@@C21H30O2 That's from all the depleted uranium dust. Lots of projectiles were made with depleted uranium. It isn't good for you. If you snort depleted uranium dust, you'll get GWS too.
G'day, My mother in law was born in Germany in 1930, she was 3 when Adolf was Elected (Unlike George W. Bush, who was appointed by a crooked Court Injunction)... She was 15 when Hitler shit himself As he shot himself... Her comment was that, "Hitler was a very clever man, and he was a great leader, but he was betrayed ; and if only someone had Assassinated Hitler in 1938..., why - then Today there would Still be Statues of Der FUHRER Standing All over Europe, Today....!" She moved to England in 1955, to Australia in 1967, and back to Germany in 2003. She's still there, in a little Village outside Duisburg, aged 93. The mental gymnastics and circumloqutions employed by old Nazis are truly Labrynthine. Is she happy or sad that nobody composted Adolf in 1938 ? I still dunno ! Such is life, Have a good one... ;-p Ciao !
Look up some of the wildfire scenes from the movie "Only the Brave" about the Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters. Gives you an idea of a firestorm and agreed, it must be terrifying.
@@theawesomeman9821 Many Germans saw through and disagreed with Hitler. Some actively opposed Hitler. Nothing new about a cult of personality seizing control of a country. The Germans had bombed England's civilians. They were just returning I'm kind. Americans would have done the same if Germany had bombed American cities. But I doubt anyone could have known the human toll that was taken.
My grandfather was a prisoner of war and was forced to help with cleaning up Hamburg after the bombing. The memories of the burned bodies and destruction haunted him his entire life.
:( My grandpa was taken POW by Americans at a point in the war where most German soldiers taken prisoner simply accepted defeat and were pretty happy to be taken by Americans rather than sovjets. Conditions were apparently luxurious compared to being a soldier on the field for Germany that late in the war, or even worse, a Soviet POW. My grandpa however was young and well indoctrinated, it occurred to him a lot later, that he was only able to simply leave the POW camp so shortly after arriving because the Americans didn't think anyone was dumb enough to want to leave at that point lol. He described it as literally being walked in through the front gate and walking out on the other side later that day.
My grandfather was also a pow in Warsaw. Part of the underground in WWII. Showed us his cell now a historical moment downtown. He was such a badass is all I can describe it. Miss him sooo much
@@CorePathway A well-deserved war crime, like all the others that Nazi Germany received. Turnabout is fair play. The Soviet Reunion, losing and retreating, is going to receive payback in spades. Bunker Grandpa destroyed Russia's future for generations.
The script for this was so well written. And, Simon did such a great job of presenting it. It was like being there - terrible, painful and heartbreaking. If I could give it more thumbs up, I would.
I talked to a US Marine veteran of Fallujah. bout 1/3 of his cranium was gone. He'd been in a gun battle that took ace in the world's largest cemetery there. After a bullet caught him in the head, his buddies held his brains in best they could till he could be medevacted. He spoke like a two year old. Spoke of how his marriage days were numbered because the man she married wasn't there anymore.
Really? I thought that title belonged to the bombing of Pyongyang during the Korean War. General Curtis "Bombs Away" LeMay boasted that he only grounded his planes after they ran out of targets to hit.
Yes, but Pyongyang was a sustained bombing campaign carried out over several years, whereas the first fire raid in Tokyo was over just one night. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they both take a trophy in different categories: Tokyo for the most destructive *singular* air raid, Pyongyang for the most destructive bombing campaign over an extended period.
1:30 - Chapter 1 - The age of annihilation 5:25 - Chapter 2 - A secret window 8:40 - Chapter 3 - Louder than bombs 12:10 - Chapter 4 - "Then the lord rained down burning sulfur" 15:35 - Chapter 5 - Fire in the sky 19:10 - Chapter 6 - The reckoning
Hamburg is my Hometown, we were taught a lot about WWII in school and operation gomorra and visited the arbeitslager in Neuengamme. there's little evidence left today, of what has happened, but in some central districts there are no, or few old buildings, like Hammerbrook or St.Pauli. St. Petri church is the only obvious witness, and if you search closely, you can find some bullet holes in the central station.
