In article , wrote:

Arthur Harris insisted right up to the end of the war that his bombers
bomb city centers as the most effective method of bringing the war to
the Germans and shorten it, if not cause them to surrender.

The really sad part was he had the example of the London Blitz right in
front of him. Bombing London did nothing to shake civilian resolve, and
probably had the opposite result.

for a week or two. A lot of people lost their jobs and their homes
because what got destroyed was center city businesses and residences,

The British called this 'Baedeker Bombing,' i.e., targeting city centers
where all the tourist attractions were located.

but they were for the most part not producing war materials. The
survivors now turned to the factories which were barely touched, and

I talked to survivors of the war in Berlin who told me the homeless would
pick the longest subway route (between Spandau and Gruenau) and ride all
night for a few pennies.

The British bomber pilots and crew suffered enormously for their
effort. Too bad the concept was so flawed.

The blame for those deaths should include the blunder of sending out the
bombers with no fighter protection. Had the allies invested a little
more in creating long-range fighters, this would have been quite different.