OPERATION MILLENNIUM
BOMBER HARRIS’S RAID ON COLOGNE, MAY 1942

A careful and compassionate history of the first 1,000 bomber raid - against Cologne in May 1942. Examining the effects on aircrew and civilians alike Taylor, a former RAF Squadron leader, concludes that the raids were a tragic mistake.

One of the greatest controversies arising from the Second World War is the morality - and effectiveness - of the ‘area’ or ‘carpet’ bombing policy unleashed against German cities by the RAF’s Bomber Command under Air Marshal Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris. The policy was prefigured when Harris ordered the first ‘thousand bomber’ raid against the city of Cologne on the Rhine in May 1942. 1,048 Sterling and Wellington bombers dropped their bomb loads against the weakly defended city. In this fine study of the raid - both compassionate and dispassionate, - Eric Taylor a WW2 veteran and retired RAF Squadron Leader, examines the strategy behind the raid, its effects on aircrew and civilians alike, and its consequences. He shows how the Eastern front was denuded of fighter cover in order to provide an air defence for the embattled cities; and how 95 percent of Cologne’s population - more than 750,000 people - fled the city that was reduced to ruins by the war’s end. He also argues that the raid was a product of British desperation - undertaken as a morale boosting exercise at a low point in the war at the height of the battle of the Atlantic and after the fall of Singapore. He also argues that Harris repeated the Luftwaffe’s mistake in expending precious men and resources against the cities since the bombs strengthened rather than reduced civilian morale, yet had a disastrous effect on the morale of the aircrew carrying out the raids.

Details


Product Code:	10835
Author:	Eric Taylor. Foreword by General Adolf Galland
Format:	HB. 218pp with b/w photos
Shipping Time:	This item is usually dispatched Next Day
Our Price:	£12.50 January sale price: £10.00