Richard Overy: The Bombing War

128. TNA, FO 371/41984, memorandum from the French Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, ‘Allied Bombardment of Metropolitan France’, 5 May 1944; AIR 19/218, telegram for the War Cabinet from the British chargé d’affaires in Algiers, 8 June 1944. See too Baldoli, Knapp, Forgotten Blitzes , 233–5, for a fuller discussion of the views of the French Resistance.

129. FDRL, Map Room Files, Box 73, Deputy Director OSS to the White House, 17 May 1944, encl. OSS Bulletin from Madrid.

130. Baldoli, Knapp, Forgotten Blitzes , 29.

131. FDRL, Map Room Files, Box 72, OSS Bulletin, 8 Feb 1944.

132. CCAC, BUFT 3/51, SHAEF Report, ‘The Effect of the Overlord Plan to Disrupt Enemy Rail Communications’, 1–2.

133. Georges Ribeill, ‘Aux prises avec les voies ferrées: bombarder ou saboter? Un dilemme revisité’, in Battesti, Facon (eds), Les bombardements alliés , 162.

134. TNA, AIR 37/719, Solly Zuckerman, ‘Times for Re-Establishment of Traffic through Bombed Rail Centres and Junctions and across Bridges’, 11 Aug 1944, 2, and App 9, 11; Ribeill, Machefert-Tassin, Une Saison en Enfer , 138–9.

135. Ibid., 153–5, 204; TNA, AIR 37/719, Railway Research Service, London, ‘German Military Movements in France and Belgium August 1944’, 13 Oct 1944, App B.

136. Steve Darlow, Sledgehammers for Tintacks: Bomber Command Combats the V-1 Menace 1943–1944 (London: 2002), 195–7.

137. Joachim Ludewig, Rückzug: The German Retreat from France, 1944 (Lexington, KT: 2012), 23–4.

138. Maud Jarry, ‘Le bombardement des sites V en France’, in Battesti, Facon (eds), Les bombardements alliés , 39–43.

139. TNA, AIR 40/1882, Report from Dewdney (RE8) to Bufton, 15 Apr 1944 ‘Crossbow – Large Sites’.

140. TNA, AIR 19/218, Sinclair to Portal, 9 July 1944.

141. TNA, AIR 40/1882, Air Marshal Colyer to Director of Intelligence, 2 July 1944; AI Report, ‘Examination of “Crossbow” Sites in the Cherbourg Peninsula’, 6 July 1944.

142. Jean Quellien, ‘Les bombardements pendant la campagne de Normandie’, in Battesti, Facon (eds), Les bombardements alliés , 61–8.

143. BN, Bulletin de Renseignements, June, July and August 1944; Quellien, ‘Les bombardements’, 70–71.

144. TNA, AIR 37/761, AEAF HQ, ‘Observations of RAF Bomber Command’s Attack on Caen July 7 1944’, 14 July 1944, 3–5.

145. William Hitchcock, The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe (New York: 2008), 32–3, 34, 44.

146. USMA, Bradley papers, War Diary, vol 3, entry for 24 July 1944; LC, Spaatz papers, Box 84, USSTAF HQ, ‘Report of Investigation of Tactical Bombing, 25 July 1944’, 14 Aug 1944, 3–4.

147. USMA, Bradley papers, War Diary, vol 3, entry for 25 July 1944. Eisenhower was reported as saying ‘I don’t believe they [strategic bombers] can be used in support of ground troops.’

148. USMA, Bradley papers, memorandum by Bradley, ‘Combined Air and Ground Operations West of St. Lô on Tuesday 25 July 1944’; Bradley memorandum for the record, 19 Nov 1944.

149. Andrew Knapp, ‘The Destruction and Liberation of Le Havre in Modern Memory’, War in History , 14 (2007), 477–82.

150. TNA, AIR 8/842, minute by Portal, 7 Jan 1945; Bottomley to Portal, 9 Jan 1945; Bottomley to Portal, 25 Jan 1945; Florentin, Quand les Alliés bombardaient la France , 596–7.

151. Ibid., 597–8.

152. TNA, AIR 40/1720, MAAF Intelligence Division Report, 30 May 1944, 14.

153. Baldoli, Knapp, Forgotten Blitzes , gives a figure of 54,631 for overall deaths; Florentin, Quand les Alliés bombardaient la France , 600–601, gives both the official figure (53,601) and the post-war estimate of 67,078, which seems to have been derived from the assertion that of the 133,000 civilian dead in France, half came from bombing. Danièle Voldman suggests a figure of at least 70,000, but does not explore how this figure is arrived at. See Voldman, ‘Les populations civiles, enjeux du bombardement des villes (1914–1945)’, in Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, Annette Becker, Christian Ingrao, Henry Rousso (eds), La violence de guerre 1914–1945 (Paris: 2002), 161–2.