I would describe WWII in one sentence as "War against civilians on an unprecedented scale." Civilians always suffer in wars but WWII wins 1st prize for the sheer callous scale of it.
Wait until you read what Genghis Kahn did. Yes, the NUMBERS are higher in World war 2 but that is because populations are larger. Ancient warfare was far bloodier when looked at per capita. Genghis Kahn wiped out ENTIRE NATIONS.
@@timothyhouse1622 During the Mongol wars there were simply not enough human beings on planet earth to wrack up the kind of numbers the USSR and the Nazis wracked up. Actually the highest percentages to to civil wars in China which even surpassed Mongol numbers
Who would like to see an episode on The Boxer Rebellion and the siege of the Legation Forces? Such a fantastic piece of history, and so many dominos sent tumbling that would dictate the future of the world. Holding out against immeasurable odds, MacGyver-ing artillery together, a race against time to relieve the besieged, I think it would be an amazing episode! Keep doing what you do Simon you Legend
That was actually Bomber Harris' motto. His attitude was German civilians had it coming after Germany's Blitz Campaign of England. People wringing their hands over the brutality of the Allied air campaign seem to forget that Germany TRIED to do the exact same thing first. The problem was Germany didn't have a single heavy bomber type in their Air Force. The Allies had two. The Lancaster and the B-29. A single Lancaster bomber could carry over twice the bomb load of the heaviest German bomber.
Please do a video on the firebombing of Tokyo! It’s very briefly mentioned in U.S. schools (perhaps a sentence or two), but I’d really like to know more about it. Excellent video, as always, Simon and team 😊🙌🏻💯👏🏻
To be specific, the first bombing raid on a civilian target was carried out by the twenty-nine Junkers Ju-87B Stuka dive bombers of Sturzkampfgeschwader 76, commanded by Captain Walter Sigel of the Luftwaffe. The air raid took place at 05:40 on 1 September 1939 (though some sources put the time at an hour earlier). The target was the town of Wieluń in Poland: specifically, the hospital in the centre of the town was the primary aim point. The German aircraft dropped a total of 141 bombs on the hospital and surrounding buildings, killing 32 patients and staff. When the hospital caught fire, the German aircraft also machine-gunned the people trying to flee the blaze. There was no opposition to the attack; Wieluń was undefended. All 29 aircraft returned to base safely. At least three more bombing attacks were carried out on Wieluń during the course of the day; two more in the morning and one in the afternoon. In total, 46 tons of bombs were dropped on the town in that single day, damaging or destroying over 70% of its buildings. Civilian casualties are not known with precision: there were 127 confirmed and identified dead, but the total number of deaths is likely to have been many times higher than that.
I'm a year late on this video since it was buried. But would you consider doing a video on LeMay's firebombing raids over Japan as a contrast to Harris' bombing missions in Europe? LeMay himself admitted his behavior was demonstrous and believed had the allies lost the war, he'd have been tried for war crimes. The fire bombings on Japan, like the European ones, were exceptionally heinous and in Japan's case did more damage and took more lives than the nukes did by a wide margin. Love your videos, Simon. Thank you.
Rule #1.Don't start barbaric wars of aggression. Rule#2. If you start a barbaric war of aggression, don't lose. Rule#3. If you lose, don't expect mercy.
Then again this was Japan we are talking about...its not like they deserved any mercy. Japan knew what was coming...The potsdam declaration was clear enough. And their leaders were happy to accept as such. "Glorious death of 20 million and all that..." they didnt care for their people and were more than prepared to sacrifice the entire population of the country if the allies landed on japanese soil. Iwo Jima and Okinawa had taught us that well enough... i Dont see a war crime...in this war frankly that definition meant little in a total war like this. Japan was going to fight or die fighting. They would die than surrender, Iwo jima and Okinawa taught us that well enough. In such a situation, what else do you expect is going to happen. "Prompt and utter destruction..." , and that is precisely what they got.
