The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe 1940-1945

by Richard Overy

the RE8 division and the Ministry of Economic Warfare (MEW) on the estimated economic damage already done and the potential economic gains from further destruction. This had allowed Portal in November 1942 to present the chiefs of staff with the grisly prediction that Bomber Command in eighteen months could kill 900,000 Germans, seriously injure another million, destroy 6 million homes, and dehouse 25 million people.32 The MEW drew up a detailed list of all the important industrial and commercial targets in the so-called Bombers’ Baedeker (after the famous German tourist guides). Each installation was awarded a point score: 1+ for factories of leading importance to the war effort; 1 for major plants in major industries; 2 for minor plants in major industries or major plants in minor industries; and 3 for factories of small importance.33 These scores were then calculated with population size to produce a league table of German cities that Harris kept with him at his headquarters. The list eventually reached over 100 cities, with “key-point ratings” attached to each one—ranging from Berlin at number 1 with 545 to Wittenberg at number 104 with a rating of just 9. Harris crossed out each city on the list as they were attacked.