8 Quoted in Brian Bond, Liddell Hart: A Study of His Military Thought(London, 1977), p. 145. For further voices of dissent, see A. C. Grayling, Among the Dead Cities(London, 2006), pp. 179–208.
9 According to Kenneth McDonald of 78 Squadron, in Neillands, Bomber War, p. 389.
10 See Neillands, Bomber War, pp. 402–3. For Churchill’s attempts to distance himself from Harris, see Frederick Taylor, Dresden(New York, 2004), pp. 375–9; and Hastings, Bomber Command, pp. 343–4.
11 Associated Press report, 16 February 1945, in Neillands, Bomber War, p. 368; and Taylor, Dresden, p. 361. There are slight differences in the wording between these two; I have favoured the latter, who cites his source more completely.
12 The huge popularity of anti-war novels like Joseph Heller’s Catch 22and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse5 did a great deal to acquaint America with the arbitrary nature of American bombing in Germany. However, such novels were arguably more about the war in Vietnam than they were about the Second World War. The American burden of shame over Vietnam is the closest equivalent to British shame for the RAF bomber offensive on Germany.
13 Ted Groom, interview with the author, 11 November 2004. Ted Groom’s observation is borne out by all the contemporary diaries and logbooks I have come across.
14 Doug Fry, interview with the author, 16 November 2004. See also Doug Fry’s interview for the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, 27255, Reel 7.
15 Colin Harrison, interview with the author, 8 December 2004.
16 See Martin Middlebrook, The Battle of Hamburg(London, 1980), p. 352; see also Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg, On the Other Side,trans. and ed. Ruth Evans (London, 1979), p. 27.
17 Hans Erich Nossack, Der Untergang(Hamburg, 1981), p. 65.
18 Max Brauer, Nüchternen Sinnes und heiβen Herzens …: Reden und Ansprachen(Hamburg, 1952), p. 430.
19 Bürgerschaft der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg Parlaments-Dokumentation, Elisabeth Kiausch speech, 23 July 1993, p. 3.
20 Frau Bischöfin Maria Jepsen, ‘Predigt am 23 Juli 1993 in der St Michaelis Kirche: “Gomorrha”’. Manuscript of the sermon by courtesy of the bishop herself. For an excellent analysis of the bishop’s speech, see Mirko Hohmann’s dissertation for the University of Hamburg, ‘So wurde die Zerstörung ihres Lebens für uns aile zu einer furchtbaren Anklage’: Die Juliangriffe auf Hamburg in der hamburgischen Errinerungskultur 1943 bis 1993 (University of Hamburg, 2003), pp. 97–9.
21 Jörg Friedrich, Der Brand:Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940–1945(Berlin, 2002).
22 Ironically, these sentiments were echoed in the speech of the bishop of Hamburg, who, unusually, laid the burden of guilt not with the Nazis but with the ‘people’ as a whole. See Jepsen, ‘“Gomorrha”’, p. 3.
23 See, for example, Rainer Hering, ‘Operation Gomorrha – Hamburg remembers the Second World War’, in German History,vol. 13, no. 1 (1995), p. 93.
24 The authors of the USSBS attributed the growth of German pacifism to the horrors they had witnessed during the bombing war: ‘The city area raids have left their mark on the German people as well as on their cities. Far more than any other military action that preceded the occupation of Germany itself, these attacks left the German people with a solid lesson in the disadvantages of war. It is a terrible lesson; conceivably that lesson … could be the most lasting single effect of the air war.’ USSBS, Summary Report (European Theatre), p. 4. In 2003 Germany was among the first to criticize Britain and America for their invasion of Iraq.
Archives Consulted
1 Archives in Britain
Imperial War Museum
National Archives
British Library
RAF Museum, Hendon
2 Germany
(a) Local history archives( Geschichtswerkstätten andStadtteilarchive)
Altona:
Stadtteilarchiv Ottensen
Barmbek:
Geschichtswerkstatt Barmbek e. V.
Barmbek Süd:
Jarrestadt-Archiv
Bergedorf:
Kultur & Geschichtskontor der Initiative historischer Bauten
Dulsberg:
Geschichtsgruppe Dulsberg
Eimsbütteclass="underline"
Galerie Morgenland e. V.
Eppendorf:
Stadtteilarchiv Eppendorf
Fuhlsbütteclass="underline"
Willi-Bredel-Gesellschaft Geschichtswerkstatt e. V.
Hamm:
Stadtteilinitiative Hamm e. V.
Bunker Museum
Harburg:
Honigfabrik
St Georg:
Geschichtswerkstatt St Georg
St Pauli:
St Pauli-Archiv e. V.
Wandsbek:
Stadtteilarchiv Bramfeld
(b)Other archives
Bundesarchiv
Bürgerschaft der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg Parlaments- Dokumentation
Carl Hagenback Archiv
Förderkreis ‘Rettet die Nikolaikirche’ e.V.: Dokumentenzentrum in the cellar of the ruined church
Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg (FZH), especially their oral history project ‘Werkstatt der Erinnerung’
Hamburg Staatsarchiv
Kirchenkreis Alt-Hamburg (Church Archives)
Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, particularly their library
3 United States of America
Mighty Eighth Museum, Savannah, Georgia
National Archives
National Fire Protection Association
National Technical Information Service
Oral History Archive of World War II, Rutgers University
Reichelt Oral History Program at Florida State University
United States Air Force University, Alabama
4 Internet sites
http://www.91stbombgroup.com – Official USAAF 91st BG website
http://www.303rdbg.com –Official USAAF 303rd BG website
http://www.polebrook.com/history.htm – USAAF 351st BG website
http://freespace.virgin.net/ken.harbour – USAAF 351st BG history
http://www.379thbga.org – Official USAAF 379th BG website
http://www.381st.org – Official USAAF 381st BG website
http://www.384thbg.iwarp.com – Official USAAF 384th BG website
http://fas-history.rutgers.edu/oralhistory – Rutgers University oral history online
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ww2era.htm– German Propaganda Archive
http://www.hamburgmuseum.de – website of the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte
http://www.lostplaces.de – website listing flak positions and air-raid shelters in Hamburg
http://www.seniorennet-hamburg.de.zeitzeugen – website where Hamburg’s senior citizens record their memories of the city
http://eh.net – website containing historical exchange rates
Select Bibliography
1 Published books and booklets
(a) Official Histories
Craven, W. F., and Cate, J. L., The Army Air Forces in World War II (Chicago, 1949)
Hinsey, F. H., et al., British Intelligence in the Second World War(London, 1979–1990)