Years ago I read the book "The Night Hamburg Died". People jumped into canals. The flames gradually heated the water. The people were faced with a choice. Stay in the water and slowly boil to death, or (if they're lucky) drown. Or, get out of the water and roast to death. After the fires subsided, "rescuers" plied the water in boats. Whenever they tried removing one of the half cooked people from the still hot water, they howled on pain because the worst thing in the world for a burn victim is exposure to air. And so, the "rescuers" resorted to administering a bullet to the heads of the survivors as the only form of mercy possible. Arthur Harris was vilified after the war. There were protests when a statue commemorating him was finally erected. His line of the family died out. Churchill was aware of the level of carnage but did nothing to stop it.
War is HELL, and yet we find ways to continually inflict this kind of torment and destruction upon our fellow man and for what? Now Vladimir is riding with the other 3 horseman and Mariupol is in smoking ruins. Why do they target civilians like this? Great presentation Simon. Spot on.
@@marcoosvald8429 Putin targets civilians to prove no one will or can stand up to him and to make Ukrainians think their deaths are Zelinski's fault for not capitulating.
There is no love or peace in war. Just carnage and death with destruction awaits when war breaks out. Humans at their truest forms. Either they choose to kill or be killed.
The German people supported the war. It’s because of the German people that all this happened. The big question you need to ask yourself is how did this all start.
The RAF tested the right mix of bombs already in 1942. On March 29th they attacked the city of Lübeck. While th eloss of life was nothing compared to Hamburg (320 dead, 783 injured), but the complete inner city was destroyed. There was a very good German documentary in 1983. What added to the value of it, they still had people that lived there and bomber pilotes as eyewitness.
I have a Book on the Topic of the Bombings of Hamburg and expecially the Firestorm of 1943. It´s the Hometown of my Father and I will never forget the Images of the Destruction. I don´t remember the War, I was born almost fifthy Years after. Yet, with the Images in these Books, I can imagine the City that´s somewhat my second Home, the Place my Parents work, in Ruins. It´s a harrowing Image, even for those not remembering the War. I can´t imagine how it must be for those who lived during this War
"German factories could be up and running again in a few weeks, but it would take 21 years to raise a new worker" - What a sick disgusting individual...just like the rest of the allied high command!
I'm American but I one of my Urgroßmutter survived Operation Gomorrah. She was 77 at the time, refused to go into her bunker and told my Oma that she would rather die than live like that. The night she refused to leave her apartment, her bunker was bombed. She died in 1950 at 84. Seeing and hearing so much human suffering of people who were so ordinary around the world can't be expressed in words. I was born in the U.S. and heard so much from people of all nationalities. Human cruelty will never end.
Great job as always for your entire crew, took me a while to get caught up thanks to being asleep in a hospital for the first couple months this year... Personally this has me wondering if I secretly hate myself. Honest representation of subjects like this involves the most self-destructive habit a veteran can pickup... Reflect on their career without all the self-justification and false bravado, and consider (A) the pain, misery, loss, and hatred a crazy guy whom jumps out of perfectly good aircraft can ignorantly unleashed & (B) you receive shut up medals in the military but without the uniform you're rewarded with the death penalty.
My personal view would be generally this: Survival of the fittest…if it wasn’t you, it would be them. That’s just nature. We like to believe we’re somehow outside of nature and the rules of evolution but in reality; we’re just extremely effective at speeding it up. We think that we should be better than that. That is simple human arrogance though. Many, many animals wage war, they kill and all the rest. We are just intelligent enough to sit back and question ourselves afterwards. Good or bad. We are part of nature and I’d suggest that considering this…there’s nothing specifically bad about you or your actions in the military. As long as you believed that you were doing the right thing, then you did the correct thing. I don’t know if that helps you but when I look at the British military (I’m British) 🇬🇧…I appreciate them doing what was required in order for me to exist and write this message to you.
