Sir Arthur Harris: A war hero or a war criminal?
Sir Arthur Harris was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command during the World War II. During World War II Sir Arthur Harris had become a controversial figure. People had two different opinions about Harris; one was that he took action over the war personally by making unnecessary and ineffective campaigns for bombing cities (especially Dresden), but others realised that he did a crucial job that few other men could have carried through.
The sheet, Sir Arthur Harris: war hero or war criminal, states a lot of sources that agrees and disagrees with one or the other reason he was a controversial figure during World War II. The Sources that suggested that Sir Arthur Harris was a war criminal were sources: D, E, F, G, H, J, K and L. Source D shows that he was a war criminal because he was the only war commander not to have a statue made immediately after the war which means that people had to try and answer the same question that we are asking each other today, which suggests that people did realise that he wasn’t a war criminal and that’s why they finally had one made for him.
Source F suggests the main reason that people would think that he was a war criminal. Source shows a survivors (from a firestorm caused by the bombings) interview about the bombings. She says “There was a big heap of arms, legs, bodies, everything – I tried to piece together a leg, arm, fingers, body...”.This suggests that the woman was traumatised by her experience and would have never forgotten what had happened that day until the day she died. Source B also suggests that he was an evil man.
The Sources that suggested that Sir Arthur Harris was a war hero were sources: A, C and I. There were not many reasons for him to be acknowledged as a war hero but those four reasons are strong reasons for him to be a war hero. Source A suggests that he was a war hero because he was smart by having German houses destroyed, which...