Area bombing directive

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Area bombing directive was an Air Ministry directive issued to RAF Bomber Command on 14 February 1942, eight days before Air Marshal Arthur Harris became Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of Bomber Command^[1].

The new directive was not radically different from previous ones, but it was needed to countermand the order of mid-November, 1941, which called on Bomber Command to conserve its force.^[2] The directive specified that "You are accordingly authorised to use your forces without restriction", and listing a series of 'Primary targets' which included Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Cologne.^[2] 'Secondary targets' included Braunschweig, Lübeck, Rostock, Bremen, Kiel, Hanover, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Stuttgart and Schweinfurt. It stated that "Operations should now be focussed on the morale of the enemy civilian population and in particular, the industrial workers". Lest there be any confusion, Sir Charles Portal wrote to Air Chief Marshall Norman Bottomley on the 15 February "... I suppose it is clear that the aiming points will be the built up areas, and not, for instance, the dockyards or aircraft factories." ^[3]

The directive was superseded on 14 January 1943 a new directive which gave priority to attacking U-boat pens of Lorient, St Nazaire, Brest and La Pallice on the western French coast. In line with the bombing of Genoa and Turin on 23 October 1942 and a speech by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill six days later, warning the Italian government that RAF would continue bombing Italian cities while Italy remained an Axis power, the directive also included Italian cities as potential targets.^[4]^[5]

[edit] References

Johnston, Philip Ralph Bomber Command blog site RAF-Lincolnshire.info
Longmate, Norman : The Bombers: The RAF offensive against Germany 1939-1945 Pub. Hutchinson 1983, ISBN 0-09-151580-7