Arthur Harris
Arthur Harris, the son of a civil servant, was born in Cheltenham, on 13th April, 1892. When he was seventeen he moved to Rhodesia where he tried his luck at gold mining, driving horses and tobacco planting.
When the First World War broke out he joined the 1st Rhodesia Regiment and fought in the successful campaign to capture German South West Africa from the German Army.
Harris returned to England in 1915 and joined the Royal Flying Corps. The following year he qualified as a fighter pilot and joined the 44 Squadron in France. Harris also helped organize the defence against the Zeppelin Air Raids in 1916 before taking command of the 44 Squadron and training it for night fighting.
In 1919 Harris was given the rank of squadron leader of the recently created Royal Air Force (RAF). Over the next few years he served in India, Iraq and Iran. He led the 58 Squadron (1925-27) before serving on the air staff in the Middle East (1930-32).
During this period the RAF used terror bombing, including gas attacks and delayed action bombs, on the Iraqi tribes rebelling against British rule. One RAF officer, Air Commodore Lional Charlton, resigned in 1924 after visiting a hospital that contained limbless civilian victims of these air raids. However, Harris remarked "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand."
In 1932 Harris was appointed commander of the 210 Flying Boat Squadron. Promoted to group captain in 1933 Harris was appointed deputy director of plans in the Air Ministry (1934-37). While in this post he produced a document concerning how to deal with a war with Germany that he forecasted would begin in 1939.
By the outbreak of the Second World War Harris had reached the rank of air vice marshal and spent the early months of the war in the United States purchasing aircraft for the war effort. When he returned to Britain he served under Charles Portal, the head of Bomber Command.
In February, 1942, Harris replaced J. E. Baldwin as head of RAF Bomber Command. Under his leadership the policy of area bombing (known in Germany as terror bombing) was developed. Harris fought against all attempts to persuade him to switch to precision bombing and for a while resisted the formation of the Pathfinder Force in 1942.
Harris argued that the main objectives of night-time blanket bombing of urban areas was to undermine the morale of the civilian population and attacks were launched on Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Dresden and other German cities. This air campaign killed an estimated 600,000 civilians and destroyed or seriously damaged some six million homes. It was a highly dangerous strategy and during the war Bomber Command had 57,143 men killed.
In March, 1945, Winston Churchill gave instructions to Harris to bring an end to area bombing. As he explained: "It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, should be reviewed. Otherwise we shall come into control of an utterly ruined land."
Harris became a marshal of the Royal Air Force in 1946 and soon afterwards retired from active duty. He published his war memoirs, Bomber Command, in 1947. Upset by criticisms of his area bombing strategy he went to live in South Africa where he ran a shipping line. Arthur Harris died on 5th April, 1984.
Primary Sources
(1) In his autobiography Arthur Harris explained why he joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1915.
The Gunners were full up. I thought I would learn to fly; even before the war I had toyed with the idea of joining the R.N.A.S. and might have done so if it had not meant becoming a professional sailor.
I therefore joined the R.F.C. To me it was just an incident pending the suppression of the Boche and the chance to get backhome to Africa. I certainly had no idea that air warfare would be my life's work. I had an uncle on Kitchener's staff so I slid round the 6000 "waiting list" - it was sheer nepotism. I was appointed a second-lieutenant on probation, and learned to fly. During the war I had two main jobs. I formed and commanded a detached flight-and later a squadron - in the first Home Defence squadron of night fighters - in which Leefe Robinson shot down the first Zeppelin - and in France I commanded a flight in a fighter squadron protecting our artillery spotters.
(2) While studying at the Army Staff College in 1927Arthur Harris got into trouble when he criticised his lecturer for his conservative views on military tactics.
I remember getting into hot water when I was asked in my turn, after a week's intensive study of tank warfare (and this at a time when the army had just got rid of the Tank Corps) to give my opinion of the week's work. I included in my answer a remark to the effect that, after I had watched the army mind at work disposing of the tank as a useless thing because it could not do exactly what the cavalryman and his horse had always done and in precisely the same way, I was sure the army would never succeed in choosing a tank that would meet all their requirements until somebody invented tanks that ate hay and thereafter made noises like a horse.
(3) Arthur Harris, Bomber Command (1947)
During peace-time the enormous organisation and the large number of airfields and aircraft needed to train an adequate number of crews up to operational standards could not be provided within the limits of the endurance of the British tax-payer. Flying Training Command and the Empire Training Scheme provided us with recruits trained up to a certain standard, but very far from being fit for operations; for one thing, none of these men had yet been trained to work together as a bomber crew. This was all right when we had bombers, such as the Battles, Hinds, and Vickers Wellesleys, which usually had only a crew of two, but with the newer types, carrying crews of four, five and six, such training of the men as.individuals was wholly inadequate. All the rest had to be done by Bomber Command itself, and there had been no provision for such training in peace-time outside the squadrons themselves-which in war could not undertake both training and operations.
(4) While in India in the 1920s Basil Embry served under Arthur Harris. He wrote about Harris in his autobiography, Mission Completed (1956).
Harris turned his attention to the administrative and disciplinary side of squadron life. He improved the airmen's food by attention to detail, he lowered the temperature in barrack rooms by installing a device which sprayed water on to matting hung over each window, and he reorganized the officers' mess and had it redecorated.
He also tightened up discipline, which had become a little lax in the carefree existence of life in an undeveloped country. A daily parade was held and young officers were made to carry out regular physical training. These measures were unpopular with some, but that influenced him not at all in driving forward to build up the efficiency he demanded.
Harris paid great attention to training in airmanship, and insisted that pilots attend lectures and had technical instruction in the workshops. Every squadron activity he watched with keen personal interest and the effects of his policy and strong personality were soon felt throughout the unit. Morale soared, esprit de corps rose to a great height and each member of his unit was proud to say, "I belong to 45 Squadron!"
