marshal of the royal air force
Harris was born on 13 April 1892, at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, where his parents were staying while his father George Steel Travers Harris was on home leave from the Indian Civil Service. With his father in India most of the time, Harris grew up without a sense of solid roots and belonging; he spent much of his later childhood with the family of a Kent rector, the Reverend C E Graham-Jones, whom he later recalled fondly.
Harris was educated at Allhallows School in Devon, while his two older brothers were educated at the more prestigious Sherborne and Eton, respectively; according to biographer Henry Probert, this was because Sherborne and Eton were expensive and "there was not much money left for number three". Harris was educated at Allhallows School in Devon, while his two older brothers were educated at the more prestigious Sherborne and Eton, respectively; according to biographer Henry Probert, this was because Sherborne and Eton were expensive and "there was not much money left for number three".
Arthur Harris joined the 1st Rhodesian Regiment at the outbreak of World War I and served in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia). Following his return to England in 1915, he joined the Royal Flying Corps and eventually commanded various squadrons in France and at home. After the war he was given a regular commission in the Royal Air Force (RAF). Throughout the 1920s and ’30s, he served at several posts in Iraq, India, and Britain and in the Air Ministry.
Harris was made an air commodore in 1937, was named air vice-marshal in 1939, and rose to air marshal in 1941 and to commander in chief of the RAF Bomber Command in February 1942. A firm believer in mass raids, Air Marshal Harris developed the saturation technique of mass bombing—that of concentrating clouds of bombers in a giant raid on a single city, with the object of completely demolishing its civilian quarters. Conducted in tandem with American precision bombing of specific military and industrial sites by day, saturation bombing was intended to break the will and ability of the German people to continue the war. Harris applied this method with great destructive effect in Germany—most notably in the firebombings of Hamburg and Dresden. During the preparations for the Normandy Invasion in early 1944, Harris was subordinate to American commanders such as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Carl Spaatz and directed the destruction of transportation and communication centres in cities all across German-occupied France.
Harris retired in September 1945 and the following year was made marshal of the RAF. Soon after, he wrote his story of Bomber Command’s achievements in Bomber Offensive (1947). The morality and even the efficacy of saturation bombing came under severe question after the war, and, disappointed by such reappraisal of his war aims and methods, Harris lived for a time in South Africa, where from 1946 to 1953 he was managing director of the South African Marine Corporation. He was created a baronet in 1953.
For Arthur's contributions to or direct responsibility for every detail of the British air successes of World War II, he was elevated to Companion of the Bath in 1940, Knight Commander of the Bath in 1942, and Knight Grand Cross of the Bath in 1945.
After his retirement from the RAF in September 1945, Harris wrote Bomber Offensive (1946).
In 1942, the British Cabinet agreed to the "area bombing" of German cities. Harris was tasked with implementing Churchill's policy and supported the development of tactics and technology to perform the task more effectively. Harris assisted British Chief of the Air Staff Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Portal in carrying out the United Kingdom's most devastating attacks against the German infrastructure and population, including the Bombing of Dresden.
Harris was awarded the American Legion of Merit on 30 January 1945.
After the war, Harris was awarded the Polish Order of Polonia Restituta First Class on 12 June 1945.
He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the United States on 14 June 1946.
Harris was married to Barbara Money, daughter of Lieutenant E.W.K. Money, in August 1916. The marriage produced three children, Anthony, Marigold and Rosemary. Harris divorced his first wife in 1935 and subsequently met Therese ('Jillie') Hearne, then twenty, through a mutual friend, and they married in 1938. Their daughter Jacqueline Jill was born in 1939; Harris is said to have "adored" her. She later married the Hon. Nicholas Assheton.
