Museum Plaque Altered To Appease Vet Pilots

[Eric Friedebach]

From yesterday’s AvWeb email:

Museum Plaque Altered To Appease Vet Pilots

Former Second World War bomber crew members are applauding the Canadian War Museum’s promise to revise the wording on a plaque that introduces the museum’s exhibit on the Allied bombing campaign. But historians are decrying the politically- charged decision, saying that not only is the current wording appropriate, the decision to amend it was the result of political pressure and not for academic or historical integrity. Canadian veterans’ organizations lobbied extensively and threatened a boycott of the museum over the plaque, which they claim inaccurately portrayed bomber crews as war criminals.

Link to rest of article.

[tom d. friedman]

you can't sugar coat history. surely not every vet squawked, probably some one high in the canadian govt, broke a few balls to get the change. this sanitizing history thing is a huge mistake, those guys were no more war criminals than bambi. war is not pretty. the geneva convention set the rules, the allies for the most part respected them. mistakes were made yes, but they were not blatant, not the case for the ww 2 axis!!

[Bill Greenwood]

If the Allied bombing of civilian targets was a war crime, primary blame should be directed at the leaders who assigned these targets rather than the crews who flew the missions. Were civilians targeted primarily as part of a terror or psychological campaign, or were their deaths part of the results of bombing large cities? Think of attacking the US in 1945: Targets would have to be port areas like New York, L A, New Orleans, Galveston, as well as auto producing areas like Detroit, steel in Cleveland, Pittsburg, govt in Washington. Not much benefit in bombing Alpine, Texas. Each of these industrial targets would have resulted in civilan deaths also, but probably would not be condidered war crimes. However, any historically accurate display of a bombing campaign should be factual, as to civilian deaths and production destroyed, with no sugar coating, War, even for the right reasons can be awful, and it is good that the Allies as civilized people live with their conscience, rather than pretending something did not happen.


l

[Richard W.]

I followed the link and read the rest of the article. Here's the portion that describes the plaque:

The plaque is entitled An Enduring Controversy and reads: "The value and morality of the strategic bomber offensive against Germany remains bitterly contested," the panel reads. "Bomber Command's aim was to crush civilian morale and force Germany to surrender by destroying its cities and industrial installations. Although Bomber Command and American attacks left 600,000 Germans dead and more than five million homeless, the raids resulted in only small reductions of German war production until late in the war."

[b17sam]

As a veteran of 35 bombing missions with the 8th Air Force, 91st Bomb Group, I can testify that all missions, bar none, were briefed for a military or industrial target. It is true that many of these targets were erected in areas adjacent to civlian housing, schools, hospitals, etc., and were thus subject to severe collateral damage. The concept of pinpoint bombing achieved at 5000 feet on a calm clear day over Arizona, was much less attainable from 25000 feet over German flak filled skies, often through heavy cloud coverage and varying wind.conditions.
Furthermore, any attempts at moral judgments of the Allied war effort through the lens of 2007 ideology inevitably results in a blurred, distorted image.

[mrhenniger]

As an Ottawa resident and Canadian I have been following this discussion/battle with great interest ever since the museum opened at the new location. I am disappointed as to how it turned out. Crews followed orders, commands set the targets and shedule. Even when considering that I don't think the command chain can be blamed for targetting sites close to civilians. The allies didn't start the war, but they sure finished it. It was also a very different time. My grandmother who spent her late teen years following the events of the second world war said "It was a matter of kill or be killed." I consider her to be one of the kindest rational people I know, and she knew the hand that was delt.

I am dissappointed how this issue has turned out with the museum. The bomb campaigns were as described. I don't think there is any shame in saying exactly that.

Mike

[michaelharadon]

How would a survivor of Dresden feel about the plaque?

[Dan K]

How would a survivor of Dresden feel about the plaque?

"How on earth could we have let someone like Hitler take control."

[MacHarvard]

As a Canadian, I am extremely upset by the insinuation contained within the wording of the plaque. Why didn't they tell the world that we were/are a volunteer military - then they could really make us look like assassins.

As a military historian who came up through the ranks the hard way (with a high school education), I get the impression that this plaque was worded by a PhD who never wore a uniform.

I'm getting tired of apologizing for my country having to defend itself.