What about the UNPRECEDENTED "atrocity" of Coventry 2½ years earlier? two apt themes are "What goes around, comes around" and the the biblical "wind & whirlwind" quote. The nazis made the FIRST EVER attempt to burn an entire city to the ground un Nov 1940 with "Operation Moonlight Sonata" they sent their biggest force they could muster (over 500 bombers) and did not hold back one bit.... 500 tons of HE bombs..... 33,000 incendiaries.... 50 high capacity landmines.... plus 50 "Flammenbombe" large oil filled bombs specially designed to encourage a firestorm. But being the first people to ever attempt to burn an entire city to the ground, the evil Germans made a few mistakes in their planning, and the British national fire service managed to contain the fires and so just 600 innocent Coventonians were burned to death by the nazis, as well as the heart of the city being burned down. The following day Josef Goebbels, the nazi propaganda minister, joyously gloated on German state radio that "the English city of Coventry has been destroyed", and jokingly commented that a new verb had entered the German language "coventrierten" which in English was "to coventrate" meaning to destroy a city by means of a firestorm. The British on the receiving end of this murderous attack studied the result of the attack, understood where the German planning had failed and learned from it. 2½ years later it was the British turn to coventrate Hamburg. The difference being that we showed the Germans how to do it properly.
Hosea 8:7 "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up". This is what nationalism and war mongering lead to. Every single time.
@@Dank-gb6jn Dresden - maybe. It was controversial even during that time. There was little of military value there. On Tokyo - I disagree. There were major industrial areas in the bombing area. Those are fair game. If the enemy is killing your people, you can go after their weapon-making ability. The "civilians" are arms-factory workers. The children are unfortunately and criminally located in the factory areas..
@@MrTexasDan I’m glad we can have a respectful conversation. I’ll have to pushback just a little on Tokyo. Now, I think we can agree that arms production and military targets should be taken out in war time. That’s a given if you want to win. Taking those factories out at the expense of *heavy* civilian casualties (be they arms factory workers who weren’t on shift at the time, children living next to the factories, hospitals (in the case of Hiroshima), banks, etc.) should be looked at as either strict war crimes, or unacceptable civilian losses. Had we completely leveled the Imperial Palace, in a tactical strike, with minimal civilian casualties, I’d agree with you 100%. However, we wiped out significant portions of a city (no doubt many places of significant military importance), but we also incinerated thousands upon thousands of people, and hundreds of thousands of years of historical and cultural value. So while I agree with you to an extent about Tokyo, I hope you can understand why I’m pushing back some.
@@Dank-gb6jn I understand your feeling on the subject, but Tokyo and Yokohama were the manufacturing hub of the Japanese universe. Those munitions were sending thousands of US and Brit boys home in boxes. I still feel the bombing was totally justified. You also mention Hiroshima (and I assume Nagasaki) as being war crimes. I also completely disagree. The objective was to compel the Japanese to give up, and negate the need for a ground invasion of Japan. Any way you look at it, the invasion (Operation Downfall) would have resulted in massive casualties ... 500k to 1M US killed, and 5M-10M Japanese killed, plus the total annihilation of Japanese infrastructure and culture. There are 10s of millions of Americans and Japanese alive today because of this.
@@falconmclenny7284 Dresden was considered Germany’s “Florence” in reference to the cultural pinnacle of Italy. Further, a 1953 report detailed that at least 50% of the civilian residences were completely obliterated in the city. Whether it was a “critical transportation junction” as Churchill claimed or not; 25,000+ people were wiped out, mostly civilians and refugees at that. Furthermore, it was even stated in the video that these terror tactics didn’t even work like the Allies had hoped! So the civilian deaths weren’t even WORTH it! Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo; all three are stark Allied war crimes.
@MusicMaster1987 ... how do you say hi in Hebrew? My catholic parents would be very upset to hear their atheist son is now a rabbi. .mum will be heart broken, hail Mary's for days.
@@falconmclenny7284 There’s not a response clear enough, concise enough, or respectful enough that I can give to you; that could explain why your statement is distasteful. You have your opinion, I have mine. Good day sir/Ma’am.
Now, I don't want to gloss over the crimes of the Nazis during the war, but they did not declare war on Britain. It was the other way around, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The British like to forget that.
