The Second World War saw atrocities on a scale never before witnessed and it is a much debated issue whether the bomber offensive was an effective military tool or form of mass genocide through indiscriminate bombing.

Arthur Harris defends the bomber offensive as a comparatively humane method of warfare. His justification for this is that it prevented the youth of Britain being slaughtered on fields like Flanders and Passchendaele like they were in World War One. Harris' rebuttal of the criticism of civilian killing is that every war had witnessed the death of civilians and that the British blockade of the First World War was estimated to have caused 800,000 deaths - mainly women and children because the German forces had to be sustained. An American estimate of deaths caused by the combined bomber offensive lay at 305,000, which is considerably less over a far longer period of time than the British blockage of World War One (64). Indeed, Sir John Steel, Bomber Command's first Commander-in-Chief, argues that he gave his bombers points of strategic importance that the guns would shell if they could reach it (65). It can also be argued that the Luftwaffe bombed British cities with no care about civilian casualties and, had the resources been available, Hitler would have flattened Britain without remorse.

Despite the justification given, there has been much criticism of Bomber Command for the destruction of large areas of civilian populace. One German eyewitness of the Dresden raid was nine-year old Lothar Metzger. He provides an account of being in the middle of a firestorm:

"We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to the size of small children, pieces of arms and legs, dead people, whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro, burnt coaches filled with civilian refugees, dead rescuers and soldiers, and fire everywhere, everywhere fire, and all the time the hot wind of the firestorm threw people back into the burning houses they were trying to escape." (66)

This type of sickening scene left Mr Metzger, and other survivors, a terrible trauma, which disturbed them for the rest of their lives (67). This type of story is common and is virtually repeated by Hamburg greengrocer Johann Burmeister. Even today, the night he was involved in a firestorm still disturbs him as he requests of his interviewer, 'Please spare me from having to describe further details' (68). Two Hamburg fire chiefs talked of their experiences remembering the huge fires they encountered. Hans Brunswig states:

"Buildings were quickly catching fire, flames shooting out of windows and a shower of sparks setting fire to everything in their path." (69)

Hermann Kroger gives a similar if less factual account: 'A storm… a hurricane… a sea of fire' (70). Even some members of Bomber Command were remorseful about what they had done with Freeman Dyson, a follower of the ideas of Gandhi, reluctantly admitting the need of bombing to win the war, but not indiscriminate city bombing. Upon his arrival at Bomber Command, Dyson considered bombing 'morally justified' as it was helping to win the war but he eventually fell to the view that his excuses were useless and that he had no moral position left (71).

It has been argued that in most areas, bombing was a necessary part of the Allied campaign and that it would have taken a considerably larger quantity of men and resources to do the same damage to Germany on land. However, questions must be raised over certain raids, especially Dresden. Perhaps a heavy air attack was necessary, but did this mean the whole city had to be burned? This is a question that still rages amongst the historians today and no one answer is ever likely to be agreed on.

64 - A. Harris, pp. 176-177 65 - M. Hastings, p. 46 66 - Lothar Metzger - Eyewitness - The Fire Bombing of Dresden - Internet 67 - Internet - The Fire Bombing of Dresden 68 - Internet - Bomber Command - Death by Moonlight - Johann Burmeister - Eyewitness 69 - Internet - Bomber Command - Death by Moonlight - Hans Brunswig - Eyewitness 70 - Internet - Bomber Command - Death by Moonlight - Hermann Kroger - Eyewitness 71 - Internet - Bomber Command - Death by Moonlight - Freeman Dyson - Allied Airman