We’ve got a new virtual tour on the site of the St Clement Danes Church in the Strand. Outside the church stands one of London’s most controversial statues - to Arthur Harris.

Arthur Harris was in charge of RAF Bomber Command during World War II (after 1941). He, along with many other high-ranking air commanders believed that a heavy, sustained bombing campaign over German cities would demoralise the Germans and force them into surrender.

This ‘blanket bombing’ was not a new technique - the British had carried out large-scale bombing operations in civilian areas in Iraq in the 1920s against Arabs and Kurds unhappy with British rule. The fledgling Bomber Command undertook “punishment” bombing with great success in the eyes of Churchill (then Secretary of State for War and Air) and the treasury, as uprisings in Iraq were quelled with minimal expense.

This punitive bombing in the second World War was carried out on a major scale (destroying 75% of Dresden for example), and “Bomber” Harris believed that the campaign had been instrumental in bringing about the end of the war. A British report at the time disagreed, and the subject is still controversial today with many veterans believing that their role was undervalued.

In 1992 an RAF veterans group (the Bomber Harris Trust) commissioned a statue of Arthur Harris outside the RAF’s Church, St Clement Danes in the Strand. There were major protests on the day of the unveiling with protesters carrying placards reading ‘We’re Sorry Cologne” and jeering Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Within 24 hours the statue had been covered in red paint, and a constant police guard was set up to protect the statue. There’s no longer a guard for the statue, and it remains undamaged.

To view the virtual tour of St Clement Danes and the Bomber Harris statue, please click here.

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Tags: arthur harris, arthur harris statue, bomber command, bomber harris, bomber harris statue, London, raf, st clement danes

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under London History & Information, London Statues and Monuments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.