Eine Botschaft des Oberbefehlshabers der Britischen Kampfflugzeuge an das deutsche Volk - A message from the Commander-in-Chief of the British Air Force (RAF - Royal Air Force) Arthur Harris to the German people - August 4, 1942. German. An especially powerful manifesto delivered to the German people with the aim of convincing them that the Nazis have no chance in the war against the Allies: "We will strike the Third Reich from one end to the other. You cannot stop us and you know it." - within the text, the commander of the British Air Force explains why the British Air Force is bombing "uninvolved" German civilians - it is Hitler who deliberately placed civilians near the bombed German factories.
Poster text:
"No one directing the bombing of a country has ever sent a message to the people of that country. I, Air Marshal Harris, Commander-in-Chief of the British military aircraft attacking Germany, have decided to send this message to the German people
. We in England have learned full well what air strikes mean. Your air force bombed us for ten months. First by day. When we stopped that, you came at night. You had a strong air force back then. Your planes did well. They bombed London for ninety-two nights in a row; Coventry, Plymouth, Liverpool and other British cities. You attacked them severely. The damage you did was considerable; 43,000 British men, women and children were killed; many historical buildings that we love and treasure were destroyed. At that time you believed — because Goering had promised you — that you yourself would be safe from bombs. And in fact, we could only answer with a few planes. The roles are now reversed. Now only a few German machines come after us and we bomb Germany routinely as necessary.
Why do we do that? Not out of vengeance — although we can't forget Warsaw, Rotterdam, Belgrade, London, Plymouth, Coventry. We are bombing Germany, city after city, more and more heavily to make it impossible for you to continue the war. That is our goal. We will pursue it relentlessly. City by city: Lübeck, Rostock, Cologne, Emden, Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Duisburg, Hamburg — and the list is getting longer and longer. Let the Nazis bring you to ruin if you want. That's up to you.
If the weather is good, we come at night. A thousand bombers are already flying to a city like Cologne and destroying a third of it within an hour. We know that because we have the aerial photos. If the sky is cloudy, we come by day and bomb your factories and docks; Gdansk knows, as far as it is from England. We come by day and night; no part of the Reich is safe.
... People may think we have already achieved much with our bombers. We have a different opinion. What you have experienced so far will be incomparable to what will come as soon as our production of bombers is added to the American swarms to come which will quadruple.... I would like to speak very openly about whether we are attacking individual military targets or entire cities. Of course, we'd prefer to bomb only your factories, docks, and railroads where Hitler's war machine is hardest hit. But the workers who work in these factories live close to them. That is why our bombs fall on your houses and — on you.
We regret that this is necessary. The workers of the diesel engine plant Humboldt-Deutz in Cologne, for example, a number of whom perished on the night of May 30 had to face the dangers of total war, just like the sailors in our merchant fleet against whom your U-boats (equipped with Humboldt-Deutz engines) fired their torpedoes. Were the workers at the Coventry aircraft factories, their wives and their children not just "civilians" like the workers in the Rostock aircraft factories and their families? They were, but Hitler wanted it that way!
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America is only now intervening in Europe. The first squadrons, forerunners of an entire air fleet, have arrived in England from the USA. Do you realize what it means if they also attack Germany? A new four-engine bomber that can carry four tons of bombs to every German city is already rolling out of a single operation, the new Ford plants in Willow Run, Detroit, every two hours. Not even your U-boats can prevent the American bombers from coming over because they fly over the Atlantic.
Soon we will appear every day and night, rain, storm, and snow — we and the Americans. I was over there just eight months ago, so I know exactly what lies ahead. If you force us to do this, we will strike the Third Reich from one end to the other. You cannot stop us and you know it. You have no chance. You couldn't beat us in 1940 when we were alone and unarmed. Your leaders were so crazy to attack Russia and America (but your leaders ARE crazy — the whole world knows, except Italy). How can you hope for a win now that we are getting stronger with Russia and America while you are running out of strength? No, you have no chance. Don't forget one thing: however far your armies advance, they can never get to England. They couldn't come here when we were unarmed. They can conquer as much as they want but they still have to fight the air war with us and the Americans. You can never win it — but we are already winning it. One last word: It's up to you to end war and the bombing. Overthrow the Nazis and you have peace! It is not true that we are planning a vengeful peace; that is a German propaganda lie. But we will certainly make it impossible for any German government to start a total war again. Isn't that just as much your interest as ours?
43x13 cm. Very good condition.
