A blunt ineffectual instrument.
More from the archives.
At one point in this book Overy describes strategic bombing as ‘the western front of the war’. By invoking the massive and largely wasteful carnage of the trench warfare of WWI this brief description from Overy delivers a judgement he elsewhere steps gingerly around. For us living on an island where for several hundred years the civilian population has been largely insulated from the vicissitudes of European war, bombing quite literally brought home what Overy aptly describes as an ‘unprecedented violation of British domestic life’, with 43,000 civilians killed. Overall though, for me, this book was more about exposition than judgement. Overy sets the facts before us. We have to decide what we make of them.
With a deft authorial touch Overy’s epic study of death from the air in the new era of ‘total war’ starts and ends in Bulgaria. I won’t spoil it by telling you how exactly. Confining himself to Europe, Overy shines a light on some areas less well examined, such as the bombing of Russia, Italy and occupied Europe (the latter in the well-titled ‘Bombing Friends Bombing Enemies’ chapter) and others much more widely debated, such as the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, and the Battle for Germany. The first thing to make clear is that, whilst numerous other aspects of aerial conflict are mentioned, this is about the ‘strategic’ heavy-bombing war, in which the home front became a new front line, and a major theme of the book has to do with ‘those [non-combatants] caught in the crossfire of war’.
Having begun WWII weaned on a diet of dystopian inter-war prophecy all nations and their air forces were slow, despite all the speculation, to adjust to the reality of this new modern form of conflict. Once combat is joined Overy notes a number of emerging paradoxes: the use of cutting edge science and technology to deliver what transpired to be a very blunt instrument; the rapid volte-face from the condemnation of any bombing where civilians might be killed (and attendant hollow promises not to resort to it) followed not only by the conscious embracing of killing an enemy’s civil population, but also by a seemingly inevitable escalation in doing so, as bombing changed from illegal barbarism to default weapon; and, perhaps especially, the mismatch between expectations and results.
In this last lie at least two further paradoxes: the first has to do with the ‘absolute nature’ of perceived threats leading to the necessary ‘moral relativism’ requisite to embracing strategic bombing; whilst the second concerns the ‘wide gap … between claims and results’. What emerged in this gap was not what the inter-war projections had suggested, i.e. the very quick and complete collapse of bombed societies, but a new aerial theatre of war, soaking up massive amounts of money, technology and blood, most often ending up in long, protracted campaigns. Whilst exact figures in such a history are hard to be certain of, for a host of reasons which Overy discusses, he tends to favour lesser but better substantiated (or estimated) figures, citing 600,000 civilian dead in Europe as a result of the bombing war.
Overy is very good on complexity and multiplicity: whilst acknowledging the enduring clichés and the propaganda of the time, he tries to sift the evidence (and the degree of research and detail is impressive bordering on mind-numbing) to provide more nuanced accounts. In places the statistics make for a dry account, but they are balanced with enough human interest to sustain the demanding level of detail. Whilst Overy more or less occludes his own views, a judgement seeps through from the bare facts: the so called strategic heavy bombing war was ‘inadequate in its own terms … [&] morally compromised’. And what have we learned? ‘The principal lesson learned from the bombing campaigns of the Second World War was the need for even greater and more indiscriminate destruction of the enemy if ever World War III materialised.’ Chilling stuff!
Perhaps a brutal editor could have helped trim this enormous tome a little, and I’d have almost certainly found it easier going if it had been broken up a bit more (sections and chapters err on the huge side). But the subject merits this in-depth treatment, and Overy delivers a compelling narrative with great aplomb. My proof copy lacked photos, map and index, all of which will doubtless enhance an already rich experience. Whilst I’d love to recommend this book to the widest possible readership, I think the scale and level of detail will mean it’s not read by as many as perhaps it ought to be. A model of scholarly research, lucid prose and balanced exposition, I just hope the books size doesn’t limit it’s readership. I suspect it will.
Nevertheless, very highly recommended.