build airfields there by the Brits. Hitler’s grand plan was towards the east, not the west. If anything England was a nuisance to Hitler, not a major threat, until the Yanks arrived. (For the second time in 20 years. We may be required again for a 3rd.)
All one has to do is listen to Edward R. Murrow’s first-hand accounts of what he saw at Buchenwald, keeping in mind that it was nothing compared to what happened at Auschwitz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o-CUOiKCCg
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