154. LC, Spaatz papers, Box 143, Notes by Spaatz for Eisenhower, Apr 1944.

155. LC, Doolittle papers, Doolittle to Spaatz, 10 Aug 1944; Doolittle to Eisenhower, 5 Aug 1944.

156. TNA, AIR 19/218, Portal to Eaker, 3 June 1943.

157. CCO, Portal papers, Folder 9/File 2, Stefan Zamoyski to Peirse, 4 Jan 1941, encl. letter from Polish Army HQ, 30 Dec 1940; Peirse to Sikorski, 15 Jan 1941; Tami Davis Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914–1945 (Princeton, NJ: 2002), 191–2.

158. TNA, AIR 19/218, Eden to Sinclair, 7 July 1944; Sinclair to Eden, 15 July 1944; Sinclair to Vice CoS (RAF), 26 July 1944; Richard Levy, ‘The Bombing of Auschwitz Revisited: A Critical Analysis’, Holocaust and Genocide Studies , 10 (1996), 268–9, 272–3. See too Michael Neufeld, Michael Berenbaum (eds), The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies have Attempted it? (New York: 2000), 263–4, 266–7, for the full correspondence.

159. TNA, AIR 19/218, Bottomley to ACAS (Intelligence), 2 Aug 1944; V. Cavendish-Bentinck (JIC) to Bottomley, 13 Aug 1944. See too Stuart Erdheim, ‘Could the Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz-Birkenau?’, Holocaust and Genocide Studies , 11 (1997), 131–7.

160. David Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941–1945 (New York: 1984), 290–91, 295; Levy, ‘The Bombing of Auschwitz Revisited’, 277–8. The McCloy letters of 14 August and 18 November 1944 are reproduced in Neufeld, Berenbaum (eds), The Bombing of Auschwitz , 274, 279–80.

161. TNA, AIR 19/218, Richard Law (FO) to Sinclair, 1 Sept 1944; Air Ministry to Spaatz, 1 Sept 1944.

162. Neufeld, Berenbaum (eds), The Bombing of Auschwitz , has 15 papers arguing the case for or against.

163. AFHRA, Disc MAAF 233, Economic Warfare Division to Maj. Ballard, NAAF, ‘Strategic Target Priority List’, 16 Dec 1943. OŚwie˛im was number 14 out of 15 priority targets.

164. Joseph White, ‘Target Auschwitz: Historical and Hypothetical German Responses to Allied Attack’, Holocaust and Genocide Studies , 16 (2002), 58–9; Randall Rice, ‘Bombing Auschwitz: US 15th Air Force and the Military Aspects of a Possible Attack’, War in History , 6 (1999), 205–30.

165. Norman Davies, Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw (London: 2003), 310–11.

166. TNA, AIR 8/1169, Portal to Slessor, 5 Aug 1944; Slessor to Portal, 6 Aug 1944; Slessor to Portal, 9 Aug 1944.

167. Ibid., AMSSO to British Mission, Moscow, 8 Aug 1944; Slessor to Portal, 16 Aug 1944. See too Halik Kochanski, The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War (London: 2012), 419.

168. TNA, AIR 8/1169, Despatches from MAAF on Dropping Operations to Warsaw [n.d.]; Davies, Rising ’44 , 311; Kochanski, Eagle Unbowed , 408–11. The successful drops included 4.5 million rounds of ammunition, 14,000 hand grenades, 250 anti-tank guns and 1,000 Sten guns.

169. TNA, FO 898/151, PWE, ‘Rumanian Policy’, 2 Dec 1943; PWE minute, ‘Air Attack on Bucharest’, 20 Mar 1944.

170. C. O. Richardson, ‘French Plans for Allied Attacks on the Caucasus Oil Fields January–April 1940’, French Historical Studies , 8 (1973), 136–42; Ronald Cooke, Roy Nesbit, Target: Hitler’s Oil. Allied Attacks on German Oil Supplies 1939–45 (London: 1985), 25–8, 37–8.

171. TNA, AIR 9/138, Air Ministry (Plans) for the CAS, ‘Appreciation on the Attack of the Russian Oil Industry’, 2 Apr 1940, 1–2; memorandum by Air Ministry (Plans), ‘Russian Oil Industry in the Caucasus’, 30 May 1940.