How and why are these two interpretations of the RAF different?

1
How and why are these two interpretations of the
RAF different?
? starter
German government poster. The slogan reads
Blackout your windows the enemy sees your
light
British government poster to encourage support at
home for the RAF
2
Changing ideas about bombing

• 1914, German airships (Zeppelins) bombed
  Scarborough other coastal towns killing 498
• 1935, Italian aircraft, Abyssinia used gas bombs
• 1937, Spanish Civil War, Guernica

WWI German Zeppelin
Pablo Picasso, Guernica
3
Bomber Harris

• Sir Arthur Harris, Bomber Command
• Industrial residential sites
• You destroy a factory and they rebuild it. I
  kill all their workmen and it takes 21 years to
  provide new ones

Sir Arthur Harris
4
Bombing of Dresden
Footage of bombing of Hamburg

• Map of bombing targets

• 13-14 February 1945
• 805 RAF bombers dropped 2600 tons
• Firestorm, 1000C
• 35,000 150,000 killed
• 70 Dresden destroyed

5
Impact of bombing
Picture postcard of Dresden before WWII
6
Impact of bombing
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
(No Transcript)
11
Should Dresden have been bombed?

• Was Bomber Harris responsible for war crimes?

12
? Your task
Card sort

• Read the comments by historians on the bombing of
  Dresden and place them on either side of a scales
  chart/highlight them in different colours
• Read p194-7 of Peace War and add any further
  evidence you find to your scales chart.

Bombing was justified
Bombing was not justified
13
? Your task

• Divide the class into two groups.
• Decide on which are the most important arguments
  either for or against the bombing of Dresden.
• Appoint a judge, 6 jurors and lawyers for the
  defence and prosecution. Put Bomber Harris on
  trial and decide if he was guilty or not of
  committing a war crime by bombing Dresden during
  the war.

14
? Your task

• Imagine your teacher is Sir Arthur Harris, head
  of Bomber Command. He is on trial for war crimes.
  Interrogate him as a class and try to establish
  if he was justified in ordering the bombing of
  Dresden in February 1945.
• Write a judgement paragraph in answer to the
  question were the Allies justified in bombing
  Dresden?