@@callsigndd9ls897 Well that makes no difference, since Nazi Germany committed acts of war even if they didn't declare it. The declaration of war was made in defence.
My Grandfather was in one of those B17 , the vanguard that dropped all the xmas tinsel to mislead the radar of the germans, only to prevent the higher command from dropping the A-Bomb on Hamburg- it could have been a lot worse for Hamburg, than we know. Btw, the same B17's also dropped food supplies a year later and I lived in Hamburg for most of my life.
I live(d) in two cities destroyed by allied bombers. Hamburg, where I currently live and Dresden, where I was born. The bomb raids are in our collective memory. I did not live through them but my grandparents did and they fundamentaly shaped our countries understanding of war. On the one hand, if it wasnt Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan, but any other country, I would be totally repelled by these bombings. They are war crimes of an exceptional scale and they hit those most wounerable the most. On top of that they destroyed our history. I still remember how the last ruins of the Frauenkirche in Dresden were still lying around, before she was rebuild. And if we look further, to Nagasaki and Hiroshima (both imo warcrimes), we see how much more gruesome the spirit, that justified these raids, was. On the other hand, this was Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. When the firebombing raids started, half of Europe was already reduced to rubble and millions of people died in Asia. At this point the deathmachine in eastern Europe was already working and the raping of Nanjing had happened. The gloves were off. On a side note: my childhood in Dresden was marked by the yearly marches of neonazis at the memorial of the bombing. Fuck these despicable scum. If there is one lesson to be learned from these bombings: being a Nazi and supporting people with nationalistic, racist, imperialistic and authoritarian ideas, does not only hurt their victims, but it also hurts you. The "nation" you like soooo much, will have scars for decades if not centuries to come, as you can see walking around Hamburg today, with most of its historic buildings gone.
My father and three of my uncles had to leave their safe lives in Canada and risk all to put you bastards back in the box. Two of my uncles suffered what is classed today as P.T.S.D. but all returned changed men. My mother's young cousin died at Hong Kong. "as you sow, so shall you reap"
The Germans had been into ariel bombardment of city's since the first world war via air ships. Guernica, Warsaw and such would also like to point out that the Nazis had definitely boombed city's earlier in the war. Heck my grandmothers family house in Malta was flattened by an axis power, either German or Italian. The Germans are just salty about receiving what they'd dished out.
Well written. I moved to Munich a couple of months ago and I can only imagine what my grandparents had to go through as kids growing up here, to constant bombing raids and Fliegeralarm. Certainly war crimes, but also kind of understandable.
My opa lived through the Munich bombings and has many crazy stories how they had to live under ground and he didn't know why this was happening because he was 6 but these memories were scarred into his head
Aluminum strips were known as “chaff” in the modern age, I was a Asst. Crew Chief on the F-4 Phantom, it carried chaff pods to mess up the radar, people used to put aluminum foil in their hubcaps, to confuse the Radar from Highway Patrol, than VASCAR came along, radar became somewhat obsolete. Who knows.
@@henrimourant9855 Realistically EVERYONE who lives in a nation at war will suffer. Therefore DON'T START WARS. Even here in "unbeatable" Murca. We may not be in immediate danger but our loved ones are. In my service days, someone reported me KIA and found out how my family felt. Midnight phone calls and tears. Peace.
Oh sure. It was absolutely right to burn those German women, children, and elderly to death by the tens of thousands to punish them for all the evil they'd done. I mean look at this terrible war they'd started, right? Deliberate targeting of noncombatants is an evil and a disgrace in ANY war. And is now universally considered a war crime AND crime against humanity. There's a very good reason why so-called strategic bombing is no longer considered legitimate warfare. It's because murdering children to achieve a military goal is rightfully recognized for the vicious and depraved evil that it is. And the USA has adopted as permanent policy the commitment to never do it again. Putin is rightfully considered a criminal for ordering his soldiers to murder noncombatants in Ukraine. It's an evil no matter who does it or why.
