|
|
Civilian casualties, many of whom were undeniably innocents, were an inevitable result of the bombing campaign, of which the partial and overt mandate was to de-house the enemy industrial worker population and to shatter their will to wage war. Indeed, from 1943 onwards, in Sir Arthur Harris’s own and very public words which echoed the will of the Allied governments: “The primary objective of Bomber Command will be the progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial and economic system aimed at undermining the morale of the German people to the point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened.” Readers must also realize that while the deliberate slaughter of the German work force was never mandated, collateral damage was certainly anticipated. The destruction of residential areas was intended to make it extremely difficult for that work force to remain on the job. The western propensity for either embedding industrial complexes in residential areas, or for building residential areas around industrial facilities, inevitably produced further casualties. This reality was further exacerbated by the fact that Bomber Command, as it operated during the Second World War, was ‘a blunt instrument’ with only very limited specialist precision capabilities. Even at its technological peak, it lacked the overall and widespread surgically precise targeting capabilities of today’s weapons platforms. In short, collateral damage to civilians was considered a necessary adjunct to the bombing.
|
