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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   30069 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023

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5 years ago an interview with air marshal Arthur Harris from 1978, originally created as additional learning material for Royal Air Force cadets, and of course restricted material as such, was made public, and interestingly he addresses this specific issue. His response basically was: as many deaths as militarily necessary, stemming from the main consideration that the French didn't fight well at all when they had to in 1940, so trying to spare their lives out of some sort of benevolent political consideration is foolish.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UCWK-O7cKvc?si=mRrlXuHGzsl7brSo

(at the 31:45 mark, for example)

To give a concrete example, he did oppose proposals to carpet-bomb the town of Bordeaux, but only because he judged that such an attack would have zero military value.

There were similar discussions to the hypothetical I mentioned before D-Day as well. Churchill was probably the most outspoken advocate for French civilians, and constantly fretted about their lives, even though he also ordered the infamous (but in my mind, eminently justified) raid on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir.

You'd think the brits would have some consideration for those that covered their retreat at Dunkerque and allowed them to have a war to fight instead of a total defeat, but Harris always had a total warrior mentality rather than that of a man of honor. For good or ill.

I ... assume that the view under consideration is something like this: no doubt in the past we were justified in attacking German cities. But to do so was always repugnant and now that the Germans are beaten anyway we can properly abstain from proceeding with these attacks. This is a doctrine to which I could never subscribe. Attacks on cities like any other act of war are intolerable unless they are strategically justified. But they are strategically justified in so far as they tend to shorten the war and preserve the lives of Allied soldiers. To my mind we have absolutely no right to give them up unless it is certain that they will not have this effect. I do not personally regard the whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier.

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