Dehousing paper

The so-called dehousing paper (translated: Enthausungspapier; also known as "dehousing memorandum" ) is a political draft resolution regarding the strategic goals of the British air war against the German Reich in World War II (strategic bombing campaign).

Emergence

The dehousing paper was sent to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on March 30, 1942 by the British Government's Scientific Advisor, Frederick Lindemann, 1st Baron Cherwell . This proposal was later approved by the British Cabinet. It was in this context that it received its later name.

The draft resolution came up for discussion during a debate about the future British war strategy against the German Reich. The debate centered in particular on the distribution of funds between the Royal Air Force (RAF), British Army and Royal Navy . The draft resolution argues that the destruction of residential areas has the greatest effect on the resistance of the opposing civilian population ( moral bombing ). This line of argument is in the tradition of the British Trenchard Doctrine of 1928 and, as evidence of the correctness of this thesis, cited studies on the effects of German air strikes on the resistance of the British civilian population. The dehousing paper provided for the destruction of 30% of all residential buildings in 58 cities in Germany. The restriction to 58 cities existed because large parts of Germany were out of the range of the British air force at the time. After a lively debate, the British Cabinet decided on the proposal, defining this war strategy versus other strategic options.

See also

• Area Bombing Directive
• Butt Report
• Bombing raids on Germany

literature

• Norman Longmatte: The Bombers: The RF offensive against Germany 1939-1945. Hutchinson, London 1983, ISBN 0-09-151580-7 (English).
• Richard G. Davis: Bombing the European Axis Powers: A Historical Digest of the Combined Bomber Offensive, 1930-1945 . Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama 2006, ISBN 1-58566-148-1 (English, online in the archive ( Memento from September 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 2.1 MB ; accessed on July 10, 2011]).
• Paul Croock: The case against Area Bombing . In: Peter Hore (Ed.): Patrick Blackett: Sailor, Scientist, and Socialist . with a foreword by Tam Dalyell. Frank Cass, London 2003, ISBN 0-7146-5317-9 , chap. 10 , p. 167-186 (English).

Web links

• Terry Copp: The Bomber Command Offensive: Army, Part 11. In: Legion - Canada's Military History Magazine. September 1, 1996, accessed April 14, 2020 . 
• CABINET PAPERS: Complete classes from the CAB & PREM series in the Public Record Office Series One: PREM 3 - Papers concerning Defense & Operational Subjects, 1940-1945 Winston Churchill, Minister of Defense, Secretariat Papers. Adam Matthew Publications(English, download the individual documents from here). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Firestorm: the bombing war against Germany , Christoph Kucklick
2. ↑ Alexander B. Downes: Targeting civilians in war. Cornell studies in security affairs . Cornell University Press, 2008, ISBN 0-8014-4634-1 , pp. 42 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed April 15, 2020]).
3. ↑ Also known as the dehousing memorandum , the Lindemann memorandum / paper or the Cherwell memorandum / paper (this was raised to the nobility in 1956)
4. ^ Sebastian Cox: The strategic air war against Germany, 1939-1945: report of the British Bombing Survey Unit . Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0-7146-4722-5 , pp. 67 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed April 16, 2020]).