Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T21:59:00.068Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany: the Early Phase, May – September 1940*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

H. W. Koch
H. W. Koch
Affiliation:
University of York
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Given the vast amount of literature that has been published about bomber command's role during the Second World War, it might seem, at first sight, that there was not much to add. The magisterial volumes of the official history written by Sir Charles Webster and Dr Noble Frankland appear to have said all there is to say; and to them must now be added numerous books which they have helped to engender, such as – to mention but the most recent two – those of John Terraine and Max Hastings.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 117 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 SirWebster, Charles/Frankland, Noble, The strategic air offensive against Germany 1939–1945, vol. I (London, 1961)Google Scholar.

2 Terraine, John, The right of the line. The Royal Air Force in the European war 1939–1945 (London, 1988)Google Scholar; Hastings, Max, Bomber command (London, 1979)Google Scholar.

3 Spaight, J. M., Bombing vindicated (London, 1944)Google Scholar.

4 Probably the most balanced discussion of international law and air warfare still remains Spetzler, E., Luftkrieg und Menschlichkeit (Göttingen, 1955)Google Scholar.

5 Middlebrook, Martin and Everitt, Chris (eds.), The bomber command war diaries (London, 1985)Google Scholar.

6 Boberach, Heinz (ed.), Meldungen aus dem Reich. Die geheimen Lageberichte des Sicherheitsdienstes der SS 1938–1945 (17 vols., Munich, 1984), here vols. 4 and 5Google Scholar.

7 Boberach, Heinz (ed.), Meldungen aus dem Reich (Berlin, 1965)Google Scholar cited here as Meldungen II.

8 Boberach, , Meldungen, vol. I, introduction, p. 11Google Scholar; Steinert, Marlis, Hitlers Krieg und die Deutschen (Düsseldorf, 1970), passimGoogle Scholar; Kersten, Felix, Totenkopf und Treue. Heinrich Himmler ohne Uniform (Hamburg, 1953), passimGoogle Scholar.

9 Boberach, , Meldungen II, pp. 533ffGoogle Scholar.

10 Wistrich, R., Who's who in Nazi Germany (London, 1982), pp. 225ffGoogle Scholar.; Boehnert, G. C., ‘The jurists in the SS-Führerkorps, 1925–1939’ in Hirschfeld, G. and Kettenacker, L. (eds.), Der ‘Führerstaat’: Mythos und Realität (Stuttgart, 1981), pp. 361ffGoogle Scholar.

11 Wistrich, , Who's who, p. 225Google Scholar.

12 I am indebted to Herr Herbert Täge for information supplied from the Ohlendorf papers, which were in his possession until transferred to the Institut für Zeitgeschichle, Munich, in 1985. Ohlendorf s career, as well as that of others, raises a problem so far ignored by historians, namely the degree of opposition from within NS organisations, for a policy of ‘perestroika’ to ‘purify’ it from its excesses and corruption in order to return to the ‘purified idea’. Ohlendorf, for instance, was an outspoken critic of Italian Fascism. See Taege, H., IVS-Perestroika? (Lindhorst, 1988), pp. 31ffGoogle Scholar.

13 Wistrich, , Who's who, p. 226Google Scholar.

14 Linge, Heinz, Bis zum Untergang. Als Chef des Persönlichen Dienstes bei Hitler (Munich, 1980), p. 201Google Scholar.

15 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 45, 47Google Scholar.

16 Ibid. p. 46.

17 Ibid. p. 46.

18 Ibid. vol. IV, pp. 66ff.

19 Churchill, W. S., The world crisis 1911–1918 (2 vols., London, n.d.), II, 1370, 1398, 1399Google Scholar; Churchill, W. S., The aftermath (London, 1944), p. 66Google Scholar; War memoirs of David Lloyd George (2 vols., London, n.d.), II, 1971, 1980Google Scholar; Jeffrey, K. (ed.), The military correspondence of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson 1918–1922 (London, 1985), pp. 56, 59Google Scholar.

20 Kunz, J., Kriegsrecht und Neutralitätsrecht (Vienna, 1935), p. 193CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Commission préparatoire de désarmament: documents (Geneva, 1930), I, 51, 65, 85ff.Google Scholar; II, 580; VI, 85ff.

21 Feuchter, G. W., Geschichte des Luftkriegs (Bonn, 1954), p. 41Google Scholar; Hague Convention on Rules of Land warfare, Article 23.

