About the book – Grand Slam

For 80 years, Bomber Command has been strongly criticised for its role during WW2, for bombing cities, its heavy losses, for killing “innocent” civilians and for failing to damage sufficiently German industry and war economy.

This is the greatest, and unresolved, injustice in recent British military history.

To counter these claims, Marcus Gibson, a leading British research journalist, has probed for the first time the true scale of the effects of Bomber Command – and discovered the force was astonishingly effective – even during 1940, when historians have claimed it was a failure.

Research in German archives reveals the scale of the damage done and the fury it induced at the highest level. The campaign in 1943 against the Ruhr’s industrial cities almost halved Germany’s output of metals for weapons production. When the Allied armies crossed the German frontier barely 15% of its industry was still working; most of Berlin’s military and factory facilities were in ruins long before the Red Army arrived in 1945.

RAF bombing prompted Hitler to launch not only the disastrous V-weapons project but also one of the largest defensive construction programmes in history.

It forced the Germans to divert 80% of its vital anti-aircraft guns and Luftwaffe fighters back to Germany, and two million men from frontline duties – in a vain attempt to halt the destruction of the Reich’s cities and factories.

On D-Day, for example, only a handful of the deadly 88mm guns fired on the Allies. Without these guns and with almost no air cover Germany’s armies were gravely weakened – and the task of the Allied armies in Italy, France and Germany was made infinitely easier. The aluminium used in German AA shells alone was equal to the production of 40,000 Luftwaffe fighters.

German authors cannot understand why Air Marshal Harris – the man who inflicted more direct damage on Germany than any other Allied commander – was vilified by British historians for so long.

The book may, at last, end the lingering injustice against both the RAF and Harris.

Dortmund in February 1945: reconnaissance photo by an RAF Mosquito reveals near-total devastation of the city centre after multiple night raids by 800 Lancaster bombers. — **Dortmund in February 1945**: A reconnaissance photo by an RAF Mosquito reveals the near-total devastation of the city centre after more than 300 raids during WW2, in both the 1st and 2nd Battles of the Ruhr, almost all by the RAF Bomber Command and not the USAAF.

Centenary celebration: crews gather to celebrate the 100th mission flown by Lancaster bomber named ‘Vulture Strikes’, from B Flight of 550 Sqdn at the RAF North Killingholme air base in Lincolnshire in March 1945. — **Centenary celebration**: Crews gather to celebrate the 100th mission flown by the Lancaster bomber named ‘Vulture Strikes’, part of B Flight, 550 Sqdn, based at RAF North Killingholme in Lincolnshire in March 1945, just seven weeks before war’s end. Sadly the aircraft was lost on its next, 101st operation over Germany. Ground crews – mechanics, electricians, armourers and many others – took huge pride in maintaining these fleets of aircraft.

Breached: a huge gap in the centre of the Möhne Dam caused by the RAF’s 617 ‘Dambuster’ Sqdn when it attacked the vital facility in the Ruhr in May 1943. — **Breached**: A huge gap in the centre of the Möhne Dam caused by the RAF’s 617 ‘Dambuster’ Sqdn when it attacked the vital facility in the Ruhr in May 1943. While the direct damage was not as great as hoped it forced the transfer of more than 12,000 workers to repair the dams – resulting in many sections of the Atlantic Wall in France to go unfinished before D-Day 11 months later – a great success in itself.