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)
Today we embark on an epic journey, looking at the pre-1939 thinking behind bombing on both side of the Atlantic, and how they were deeply misguided and confused. We'll then move on to see what happened when reality hit theory for the first time and the lucky, lucky young men of bomber command got to try and fly over the 3rd Reich in broad daylight unescorted, something no one would ever try to do again surley..... To see more on the Fairey Battle go here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFxDL4_Xavo also subscribe to Rex’s he’s ace If you’d like to be a cool kid, then become a Patreon here - https://www.patreon.com/LordHardThrasher or if you’d like to email me send a message to lordhardthrasher@gmail.com Selected Online Resources https://youtu.be/lFxDL4_Xavo?si=knY1dSrIhaa5viRG https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointblank_directive https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_Report https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_bombing_directive https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_directive https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1218637 - Western War Plan W5a and W6 Selected Bibliography America's Pursuit of Precision Bombing 1910-1945 - McFarland et al. Dresden – Sinclair McKay Dresden; Tuesday….. – Fredrick Taylor Absolute War – The Firebombing of Tokyo Black Snow - Bomber Command – Max Hastings Bomber Command’s War Against Germany, An Official History – Nobel Franklin et al. The Bomber Mafia – Malcolm Gladwell Absolute War – Chris Bellamy Undaunted and Through Adversity (Vol 1 &2) – Ben Kite United States Strategic Bombing Survey (European War) (USSBS) Sept 1945 – Var. - https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-101634748-bk America’s Pursuit of Precision Bombing 1910-1945, McFarland Big Week – James Holland