Harris, Arthur Travers, Sir “Bomber Harris”.

Harris Arthur Travers, born 13-04-1892, in Henley on Thames, in London,  where his parents were staying while his father George Steel Travers Harris, a civil servant, was on home leave from the Indian Civil Service. With his father in India most of the time, Harris grew up without a sense of solid roots and belonging; he spent much of his later childhood with the family of a Kent rector, the Reverend C E Graham-Jones, whom he later recalled fondly. Harris was educated at Allhallows School in Devon, while his two older brothers were educated at the more prestigious Sherborne and Eton, respectively; according to biographer Henry Probert, this was because Sherborne and Eton were expensive and “there was not much money left for number three” When he was seventeen he moved to Rhodesia where he tried his luck at gold mining, driving horses and tobacco planting. When the First World War broke out he joined the 1st Rhodesia Regiment and fought in the successful campaign to capture German South West Africa from the German Army.  Harris returned to England in 1915 and joined the Royal Flying Corps. The following year he qualified as a fighter pilot and joined the 44 Squadron  in France. Harris also helped organize the defence against the Zeppelin Air Raids Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin

   in 1916 before taking command of the 44 Squadron and training it for night fighting. In 1919 Harris was given the rank of squadron leader of the recently created Royal Air Force (RAF) . Over the next few years he served in India, Iraq and Iran. He led the 58th Squadron  before serving on the air staff in the Middle East. During this period the RAF used terror bombing, including gas attacks and delayed action bombs, on the Iraqi tribes rebelling against British rule. One RAF officer, Air Commodore Lionel Evelyn Oswald Charlton,, resigned in 1924 after visiting a hospital that contained limbless civilian victims of these air raids. However, Harris remarked “the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand.” In 1932 Harris was appointed commander of the 210 Flying Boat Squadron.

Promoted to group captain in 1933 Harris was appointed deputy director of plans in the Air Ministry. While in this post he produced a document concerning how to deal with a war with Hitler’s and Goering’s Germany that he forecasted would begin in 1939. By the outbreak of the Second World War Harris had reached the rank of Air Vice Marshal and spent the early months of the war in the United States purchasing aircraft for the war effort. When he returned to Britain he served under Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Porta,

who died age 77, on 22-04-1971, the head of Bomber Command. St. Mary’s parish church and cemetery, Funtington, where Lord Portal of Hungerford’s ashes are buried.

 In February, 1942, Arthur Harris replaced Air Marshal Sir John Eustice Arthur Baldwin as head of RAF Bomber Command. Baldwin died age 83 on 28-07-1975. Under his leadership the policy of area bombing, known in Germany as terror bombing, was developed. Harris fought against all attempts to persuade him to switch to precision bombing and for a while resisted the formation of the Pathfinder Force in 1942. Harris argued that the main objectives of night-time blanket bombing of urban areas was to undermine the morale of the civilian population and attacks were launched on Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Dresden and other German cities. This air campaign killed an estimated 600,000 civilians and destroyed or seriously damaged some six million homes. It was a highly dangerous strategy and during the war Bomber Command had 57,143 men killed. In March, 1945, Sir Winston Churchill

 gave instructions to Harris to bring an end to area bombing. As he explained: “It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, should be reviewed. Otherwise we shall come into control of an utterly ruined land. “Sir Arthur Harris was an exception commander who won the respect of the vast majority of his contemporaries including Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower  and Bernard “Monty” Montgomery, who said of Harris: “I doubt any single man did more in winning the war than he did. I doubt whether that is generally realised”. Harris’ was an incredibly difficult and demanding wartime task and his personal effort and the courage and sacrifice of his aircrews was one of the key factors in the Allies’ victory over the evil of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Harris became a marshal of the Royal Air Force in 1946 and soon afterwards retired from active duty. He published his war memoirs, Bomber Command, in 1947. Upset by criticisms of his area bombing strategy he went to live in South Africa where he ran a shipping line.

Death and burial ground of Harris, Arthur Travers, Sir “Bomber Harris.

   Arthur Harris died at the very old age of 91,  on 05-04-1984, in the place called “Goring”. No cause of death was given by his family. Harris and his wife and daughter Therese, are buried on the cemetery of Goring on Thames, Oxfordshire. During his funeral in 1984, a bomber flew low over the cemetery. His urn is placed  on the Burntwood cemetery at Goring, South Oxfordshire District, Oxfordshire, England.

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