22 Commission d'experts pour la protection juridique des populations civiles et des victimes de la guerre en général contre les dangers de la guerre aérienne et l'emploi des armes aveugles. Commentaire de l'ordre du jour provisoire (Geneva, 1954), pp. 10ff.Google Scholar; Spaight, J. M., Air power and the cities (London, 1930), pp. 101, 197, 201, 215Google Scholar.

23 The Times, 27 June 1938.

24 Heeresdienslvorschrift (HDv) 231/II; Marinedienstvorschrift (MDv) 435/II; Luftwaffendienstvorschrift (LDv) 65/II; see also Aufmarsch- und Kampfanweisungen für die deulsche Luftwaffe, issue I, 20 July 1939, which repeats verbatim the unratified conclusions of the Hague Commission of 1922/23.

25 See the U.S. expert in international law de Zayas, A. M., ‘Guernica in Lichte neuerer Untersuchungen’, Wehrforschung, 11/12 1974, pp. 183ff.Google Scholar; Abendroth, H.-H., ‘Guernica: ein fragwürdiges Symbol’, Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen I/1987, 111ff.Google Scholar; Kappe-Hardenberg, S., Ein Mythos wird zerstört (Berg am See, 1987), passimGoogle Scholar.

26 Quoted in full by Baumbach, W., Zu spät? (Munich, 1949), pp. 39ff.Google Scholar; and Görlitz, W., Der Zweite Weltkrieg (Stuttgart, 1951), I, 423ffGoogle Scholar.; Original in Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Freiburg i. Br., Rl 3/63, R.d.L. u. Ob.d.L., Chef des Ministeramtes, Min. A. I 597/38 g. Kdos., 20.9.1938.

27 Text in Revue Internationale de la Croix Rouge, X (1939)Google Scholar; see also Spaight, J. M., Air power and war rights (2nd edn, London, 1947), p. 260Google Scholar; Domarus, M. (ed.), Hitler, Reden 1932 bis 1945 (Wiesbaden, 1973). part 3. P. 1315Google Scholar.

28 Ibid., Revue internationale de la Croix Rouge; Hansard: House of Lords Debates, CXIV, col. 1058.

29 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 134Google Scholar.

30 Ibid. p. 34.

31 Quoted by Terraine, , Air force, p. 13Google Scholar.

32 Gilbert, M., ‘Finest hour’, Winston S. Churchill 1939–1941 (London, 1983), p. 28Google Scholar, henceforth cited as Churchill, VI.

33 Ibid. p. 28.

34 Public Records Office (P.R.O.), CAB 2/8; Dilks, D. (ed.), The diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan 1938–1945 (London, 1971), pp. 130ffGoogle Scholar.; the flow of misleading information is too voluminous to be cited here, in addition to which some ofthe relevant files in the P.R.O. are closed until 2017.

35 Hubatsch, W. (ed.), Hitlers Weisungen für die Kriegsführung 1939–1945 (Munich, 1965), Weisung No. 2, 3 September 1939, p. 26Google Scholar.

36 Ibid. nos. 3–9, 11, pp. 30–50, 59.

37 Ibid. Weisung no. 13, 24 May 1940, p. 63.

38 Boberach, , Meldungen, 4, no. 82, 26 04 1940, p. 1059Google Scholar.

39 Quoted by Spaight, , Bombing, pp. 65ffGoogle Scholar.

40 Ibid. p. 65.

41 Taylor, E., The strategy of terror (Boston, 1940), p. 173ffGoogle Scholar.

42 Spaight, , Bombing, p. 60Google Scholar.

43 The Sunday Times, 14 Jan. 1940.

44 The Aeroplane, 3 May 1940; see also 20 March 1940.

45 The Daily Mail, 26 Apr. 1940.

46 Gunther, John, Inside Europe (London, 1940), pp. 173ffGoogle Scholar.

47 Spaight, , Bombing, p. 65ffGoogle Scholar.

48 Ibid. p. 66; Gilbert, , Churchill, VI, 142Google Scholar but omitting this passage.

49 Ibid. p. 276.

50 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 141Google Scholar.

51 Hubatsch, , Weisungen, no. 7, p. 40Google Scholar.

52 ‘Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt…’ Der deutsche Wehrmachtsbericht (Osnabrück, 1982), I, 144Google Scholar.

