Harris, Arthur Travers (1892–1984)

British marshal of the Royal Air Force in World War II. Known as ‘Bomber Harris’, he was commander-in-chief of Bomber Command 1942–45.

He was an autocratic and single-minded leader, and was criticized for his policy of civilian-bombing selected cities in Germany; he authorized the fire-bombing raids on Dresden, in which more than 100,000 died. KCB 1942.

He never lost his conviction that area bombing could, by itself, bring the war to an end, and stretched his theories to the utmost with the devastating raids on Hamburg, Berlin, and Dresden. He also showed a flair for dramatic actions, such as the celebrated ‘thousand bomber raid’ on Cologne in May 1942. Although his policies were endorsed by the War Cabinet, Harris was the only senior British commander not to receive a peerage after the war, and no medal was ever struck for the men of Bomber Command.