Bomber boys - bbc one

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by Hood

You surely must understand the difference between attacking another soverign nation and the systematic extermination of anyone considered undesirable. Definite troll comment.

well of course I do, your judgement is in hindsight though. If they won the war, who would be the hero and who would be the war criminal?

A controversial character like Harris, who caused the unnecessary death of thousands of civilians and RAF aircrew, all of this for a strategy that didn't actually win the war (it was actually argued in the Parliament that the disruption and damage caused by such bombings would have been an enormous problem to deal with once the war was over), is nothing to be celebrated with a statue, it's really in bad taste IMHO. Harris himself wouldn't probably have been too chuffed about it, there's a reason why he moved to South Africa until Churchill gave him the Baronet title, he knew that what he had done wasn't the best of strategies.. Now I'm not judging the man because I'm sure that being in such a position on such hard times must be the toughest role for a man, but in the meantime I think there's not a lot of room to celebrate his actions either.

To use your own usual arguments, nothing you have said is evidence to support your opinions, just generalised comments. There is a theme of inviting arguments in order for them to be countered, but without any rational argument made to support your own views.

Back up your own arguments first and I'll respond, or let the argument die and the thread return to appreciation of a great programme. Your choice.

G'night.

well, you asked for it. As we all know, Monty won El-Alamein because of the favourable odds he had (logistics, troops, exhausted enemy), unfortunately, unlike his predecessors, Monty chose not to follow up on his victory by pushing the Germans out of Africa immediately, waiting until May of 1943 to finally accomplish what should have been done months earlier.

But Egypt wasn’t Monty’s real problem. That came later, first with the over-planned and under-executed landings in Sicily (Patton’s forces beat Monty’s British Army to Messina even though they had twice as far to go), followed by his dismal attempt to capture Caen, France on D-Day(The city was not taken until July 18, 1944, six weeks after the initial landing).

Then there was Operation Markey Garden in September, 1944, the attempt to take three key bridges in Holland that would make a breakout into the Ruhr Valley possible. Great idea; just poorly implemented, the result being the surrender of 6,000 British paratroopers at Arnhem and a temporary stalemate that was to last until that next spring.

Is that "factual" enough for you?