Burying the dead was worse than having your organs boil as your flesh roasts? I'm sure that the poor camp workers were likely to have a terrible fate ahead but sadly, removing the bodies of Hamburg was probably far from the worst they'd suffer. This was a brilliant video. People need to remember the cost of war on humanity.
Rule #1.Don't start barbaric wars of aggression. Rule#2. If you start a barbaric war of aggression, don't lose. Rule#3. If you lose, don't expect mercy.
@@kikozinholindo9149 "Schultze-Rhonhofs Schriften zur Entstehung des Zweiten Weltkriegs widersprechen grundlegenden Ergebnissen der Forschung und sind in der Geschichtswissenschaft nicht rezipiert worden." de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerd_Schultze-Rhonhof
It doesn't really matter who is right or just in war, only who is victorious. Justification is something that's done later, along with deciding who was on the right side of history.
I really don't think that in the case of WWII this type of analysis holds water. Think of the consequences of an Axis victory, infinite slave labour, and complete destruction of whole peoples , Jews, Gypsies, Poles and the development of weapons that could could have attacked the Americas and indeed most parts of the world. It would have delayed by decades the end of evil European colonialism, and the successful freedom struggles of Africa , Asia and the Caribbean
Yeah, Will has a point. I dont think winning the war had put germany on the right side of history... but this shows once more how every big Nation involved in WWll had there warcrimes... my neighbor town got 90% destroid by airraids... greetings from a germany citizen...
@@willhovell9019 Look at all the evil an Allied victory has led to. The Soviets killed and subjugated millions. Communism was allowed to spread like the cancer it is. More people live as slaves today than at any time in history. These things just happen far enough from most of us that we can ignore it, for now but have a good look around. Authoritarianism is making a comeback, and this time, it has all the tools of the digital age to back it up.
@@boomerisadog3899 You would not be here today to complain about the Allies if the ultra evil Axis had prevailed. Fortutatley history is written by the victors, it's not some sort of retrospective balance sheet. I will end in repeating that Germany was very fortunate that the American, British & Canadian atomic bomb ( developed with the help of emigree Italians , Danes, Austro- Germans & Hungarians ) , was'nt dropped on Berlin, Munich and Liepzig , as originally planned.
I get sick just thinking about it. Burning alive is my #1 fear. It saddens me when those in charge abandon their ethics just because their enemy has. Also, since I’ve heard you talk about the Biblical Gomorrah more than once. Abraham negotiated with God to save the cities. First he got Him to agree not to destroy them if He found 50 righteous people there. Then he worked God down to 40, then 30, 20 and 10. That left Lot and his household who were told to get out of Dodge and don’t look back. So technically there were no innocents… but I always wonder about the children.
Too bad every city and town in Germany were not destroyed in firestorms. When you see what the Germans did to the people in the countries they invaded, they deserve to be despised for eternity
@@SafetySpooon I know. The Bible is chock full of them. It doesn’t change the story or invalidate the Bible. And my comment about children was more of a question about their view about children… guilt by association or just possessions.
Bombing civilians is a war crime on the very standards of the Allies at the time. Hamburg and Dresden bombings were warcrimes, just as the bombing on London. If you are willing to get your hands that dirty to achieve your goals in the war, fine. In other words, don't declare to the world that stealing is forbidden and despicable if you're a thief yourself. Otherwise, the level of cinism and hipocrisy is absurd.
@@destroyer1667 well, the whole point of declaring something's a "war crime" (like happened with mustard gas in WWI) is to assure no one, under any circumstance, does it again, on both sides of any war. That includes, of course, the Allies. Of course I know that the world doesn't work this way (war even less), but this only shows the hipocrisy of governments filling their mouths with values they don't really have as a pretext to justify what they do.
@@destroyer1667 It doesn't matter who did it first. If someone kills your child, does that make it okay to kill theirs? What did that child do to deserve death?
