This playlist is Lord HardThrasher’s series on the bomber war over Europe in the Second World War, covering RAF Bomber Command, the USAAF, strategic bombing, bombing accuracy, the Butt Report, the Norden bombsight, Hamburg, Dresden, area bombing, precision bombing, and the moral and military arguments around the Allied bombing campaign. It asks whether strategic bombing worked, why early bombing failed so badly, how Bomber Command improved, what the Americans and British got right and wrong, and why the bomber offensive remains one of the most controversial parts of the war.
Curated by: HardThrasher (15 videos)
In 1942 Arthur Harris promised Nazi Germany that it would "reap the whirlwind". In 1943, he set about ensuring that happened. This is the sotr of Bomber Command in 1943 and how they tried to knock Germanyt out of the war - The strategy, thinking, technical developments, tactics and missions all in one long video. Join the Hellfire Club here! - patreon.com/LordHardThrasher Buy Merch here! - https://hardthrasher-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp Email me here! – lordhardthrasher@gmail.com Shout at my Socials here ! – Twitter @hardthrashe Bluesky @lordhardthrasher.bsky.social Insta - https://www.instagram.com/lordhardthrasher/?hl=en TikTok - @lordhardthrasher References i Battle of the Beams, Tom Whipple, Penguin , 2003, p.209 iiThe Battle of the Beams, Whipple, Penguin, 2003, p.213 iii The Bombing War, Overy, Penguin, 2012, p.345 iv The Pathfinders, Will Iredale, Penguin, 2021, p.116 and on v The Bombing War, Overy, Penguin, 2012, p.238 vi See Caliban Rising’s excellent video on statistical deaths for Bomber Command vii B12/36, The British Aircraft Specifications File, Meekcoms & Morgan, Air-Britain, 1994, p.228 viii The Bombing War, Overy, Penguin, 2012, p.290-91 ix The Pathfinders, Will Iredale, Penguin, 2021 p.74 x Proceedings of the Royal Airforce Historical Society, Issue No 6, Sept 1989, p.22 xi The Pathfinders, Iredale, Penguin, 2021, p.75 xii The Pathfinders, Iredale, Penguin, 2021, 2021 p.79 xiii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfrid_Freeman - yes, yes I know, a Wiki reference. xiv Interview 1977 for the RAF Centre for Air Power Studies (CASPS) - https://youtu.be/_JihH2VSiqU?si=90pAjmmlpUALifbA xv Pathfinder, Bennett, ?? 1953 pp. 190, 202, 205 xvi The Wages of Destruction, Tooze, Penguin, 2006 (from the 2007 reprint) p. 590 and on xvii The Wages of Destruction, Tooze, Penguin, 2006 (from the 2007 reprint) p. 597 xviii Stalin’s War, McMeekin, Penguin, 2022 p.470 and on ixx Ibid p.327 xx The Bombing War, Overy, Penguin, 2012, p.332 xxi The Bombing War, Overy, Penguin, 2012, p323 xxii Ibid p.334 xxiii The Bomber Command War Diaries, Middlebrook and Everitt, Penguin, 1990 (orig 1985) p.413 xxiv Ibid p.440 xxv Speer: Hitler’s Architect, Kitchen, Penguin, 2020 p.185 xxvi The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force, Arm & Armour Press, 1983, p.236 xxviiThe Bomber War, Overy, Penguin, 2020, p.336 xxviii The Rise and Fall of the German Airforce, Arms and Armour Press, 1983, p.235 ixxx Flak, Westerman, University of Kansas Press, 2001 p.202 and on xxx The Pathfinders, Iredale, Penguin, 2021, p.213 xxxi Bomber War, Hastings, Pan Military, 1977, p. 371 (2020 reprint) xxxii Bomber Command’s War Against Germany, Frankland, Pen & Sword, 2020 (see also original AIR 41/57, 1951) p.89 xxxiii AIR 16/487 – Despatches on War Operations Feb 1942 – May 1945 xxxiv Bomber Command’s War Against Germany, Frankland, Pen & Sword, 2020 (see also original AIR 41/57, 1951) p.197 xxxv Bomber Command, Hastings, Pan, 2021 (orig. 1979) Pan, p.373 xxxvi Bomber Command, Hastings, Pan, 2021 (orig. 1979) Pan, p.376