Bombs on Britain

	Institute for Historical=20 Review

Bombs on Britain

Dr. A.R. WESSERLE

16 March 1981

PBS Television
"The Blitz"

Sirs:

Rarely have I come across a television broadcast more vicious = in intent=20 and more warped in execution than your recent "Blitz on Britain." = As a=20 survivor of the mass air raid executed against my native city of = Prague,=20 Bohemia, on the Christian Holy Day of Palm Sunday, 1945, by the=20 Anglo-American strategic bomber force -- a raid that maimed or = murdered=20 thousands a few seconds before the conclusion of the Second World = War -- I=20 say this:

1. There can be no comparison between the brutality of the=20 Anglo-American bomber offensive, on one hand, and the minimality = of the=20 German-Italian efforts, on the other.

As the commander of the British strategic air offensive, Air = Marshal=20 Sir Arthur Harris shows in his Bomber Offensive (Macmillan, = New=20 York, 1947) 23 German cities had more than 60 percent of their = built-up=20 area destroyed; 46 had half of it destroyed. 31 communities had = more than=20 500 acres obliterated: Berlin, 6427 acres: Hamburg, 6200 acres;=20 Duesseldorf, 2003; Cologne (through air attack), 1994. By = contrast, the=20 three favorite targets of the Luftwaffe: London, Plymouth and = Coventry,=20 had 600 acres, 400, and just over 100 acres destroyed.

2. Anglo-American strategic bombers, according to official = sources of=20 the West German government in 1962, dropped 2,690,000 metric tons = of bombs=20 on Continental Europe; 1,350,000 tons were dropped on Germany = within its=20 1937 boundaries; 180,000 tons on Austria and the Balkans; 590,000 = tons on=20 France; 370,000 tons on Italy; and 200,000 tons on miscellaneous = targets=20 such as Bohemia, Slovakia and Poland. By contrast, Germany dropped = a total=20 of 74,172 tons of bombs as well as V-1 and V-2 rockets and "buzz = bombs" on=20 Britain -- five percent of what the Anglo-Saxons rained down on=20 Germany.

The Federal German Government has established the minimum count = -- not=20 an estimate -- of 635,000 German civilians were killed in France, = Italy,=20 Rumania, Hungary, Czecheslovakia, and elsewhere.

3. Both Germany and Britain initiated air raids on naval and = military=20 targets as of 3 September 1939. However, when the British attacks = on port=20 installations in Northern Germany ended in disaster, with a = devastating=20 majority of bombers downed -- the Battle of the German Bight -- = Britain=20 switched over to less costly night air raids on civilian targets = such as=20 Berlin and the Ruhr industrial region. By contrast, Germany = replied in=20 kind only in the winter months of 1940/41, a year later.

Observers indubitably British, such as the late Labour Minister = Crossman, the scientist and writer C.P. Snow, and the Earl of = Birkenhead,=20 have demonstrated that it was not Germany but Britain that, after = May,=20 1940, unleashed an official policy of unrestricted and unlimited = raids on=20 civilian populations under its new Prime Minister, Winston = Churchill, and=20 his science advisor, Dr. Lindemann. Professor Lindemann, the later = Viscount Cherwell, coolly calculated that, by using a force of = 10,000=20 heavy bombers to attack and destroy the 58 largest German cities,=20 one-third of the population of Germany would be "de-housed." The=20 assumption, of course, also was that out of those 25-27 million = homeless=20 at least ten percent -- 2.5 to 3 million people -- would be = killed. On=20 this score alone, Winston Churchill and his advisors deserve to = rank among=20 the maddest mass murderers in history. In fact, as West German = records=20 show, 131 German towns were hit by heavy strategic raids. Only the = courage=20 of the Luftwaffe pilots, the effectiveness of the air defense = network and=20 the strength of the fire fighting organization worked together to = prevent=20 a bloodbath to the extent envisioned by the Prime Minister.

4. Blood baths did occur when conditions were right.

When the Anglo-American bombing policy reached its first grand = climax=20 in a raid on Hamburg that stretched over several days and nights = in July,=20 1943, a minimum of 40,000 to 50,000 civilians burned to death.

With the defensive power of the Reich worn down in the second = half of=20 1944 and in 1945, the Anglo-Saxons indulged in ever more massive=20 extermination raids against Europe. Communities of little or no = military=20 value, even if attacked previously, were now pulverized, = preferably under=20 conditions of the utmost horror. Christian holy days, and dates = and sites=20 of famous art festivals were select occasions for raids. Many of = the most=20 beautiful cities of Europe and the world were systematically = pounded into=20 nothingness, often during the last weeks of the war, among them:=20 Wuerzburg, Hildesheim, Darmstadt, Kassel, Nuremberg, Braunschweig. = Little=20 Pforzheim in south-west Germany had 17,000 people killed. Dresden, = one of=20 the great art centers and in 1945 a refuge for perhaps a million=20 civilians, was decimated with the loss of at least 100,000 souls. = Europe=20 from Monte Cassino to Luebeck and Rostock on the Baltic, from Caen = and=20 Lisieux in France to Pilsen, Prague, Bruenn, Budapest and = Bucharest reeled=20 under the barbaric blows of the bombers.

5. Nor did the extermination raids stop with Europe.

Cigar-chomping General Curtis LeMay demonstrated in. the Far = East that=20 record kills could be achieved without resort to atomic weapons. = By=20 applying the lessons learned in Europe to the wooden architecture = of the=20 Asian mainland and Japan he raised "fire storms" which surpassed = even=20 those of Hamburg, Pforzheim and Dresden-Mass raids by superheavy = B-29=20 bombers against Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe and particularly, = Tokyo-Yokohama,=20 resulted in a minimum harvest of 125,000 to 150,000 kills per = raid. More=20 than 1.2 million Japanese civilians were killed through bombing. = Millions=20 of others fell victim to it, from Mukden, Manchuria, to Rangoon,=20 Burma.

It goes without saying that LeMay and his colleagues could not = have=20 carried out their campaigns of mass annihilation without the = backing of=20 the highest political leaders in the land. In fact, the United = States=20 Government had placed orders for the immediate development of=20 four-engined, superheavy, very-long-range bombers (the XB 15, the = B-17,=20 the XB 19, the B-24 and the B-29) starting in 1934.

Thus, the Roosevelt Administration had begun to lay plans for=20 offensive, strategic, global war back in 1933, the year of its = inception.=20 With the later exception of Britain, none of the other "large" = powers=20 followed suit: neither France, Italy and Germany, nor Soviet = Russia and=20 Japan the latter with extensive holdings in the Pacific.

These are sobering facts. PBS, with its record of fine = programming, has=20 much to lose if it insists on presenting biassed reports such as = "Blitz on=20 Britain" or "UXB." If you care to tap the unplumbed depths of=20 sentimentality, envy and hatred, start a comic strip. In the = meantime,=20 we'll change channels.

Give poor Alistair Cooke, who has been mightily discomfited of = late, a=20 much-needed respite.

Sincerely,
Dr. A. R. Wesserle

Bibliographic information
Author:	Andreas R. Wesserle
Title:	Letter to PBS
Source:	The Journal for Historical Review (http://www.ihr.org/index.html)=
Date:	Winter 1981
Issue:	Volume 2 number 4
Location:	Page 381
ISSN:	0195-6752
Attribution:	"Reprinted from The Journal of Historical Review, = PO Box=20 2739, Newport Beach, CA 92659, USA. Domestic subscriptions = $40 per=20 year; foreign subscriptions $60 per year."
Please send a copy of all reprints to the=20 = Editor.

Institute for Historical=20 Review

Bombs on Britain

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