Britain inserted itself into war on Germany by giving Poland a guarantee it couldn't or wouldn't back up. Bombing Dresden and Hamburg was just to crap on Germans.@@destroyer1667
I’m fairly confident the fire bombing of Japan killed more was a lot more deadly then Hamburg, considering the cities were basically made of wood. I believe there were more casualties in those bombings then even the two nukes. Could be wrong on that, it’s been awhile since I’ve read up on that.
the reason they didnt drop the abomb on tokyo was there was nothing to bomb it had been burnt to the ground. General Curtis Lemay had stripped his bombers of guns to pack on more explosive and incinderaries. TOTAL WAR.
Your right. The low level fire bombing of Tokyo killed an estimated 100 000 and destroyed 26 square miles in a single raid. Still the deadliest in history
When you only account for those that died on the day of the bombing, Tokyo was the deadliest. However, 80,000 people died in an instant at Hiroshima. Then 20,000 to 30,000 would die over the next 2 to 4 months. The highest estimates for Hiroshima place the eventual death toll at 149,000. I think a more reasonable number is between 105,000 and 115,000. The bomb also caused a firestorm that peaked about 3 hours after the detonation.
My grandfather was in dresden when it was bombed. He said after the raid, they emerged from the bomb shelter and witnessed total destruction. The whole city was gone.
My great uncle (British army) was a prisoner of war. He was a forced labourer at a lead mine just outside of Dresden. I can't recall its name sorry. After the bombing he, and his fellow prisoners, were sent into the city to clear the bodies and search for survivors. Whenever he spoke about it, which wasn't often, he would say his feelings were mixed. On the one hand he suffered some rough treatment and thought it was payback. On the other he thought it was unjustifiable.
Like the Lusitania in WW1, which was transporting material for the war effort and civilians had been repeatedly warned to not board because it would be traveling through a declared war zone?
Great man Arthur Harris,cared for his men deeply. Germany was fortunate that Anglo Canadian & US atomic bomb wasn't ready for Berlin, Munich or Nuremberg in time.
He refused a hereditary peerage after the war because of the way Churchill and co brushed Bomber Command under the carpet like something to be ashamed of when the job was done. He only accepted a knighthood a few years later because his former aides persuaded him to on the grounds that it would be a collective honour for the whole of Bomber Command.
@@PrezVeto your entited to your armchair historian view , not that anyone gives a fig for our opinions. Nazi Germany was indeed fortunate that the nuclear bomb wasn't ready 5 months earlier. All modern war is horrific and civilians have been the target for the whole of the 20th century, from Africa , China and the Spanish civil war onwards. The German imperial Air Force and the Nazi Luftwaffe were huge innovators in civilian ariel bombing , along with the British and Italians in Africa
I am not shure if i can press like on this... your tone ov voice and biblical annecdotes are way to upbeat and energetic for speaking about an event that unleashed hell on earth. i dont know man...
I did my Senior Thesis on this in college. It doesn't get looked at near as much as the Dresden Firebombings. The RAF figured out how to create firestorms. Theres an excellent book on it. I forget who wrote it now.
Not quite, the firestorm was an uncommon coincidence between the incendiaries and the weather, and only happened two or three times. The Allies would have liked to create firestorms on command, but such was not the case. Other cities had far more incendiaries dropped on them than Hamburg had.
@@ronjon7942 It also depended on how closely built the houses were. Dresden and Hamburg had houses built tightly together, but Berlin and Cologne had broader streets
@@ronjon7942 First of all it happened a lot more times than two or three, for instance there were Major Firestorms in Hamburg, Dresden, Würzburg, Pforzheim, Kassel, Bremen, Lübeck, Nürnberg and Darmstadt as well as smaller scale Firestorms in Düren, Kaiserslautern, Königsberg, Stettin, Breslau and Augsburg. Second: The Allies deliberately created Firestorm by first dropping a wave of explosive Bombs which blew up Windows, Doors and Roofs of Houses and then dropped a second wave of Incendiary Bombs and in some cases White Phosphorus and Napalm which created many small fires, those Fires then coalesced and grouped into a massive Storm which was highly destructive and could have winds so strong it would suck people back into the Burning Houses they were trying to escape from. Lastly Firestorms were anything but uncommon in German Cities in WW2, many German Cities had significant portions of Timber or Half Timber Houses which were perfect fuel for the Fires.