53 Bomber command war diaries, p. 4.

54 For example, Fuller, J. C. F., The Second World War 1930–1945 (London, 1948), p. 222Google Scholar.

55 Hoch, A., ‘Der Luftangriff auf Freiburg am 10. Mai 1940’, Viertelsjahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (1956), pp. 69ffGoogle Scholar.

56 Bomber command war diaries, p. 42.

57 Gilbert, , Churchill, VI, 311Google Scholar.

58 Ibid. p. 312.

59 Terraine, , Air force, p. 144Google Scholar.

60 Ibid. p. 145.

61 Irving, D., Churchill's war (Bullsbrook, 1987), I, 274Google Scholar.

62 Gilbert, , Churchill, VI, 343Google Scholar.

63 Maier, Klaus A., ‘Der operative Luftkrieg bis zur Luftschlacht um England’, Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Br., Freiburg i. (ed.), Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg (Stuttgart, 1979), II, 339Google Scholar, see also note 38 on the same page.

64 Boberach, , Meldungen, 4, no. 87, 14 05 1940, p. 1128Google Scholar.

65 Churchill, W. S., The Second World War, The Reprint Society (London, 1954), vol. I, ‘The Gathering Storm’, p. 359Google Scholar. This edition from which all quotations from Churchill's memoirs in this article have been taken, differs in its pagination from the original version first published by Cassel in 1948.

66 Ibid. vol. II, ‘Their finest hour’, p. 43.

67 Ibid. p. 219.

68 Ibid. vol. II, ‘The Grand Alliance’, p. 382.

69 Ibid. II, 265.

70 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 135Google Scholar.

71 Ibid. p. 144.

72 Terraine, , Airforce, p. 135Google Scholar.

73 The rise and fall of the German airforce 1933–1945 (London, 1983), pp. V, 57Google Scholar.

74 Das Deutsche Reich, II, 121fF., I31ff.; ‘Das Oberkommando’, I, 26–8, 38–9, 42 (Bulletins from 16 to 28 Sept. 1939).

75 Das Deutsche Reich, II, 287; Kesselring, A., Soldat bis zum letzten Tag (Bonn, 1953), pp. 77ffGoogle Scholar.; Rumpf, H., Der hochrote Hahn (Darmstadt, 1952), pp. 29ffGoogle Scholar.; de Jong, L., Het Koninhrijk der Nederlanden in de twede Wereldoorlog (1939–1945), vol. II; Neutraal (s'Gravenhage, 1969), pp. 111ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

76 Kernan, H., Report from France (New York, 1941), pp. 15, 160Google Scholar.

77 Extracted from Bomber command war diaries, pp. 42–86.

78 Terraine, , Air force, p. 146Google Scholar.

79 Boberach, , Meldungen, 4Google Scholar, no. 88, 16 May 1940, pp. 114ff.

80 Ibid. no. 89, 20 May 1940, pp. 1152, 1154ff.

81 Ibid. no. 90, 23 May 1940, pp. 1163ff.

82 Ibid. no. 91, 27 May 1940, pp. 1175ff.

83 Ibid. no. 92, 30 May 1940, pp. 1189ff.

84 Bomber command war diaries, pp. 48ff.

85 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 145Google Scholar.

86 Ibid. p. 146.

87 Bomber command war diaries just records an attack on Hamburg and ‘railways in Germany’. In fact one house was destroyed in Munich's Barerstrasse, opposite the Neue Pinakothek art gallery. The sight proved so attractive to Munich's crowds, that it had to be cordoned off by the police. When on 12 July 1944 the entire street was flattened by the USAAF the novelty had long been worn off. [Author's own recollection.]

88 Boberach, , Meldungen, 4, 13 06 1940, p. 1247Google Scholar.

89 Ibid. p. 1256.

90 Bomber command war diaries, p. 52.

91 Boberach, , Meldungen, 4, 20 06 1940, pp. 1276ffGoogle Scholar.

92 Ibid. p. 1279.

93 Ibid. no. 99, 24 June 1940, p. 1294.

94 Irving, , Churchill, p. 370Google Scholar. Irving cites as his source P.R.O., AIR 14/1930, Ltr Portal to VCAS, Sholte Douglas, 2 Aug. 1940.

95 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 149, 151Google Scholar.

96 Wolf, W., Luftangriffe auf die deutsche Industrie 1942–1945 (Munich, 1985), pp. 22ffGoogle Scholar.

97 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 150ffGoogle Scholar.

