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Old May 31st 06, 01:39 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Memorial Day USA

Derek Copeland wrote:
Well this occured before I was born. But:

1) The Germans bombed our cities first - London, Coventry,
Birmingham, Southampton, Portsmouth, Liverpool, etc,
etc.

But never carpet bombed your cities.



2) We were at total war with Germany, and the only
way we could attack them until 1944 was by bombing.

Two wrongs do not make right, the choice was always yours.

3) The towns we bombed contained factories making armaments
and V weapons to use against us.


Is that why Dresden was flattened just few month before the end of the
war? Not really, please check your history, inflicting maximum damage
to the cities was an expressly stated policy of the Bomber Command.



4) Night bombing techniques at the time were not accurate
enough to hit specific strategic targets. We found
out very early on in the war (as did the Germans and
later on the Yanks) that daylight bombing missions
were virtually suicidal against a well defended target.
The US Flying Fortresses and Liberators ended up carrying
so many defensive guns and gunners that they could
hardly carry any bombs. Even our little twin engined
Mosquitos could carry far more, so this is probably
why we killed more people.


As per above.

Do not get me wrong. I am not condeming the actions of the Bomber
Command. I was not there and I do not have all the facts, and even if I
did, in the end I would only be making a value judgment. I was simply
pointing the duplicity of your argument.


kind regards


Paul Bart



Derek Copeland

At 09:36 31 May 2006, Pb wrote:


Hmmm, let me see did you forget, or did you never know
your own
country's war history.

'About two thirds of the 500,000 to 600,000 (conservative
estimates are
300,000) casualties of the bombings of German cities
died during attacks
by Bomber Command. One of the most controversial aspects
of Bomber
Command during WWII was the area bombing of cities....

The government's chief scientific adviser, Professor
Frederick Lindemann
was very close to Winston Churchill, who gave him a
seat in the Cabinet.
In 1942, Lindemann presented a seminal paper to the
Cabinet advocating
the 'aerial bombing of German cities by carpet bombing'
in a strategic
bombing campaign............

While the idea that the area bombing by the RAF of
German cities,
particularly in the last few months of the war, represented
a
regrettable or excessive campaign is widely held, the
case that it rises
to the level of a war crime is less widely subscribed
to.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bomber_Command


Well at least in this post you seem to speak for your
self only, unlike
your previous post where, once again, you not only
speak for your own
country, but all of Europe.


Kind regards

Paul Bart