Doug

[gregv]

Personally, I feel that the wording on the plaque sounds almost apologetic, which somewhat offends me, and should offend the memory of those who served and died fighting against Hitler and his minions.

"Bomber Command's aim was to crush civilian morale and force Germany to surrender by destroying its cities and industrial installations". Sounds like Bomber Command's aim was to win the war by disabling its enemy. Perhaps we should have sent in individual special forces teams to root out each and every cottage-industry level workshop until the war was over. That and lots of leaflets would have done the job much more cleanly, without all that needless waste of life.

And the guy from Dresden should have a chat with a guy from London...

gv

[Glen]

Sounds like that the Museum must of hired somebody from the Washington DC Museum that was part of the Enola Gay Display ! Even though the Dispaly was set up in such away that no one should be offened it was because the Museum staff kept telling everybody that they were sorry and even told a Japanese Anbasdor that when he can to see the Museum in general . that drew such a fuss of the A bombs being drop on Japan ! made it out like it was the United States Fault that Pearl Harbor was attacked ! IF WE ARE NOT CAREFUL THE SO CALLED History no it alls will reright History as we know it ! My Sons Jr High History Book states that their was only 10 State that Joined the Confederate States Of America What Happen to the other three states ? That are supposely in the Stars and Bars Flag were they just added to make it even ?

[mustangdriver]

As a veteran of 35 bombing missions with the 8th Air Force, 91st Bomb Group, I can testify that all missions, bar none, were briefed for a military or industrial target. It is true that many of these targets were erected in areas adjacent to civlian housing, schools, hospitals, etc., and were thus subject to severe collateral damage. The concept of pinpoint bombing achieved at 5000 feet on a calm clear day over Arizona, was much less attainable from 25000 feet over German flak filled skies, often through heavy cloud coverage and varying wind.conditions.
Furthermore, any attempts at moral judgments of the Allied war effort through the lens of 2007 ideology inevitably results in a blurred, distorted image.

I am with you. And thank you for your service. Because of you and the many others like you, I can write this in English.

[Firebird]

War crime my ass..............makes my blood boil, the Germans started the concept of mass bombing of civilian areas when they started bombing London, Coventry, Bristol etc in 1940/41.

You wouldn't have found many people in the UK during WW2 who would NOT have wanted to do the same back and more once we got the chance. My Mother can still recall vividly having to run to the air-raid shelters and sit tight while listening to the thud and crump of exploding bombs thinking the next one will get them.......

And as for Dresden, I'll relate a little storey about that. About 25 years ago I my then boss at work I found out had been a Lancaster Navigator. He seemed reluctant to talk at all about his wartime service, but many vets don't so I didn't think much of it. Years later after he retired I found out from our secretary, who had been his secretary at the time, that he had been on the Dresden raid. How did she know....?
Because she was German, and he knew she had been a little girl living in Dresden at the time of the raid, and so had to speek to her about it.............
She however, had thought the world of him as a boss, and never held a grudge, and as she said to me on the subject, "It was the price we (meaning Germany) had to pay"

[Tulio]

Germans started the concept of mass bombing of civilian areas when they started bombing London, Coventry, Bristol etc in 1940/41.

Actually, the Germans began this practice in Spain. Guernica, to be precise. Bombed the craddle of Basque Nationalism to terrorize the basques. German "Kultur" to put it succintly.

The Italians were not far behind in the practice of this way to wage war, when they subjugated the Ethiopians with bombings and with gas attacks....

Tulio

[L2Driver]

Here's a thought: Maybe if the Germans (or Japanese) didn't allow their government(s) to drag them into a worldwide conflagration, they wouldn't have had their cities burned to the ground. These people didn't seem overly bothered when their respective air forces started bombing population centers of questionable military importance (Warsaw, Rotterdam, London, Shanghai, and scores of others). I guess we're supposed to feel bad because we did it far better than they did? WTF?????

War is a very brutal and ugly business. It's about exterting more force against your enemy than he can exert on you. Outside the very vague limits imposed by international law, pretty much anything else goes. Kill a couple hundred thousand (innocent?) people along the way? Tough cr@p. It's a war not a friggin football game. This misguided concept of a humane war and/or a fair fight is a load of BS and best left to fantasy writers and Hollywood 'docu-dramas'.

No. No. Given the technology available to them, and viewed from the context of the day, the aircrew did exactly what was asked of them and did it remarkably well.