98 Boberach, , Meldungen, 4, no. 100, 27 06 1940, p. 1307Google Scholar.

99 Ibid.

100 The author discovered how difficult it was to keep even vital secrets when hospitalized in the summer of 1942. A boy in the next bed gave him a detailed description of a Turbinenflugzeug in the development of which his father was involved, describing its interior and explaining that it had to land on skids. After the war it became clear that it must have been the first German jetbomber, the Arado-Blitz 234.

101 Boberach, , Meldungen, 5, no. 102, 4 07 1940, pp. 1335ffGoogle Scholar.

102 Bomber command war diaries, pp. 60ff.

103 Ibid.; Webster and Frankland, Offensive, I, make no reference to these fiendish devices, though Gilbert, , Churchill, VI, does on pp. 498, 711Google Scholar.

104 Boberach, , Meldungen, 5, no. 102, 4 07 1940, p. 1338Google Scholar.

105 Ibid. no. 103, 8 July 1940, p. 1352.

106 Ibid. no. 104, 11 July 1940, pp. I362ff.

107 See Martin, B., Friedenspolitik und Machtpolitik im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939–1942 (Düsseldorf, 1974), especially ch. 4, pp. 234ffGoogle Scholar.

108 Churchill, , The Second World War, II, 505Google Scholar.

109 Ibid.

110 Gilbert, , Churchill, VII, 173, 1256ffGoogle Scholar.

111 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, III, 112Google Scholar. On the following pages the authors go out of their way to demonstrate Churchill's and other cabinet members', like Eden's, total commitment to ‘terror bombing during the three preceding years.’ See pp. 133ff.

112 Gilbert, , Churchill, VI, 603Google Scholar.

113 Ibid. p. 603, notes 3 and 4.

114 Ibid. p. 656, note 1.

115 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 154Google Scholar. Richards, D., Portal of Hungerford (London, 1977) makes a rather disingenuous attempt to explain away Portal's attitudeGoogle Scholar.

116 Domarus, , Reden, III, 1558Google Scholar.

117 Boberach, , Meldungen, 5, no. 107, 22 07 1940, p. 1403Google Scholar.

118 Ibid. no. 106, 18 July 1940, p. 1389.

119 Ibid. no. 115, 15 Aug. 1940, p. 1470; no. 116, 19 Aug. 1940, p. 1481. This report also records the dropping of ‘arson balls’ in the Siegen area, each varying in diameter between 2 and 3 cm which alarmed farmers because of the danger they posed to their grazing livestock.

120 Such was the case during the author's stay at his grandfather's estate near Nordhausen/Harz where in the nearby village of Crimderode four children sustained severe burns from these products of Churchill's ‘dirty tricks’ department.

121 Hubatsch, , Weisungen, no. 17, 1 08 1940, p. 76Google Scholar. ‘Adler-Tag’ had originally been scheduled for 8 Aug. 1940, but because of adverse weather conditions was postponed to 13 Aug.

122 Kesselring, , Soldat, pp. 85, 95Google Scholar; Tippelskirch, K. V., Geschkhte des Zweiten Weltkrieges, 2nd edn (Bonn, 1956), p. 104Google Scholar. I am indebted to the former Luftwaffe captain, Hermann Diederichs, Koburg, in 1940 Staffelkapitän in group 2 of KG 54 for giving me access to his war diaries which he kept at the time and which confirm this. On 13 Aug. 1940 groups I, II and III of Kampfgcschwader 54 were affected, on 16 Aug. groups of KG 2. Mason, F. K., Battle over Britain (London, 1969), p. 272Google Scholar displays serious flaws in his day-by-day record. To mention but one example, he lists one Ju 88 aircraft as a loss in the battle of Britain as a result of ‘having crashed in the Starnberger See’. Since this lake is 21 km south-west of Munich the aircraft concerned cannot have had anything to do with the air battle.

123 Gilbert, , Churchill, VI, 602ffGoogle Scholar.

124 Irving, D., Göring (Munich, 1986), p. 444Google Scholar gives as his reference on p. 807 the ‘diaries and notes of Field Marshal Milch’.

125 Boberach, , Meldungen, 5, no. 114, 12 08 1940, pp. I451ffGoogle Scholar.

126 Das Deutsche Reich, II, 375ff.

127 Quoted by Terraine, , Air force, p. 261Google Scholar.

128 Irving, , Churchill, p. 401Google Scholar, again gives an unspecific summary reference to the Milch diaries and notes.

