Bomber Harris: His Life and Times The Biography of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris,the Wartime Chief of [Hardcover]

Henry Probert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2006

This is the definitive biography of one of the most controversial figures of World War II. Sir Arthur Harris remains the target of criticism and vilification by many, while others believe the contribution he and his men made to victory is grossly undervalued. Henry Probert's critical but sympathetic new account draws on recent research and, for this first time, all of Harris's own extensive papers, to give outstanding insight into a man who combined leadership, professionalism and decisiveness with kindness, humour and generosity. Probert examines Harris's life from youth in Rhodesia to fighting in World War I, the inter-war years, his two families and his post-war years in South Africa and England. He reveals and analyses how Harris did his job in RAF Bomber Command during World War II, his leadership of his men in the face of appalling casualties, his disagreements with higher authority, his dealings with Churchill, his close links with the Americans, his role in directing the bombing raids against Germany, most notably at Dresden, and the way he was treated afterwards. Bomber Harris provides the most complete and rounded picture of one of the great high commanders of modern times and an outstanding military personality of World War II.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Air Commodore Probert (former director of RAF Education and the RAF Historical branch) has written what will probably become the most comprehensive biography of Arthur "Bomber" Harris. Dudley Seward's Bomber Harris (o.p.) may be more readable, but Probert gives a more complete analysis of Harris in peace and in war. As head of RAF Bomber Command, Harris became one of the most controversial figures of World War II. While most of the men he commanded respected him, Harris's tactics frequently clashed with those of Churchill and other Allied military and civilian leaders; his advocacy of saturation bombing and the infamous fire raids on Dresden and other German civilian targets caused much debate then and now. Probert uses the personal papers of Harris and other sources to detail every aspect of Harris's life, from his birth in Rhodesia to his experiences in World War I, service in the Middle East, and appointment as commander in chief of Bomber Command in 1942. Historians and scholars will find this work useful, and the numerous sources in the bibliography provide a solid base for further research. Recommended for larger public libraries, academic libraries, and military collections. David M. Alperstein, Queens Borough P.L., Jamaica, N.Y.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Greenhill Books (January 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853674737
• ISBN-13: 978-1853674730
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,988,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and well balanced, October 14, 2001

By 

Gregory Kopchuk (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bomber Harris: His Life and Times The Biography of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris,the Wartime Chief of (Hardcover)

There have been many books and comments about Bomber Harris over the years. Even Harris published his own book but didn't cover everything. This book was written using all of Harris's private papers.

Not only does the author, Henry Probert, do a great job of presenting Harris's point of view but he presents opposing points of view as well. This book probably does the best job of presenting the most objective view of Harris to date. In some respects it does favour Harris since it is from his private papers. This is an extremely valuable book about Harris and is a must for any student of Bomber Command.

The author does a great job of presenting Harris the man from birth until death and deals with such topics as his leadership style, the public's image of him, his contemporaries views etc. The many misperceptions of Harris and how people once meeting him in person said Harris was not anything like the image that has been painted of him. A very excellent book! We need more like this one.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Profile of One of the Great Commanders of WW2, April 19, 2002

By 

givbatam3 "givbatam3" (REHOVOT Israel) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bomber Harris: His Life and Times The Biography of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris,the Wartime Chief of (Hardcover)

This book gives an interesting profile of one of the great commanders of World War 2. Although written in a dry style, it brings to light many little-known facts about this most controversial man. Known as Bert to his friends, "Bomber Harris" to the press during the War, and "Butch" (short for "Butcher") to his aircrews, Harris took a demoralized and dispirited RAF Bomber Command in 1942 and built it up into a most formidable force that played a vital role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. The author points out that the policy of night-time area bombing designed to destroys the cities that served as the locations of the German war industries was decided upon before Harris became Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command. Within a few weeks, he put together the extremely risky Operation Millenium, the thousand-bomber raid on Cologne, whose success proved to skeptics the power and effectiveness that Bomber Command was capable of wielding. Although it really took another two years to make the bombing campaign really effective, it has been proven beyond a doubt that German war production was severely damaged by the bombing campaign since it has been shown that German production increased rapidly when Bomber Command was forced to change its targets from the German cities to others in France related to Operation Overlord in the first months of 1944.
It is true that Bomber Command suffered high casualties (a crewman had only a 30% chance of surviving a 30-operations tour of duty) but their sacrifices helped keep Stalin and the USSR in the war in 1942 and 1943 at the time when they were suffering immense losses and the prospect of a Second Front looked far away (Churchill was always afraid that Stalin might secretly make a deal with Hitler and pull out of the War). Harris worked diligently day and night to get the resources and aircraft Bomber Command needed and to keep the morale of his personnel high. Although he refrained from visiting the air fields, probably due to a reluctance to face men who could possibly be flying to their deaths in a few hours, as well as the knowledge that the station commanders could be putting on a "show" for him that masked real problems, he did maintain continuous contact with low-ranking people from the air and ground crews in order to find out help them do their jobs more effectively and comfortably.

Probert, although very sympathetic with Harris, does not hesitate to point out flaws in his subject's personality. For example, Harris broke up his first marriage by having an affair while he was away from home and after his divorce he had a problematic relationship with his children. After the War, Harris developed a strange admiration for Hermann Goering who was not the "noble knight of the air" that some may have thought but was one of the most powerful and cruel of the Nazi hierarchy and was one of the key figures in the Nazi terror even before Hitler's rise to power and who played in role in the Holocaust. Similarly, Harris opposed the Nuremberg Trials. He also said he only felt "hatred" for the Germans once, during the bombing of London whereas others like Battle of Britain hero Group Captain Douglas Bader was not ashamed to say years after the War that he hated the Germans for the evil they brought to the world. In any event, perhaps these quirks gave him the personality traits that were needed to cooly, night after night, send thousands of young man on very dangerous missions to bring death and destruction to the German enemy. Maybe someone more sentimental and emotional, both to his family and to the enemy, would not be able to stand up to the strain. We could perhaps compare him to other great commanders like Generals Patton, Montgomery and MacArthur who also had personalities that rubbed many people the wrong way:
Probert also demolishes myths that have sprung up after the War such as:
(1) Harris ordered the supposedly unnecessary bombing of Dresden when Germany was already supposedly defeated out of some sense of blood-lust and vengeance. In reality, he opposed the mission since it was located in eastern Germany and would expose his aircrews to extra danger due to the longer trip, but the allied leaders insisted on having the raid carried out since it was not at all clear at that time that Germany was at the point of collapse and they wanted the Soviet Armies to advance into Germany as fast as possible
(2) Harris had a contempt for "colonials" and sent them on the more dangerous missions as cannon fodder in order to spare "real" Britishers. In reality, Harris moved to Rhodesia as a young man and considered himself a Rhodesian. After the War he went to live in South Africa, so he indeed considered himself a "colonial"
(3) Harris was not given a peerage after the War as were many other senior British military commanders because the Labour goverment felt "embarassed" by the strategic bombing campaign and wanted to forget about it. In reality, there is some truth in the fact that people wanted to forget about the bombing campaign, and it is also a fact that no "campaign decoration" was given to the air and ground crews in Bomber Command, but Harris was indeed offered a peerage, but turned it down, partly as a protest against the refusal to grant a campaign medal, but also for personal reasons in that outside Britain (where he intended to live) a peerage was not necessarily viewed as something desirable.

All in all, this book is must reading for someone interested in World War 2, military history, and the characterists of a great military commander.