Why comtting atrocities is bad (was RE: A bomb: do the math)

' Harris bounded up on the platform and his very first words were, ' Most of you people won't be here in a few weeks. ( Harvey: That got our attention ) We are about to begin a series of raids that will demand the best from all of you. We know there will be tremendous losses, but it has to be done. You have all done a splendid job, but the real test is still before you. We must beat Germany to her knees.' The direct honest way Harris had answered brought a roar of approval from the crowd, and he went down in our books as a man you could trust. ' RCAF 6 Group Stn Linton-on-Ouse, England. 408 Goose and 426 Thunderbird 14 Sept 1943. The 426 Squadron history confirms the date of the visit. Ref: PRO. ' Boys, bombs and Brussel sprouts,' 1981 by Doug Harvey, 408 Sqn RCAF. pg 71-72.

'He often remarked that while most commanders in war were required to risk their forces in battle only at intervals of months, he was staking everyhting almost every night. Bu, those who seek to present him simply as a latter day 'Donkey' indifferent to casualties do him an injustice. He was passionately concerned to give every man in his command the best possible chance of survival. A senior civil servant at the Ministry of Aircraft Production described vividly an occasion on which Harris arrived to denounce the Stirling bomber and demand more Lancasters: 'It's murder, plain murder to send my young men out to die in an aircraft like that!' said Harris furiously. Harris was a real leader. From the beginning to end, he succeeded in in seeming to identify himself totally with the interests of his men. Throughout the night the telephone by his bedside rang intermittently with reports of the night's operations. Harris had the fortunate facility of being able to wake, listne and instantly fall asleep again. It is one one of the ironies of the bomber offensive that while aircrew fought through the darkness and cities stood to their guns and searchlights and burst forth in their nightly torment of fire and blast, the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command lay dreamless in his bed among the Buckingshire woods.' Max Hastings.

Do you have a source for that, Jerzy?

'Guernica, which was of deep symbolic importance to the Basque people, was destroyed in one awful afternoon of sustained bomb attacks. The scale of the atrocity was compounded by subsequent efforts on the part of the National Socialist to deny any responsibility. George Steer, correspondent of 'The Times' , was one of the first journalists to arrive on the scene. With some misgiving, the editor of 'The Times' Geofrey Dawson, published the following report by Speer on 28 April ( see previous post for report ). Dawson later wrote, I did my best, night after night, to keep out of the paper anything that might hurt ( German) sic susceptibilities' Steer was a first-class war correspondent. The Francoists, in an effort to discredit his report, went to great lengths to denigrate his personal and professional integrity. Franco's foreign press service, under the direction of Luis Bolin, immediately got to work denying that the bombing had taken place. That Guernica was destroyed by the German Condor Legion there is no longer any doubt. Moreover, it is this fact that gives the event its military significance, for the town is the first in the worlds history to be entirely destroyed by aerial bombing. Dr Herbert Southworth, the world authority on the destruction of Guernica, reached the unequivocal conclusion that Guernica was destroyed by explosive and incendiary bombs dropped by aircraft of the Condor Legion piloted by germans. The destruction of Guernica certainly shattered Basque morale. 'A Concise History of The Spanish Civil War' by Paul Preston. 1996 pg 191-196. ISBN 0006863736 'Paul Preston is Principe de Asturias Professor of Contempory Spanish History and Director of the Canada Blanch Centre for Contempory Spanish Studies at the LSE. He is a fellow of the British Academy.'

Who won at Guernica ? The Soviets, who used Guernica in his propaganda during about 50 years. Comparing to the Soviet crimes of that time Guernica was a detail. It was also a detail if we consider the total number of Civil war victims. In August 1939 Guernica lost its importance for the Soviets and returned only in the 1941.

Jerzy Pankiewicz