129 Ibid. p. 406.

130 Irving, D., Die Tragödie der deutschen Luftwaffe. Aus den Akten und Erinnerungen von Feldmarschall Milch (Berlin, 1970), p. 164Google Scholar.

131 Irving, , Göring, p. 443Google Scholar.

132 Das Deutsche Reich, II, 380.

133 ‘Das Oberkommando’, I, 298.

134 Cooper, M., The German air force 1933–1945. An anatomy of failure (London, 1981), p. 153Google Scholar.

135 The rise and fall, p. 85.

136 Gilbert, , Churchill, VI, p. 735Google Scholar.

137 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 152Google Scholar.

138 So Mason, , Battle, p. 269Google Scholar; Das Deutsche Reich, II, 386 in which Mason is cited as the source.

139 Churchill, W. S., Marlborough. His life and times (London, 1967), I, 455Google Scholar.

140 Webster, and Frankland, , Offensive, I, 152Google Scholar.

141 Boberach, , Meldungen, 5, no. 118, 26 08 1940, pp. 1503ffGoogle Scholar.; Bomber command war diaries, pp. 76ff.

142 Boberach, , Meldungen, 5, no. 120, 2 09 1940, pp. 1549ffGoogle Scholar.

143 Green, W., Famous bombers of the Second World War, I (London, 1959), 16Google Scholar; I (London, 1960), 34.

144 Domarus, , Reden, III, 1579ffGoogle Scholar.

145 Boberach, , Meldungen, 5, no. 122, 9 09 1940, pp. 1549ffGoogle Scholar.

146 Generaloberst Haider. Kriegstagebuch (Stuttgart, 1962)Google Scholar, vol. II, entry for 14 Sept. 1940.

147 Wagner, G. (ed.), Lagevorträge des Oberbefehlshabers der Kriegsmarine vor Hitler 1939–1945 (Munich, 1977), 14 09 1940, p. 142Google Scholar; see also footnote on the same page.

148 Ibid.

149 Boberach, , Meldungen, 5, no. 124, 16 09 1940, pp. 1572ffGoogle Scholar.

150 ‘Das Oberkommando’, 1, 303ff. The use of the term Vergeltungsangriffe, reprisal attacks, occurs for the first time in the bulletin of 14 September but is qualified by the alleged targets, ‘dock installations, storage houses, factories, airfields, industrial installations, harbours and railways’. See also note 154 below.

151 Boberach, , Meldungen, 5, no. 124, 16 09 1940, pp. 1572ffGoogle Scholar.

152 Schleunes, K. A., The twisted road to Auschwitz (Chicago, 1970), passimGoogle Scholar; Gordon, S., Hitler, Germans and the ‘Jewish question’ (Princeton, 1984), passimGoogle Scholar.

153 Terraine, , Air force, p. 667Google Scholar.

154 Since this article has been completed the MGFA, Freiburg has published a further volume in its series Vorträge zur Militärgeschichte entitled Operatives Denken und Handeln in deutschen Streitkräften im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Herford, 1988)Google Scholar. Horst Boog in his contribution ‘Führungsdenken in der Luftwaffe im Zweiten Weltkrieg’ makes a number of very important points, only two of which can be mentioned here. Firstly that there was a fundamental difference between Germany's propagandistic projection of its air force and actual reality. Secondly that Hitler even in early 1941 discounted reprisal raids as useless. Indeed, in his war directive no. twenty-three of 6 February 1941 (Hubatsch, op. cit., pp. 118ff.) he emphasized that reprisal raids were counter-productive in that they strengthened the enemy's will to resist, and caused unnecessary wastage of scare materiél Reprisal raids would be explicitly announced to stop the enemy from continuing his indiscriminate bombing. Hitler ordered only one specific “destruction” raid, and that against Belgrade in 1941, which the commander on the spot, General Löhr, changed to attack decisive military and administrative key points in the city centre. This was done with such effect that all lines of communication between the Yugoslav high command and its forces were broken. The German army and Luftwaffe sent “fact-finding-teams” to Belgrade which drew up detailed reports which provide a different picture than Churchill's literary eloquence (Churchill, III, 137ff.). I am indebted to Dr. Hans Umbreit of the MGFA for making available to me a copy of this volume which was quickly out of print after publication.