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About this design
Air Marshall Arthur 'Bomber' Harris remains one of the most controversial military commanders of World War Two. Arthur Harris commanded Bomber Command and was a believer that the bombing of civilian targets, and as a result civilians, would shorten World War Two. Harris believed that if the morale of civilians was destroyed as a result of their city being attacked, they would put pressure on their government to capitulate. The raids killed over 600,000 German civilians and seriously damaged 6 million homes. The bombing of Dresden where 130,000 civilians were said to have perished in one raid was and remains controversial. A couple of years ago I heard a panel of worthies holding forth on Radio 4. As a counter to all the breast beaters an historian on the panel pointed out that in the 100 years to 1939 the Germans had started 75 international conflicts. He went on to say Germans should thank Bomber Harris for burning this inclination out of their soul. George Orwell had this to say about bombing and vengence in 1938 in the Magazine Time and Tide:
You cannot be objective about an aerial torpedo. And the horror we feel of these things has led to this conclusion: if someone drops a bomb on your mother, go and drop two bombs on his mother. The only apparent alternatives are to smash dwelling houses to powder, blow out human entrails and burn holes in children with thermite, or to be enslaved by people who are more ready to do these things than you are yourself; as yet no one has suggested a practicable way out.
Harris retired from the RAF shortly after his promotion to Marshall and emigrated to South Africa. Here he continued to believe that the area bombing of Germany had done a lot to bring the war to an end. Harris continued to work in South Africa and died in April 1984.
In 1992, a bronze statue to Harris was unveiled by The Queen Mother outside the RAF Church, St Clement Danes , at the junction of Fleet Street and The Aldwych in London. Celebrate a strong minded iconclast, wear our Bomber Harris t shirt.
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