RAF Bomber Command

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RAF Bomber Command

active 07/14/1936 to 04/30/1968
Country United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Armed forces Royal Air Force
Branch of service bomber
Type Functional command
Headquarters headquarters 1936–40: Uxbridge
from 1940: High Wycombe
motto Strike Hard Strike Sure
commander
Commander in chief see list
Important
commanders

Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris

The RAF Bomber Command was from 1936 to 1968, the command of the bombers of the Royal Air Force . Bomber Command also represented the British bomber fleet as such. His job was to plan and conduct strategic bombing raids.

history

Real estate and inventory

The headquarters of the RAF Bomber Command was in Uxbridge in east London from 1936 to 1940 and in High Wycombe , Buckinghamshire from 1940 .

The main light and medium bomber types of the RAF Bomber Command were:

The following four-engine heavy bomber types were used (partly as a supplement) during the Second World War:

Second World War

During the Second World War , the Bomber Command carried out a large number of bomb attacks on targets in Germany, German-occupied Europe and Fascist Italy. The Bomber Command deployed around 125,000 flying crews during the war, 55,573 of whom were killed (almost 45%). Another 8,403 were wounded and 9,838 were taken prisoner of war .

Against the background of statistical studies by the British Air Ministry on the effectiveness of British air strikes that have already taken place, the decision was made to increasingly drop incendiary bombs and air mines over densely built-up urban areas in Germany. This strategy was laid down in the Area Bombing Directive on February 14, 1942 . Prime Minister Winston Churchill in his role as Chairman of the War Cabinet instructed the Commander (Commander-in-chief) of the RAF Bomber Command, Air Marshal Arthur Harris with the implementation of this " morale bombing ". The “ Dehousing Paper ” of the British Cabinet, published at the end of March 1942 , intended to break the resistance of the German civilian population by deliberately destroying residential areas of the industrial workers and to induce them to oppose the National Socialist regime.

The Royal Air Force's aerial warfare against German cities began on May 11, 1940 with an attack by 35 bombers on Munich-Gladbach (today: Mönchengladbach ). The devastating air raids on Hamburg in the summer of 1943 and the destruction of Dresden in mid-February 1945 remained particularly present in the collective memory of the Germans . Over 20 more area bombings, including smaller cities, resulted in firestorms in which many civilians were killed and large parts of the building stock were destroyed were. With the air raid on Potsdam on the night of April 15, 1945, the RAF ended their bombing war against German cities; on April 16, 1945, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) declared the strategic air war in Europe won.

Cold War

After the Second World War, the nuclear-capable strategic V-bombers ( Valiant , Victor and Vulcan ) formed the main force of the Bomber Command.

The end of Bomber Command came in 1968 when it was merged with Fighter Command to form RAF Strike Command .

monument

The Commando Memorial is in Green Park, London . It was opened on June 28, 2012 by Queen Elizabeth II . The RAF Bomber Command Memorial was erected to commemorate the 55,573 Royal Air Force personnel who died in bomber missions during World War II (almost half of the workforce; the average age was 22 years). The monument shows seven soldiers as larger than life bronze statues. It is covered in Green Park near Hyde Park Corner .

Commander in chief

bases

The following incomplete list of bases includes those for which there is already an entry in the German-language Wikipedia:

See also

literature

  • Max Hastings: Bomber Command . Michael Jones, London 1979, ISBN 0-7181-1603-8
  • JR Moyes, James Goulding: RAF Bomber Command and it's Aircraft 1936-1940 . Ian Allen Ltd 1975
  • Richard Overy, The Bombing War. Europe 1939-1945 . Penguin, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-141-00321-4

Web links

Commons : Royal Air Force Bomber Command  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ WR Chorley: Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: Aircraft and crew losses: 1945. Midland Counties Publications, 1992, p. 182.
  2. ↑ page 324 below
  3. ↑ tagesspiegel.de
  4. ↑ spiegel.de: [1]