Compromise over controversial bomber display

Kyt · Oct 23, 2007

War museum produces new wording for controversial text

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=4d220fcd-5098-4a27-9b97-fadbd3a3ec36&k=8845

OTTAWA -- The Canadian War Museum has produced new wording for a controversial text panel in a Second World War exhibit that is designed to allow veterans of Bomber Command to see themselves as war heroes rather than as "war criminals."

The new text was described Wednesday by the acting museum director, Mark O'Neill, as "a happy consensus" between the federal institution and the veterans organizations that helped create the new wording, which is to be installed by December.

This consensus describes the "great courage" and sacrifices of the airmen who extensively bombed German cities, killing 600,000 people, mainly civilians, and leaving five million people homeless, in an attempt to crush German morale and the country's industrial capability.

This new text will add considerable context so visitors realize the bombing was in retaliation for German attacks on civilians in Britain, helped cripple the German war machine and "enjoyed wide public and political support" at home. There will also now be recognition of the 10,000 Canadian airmen who died in the campaign.

The initial, curter text panel provided less context and, in the eyes of some veterans, turned the airmen of Bomber Command into "war criminals" engaged in an amoral massacre of German civilians.

The original panel was called Strategic Bombing: An Enduring Controversy. The new panel will simply be called The Bombing Campaign. Both panels state the "morality" of the campaign continues to be debated.

Actually, all themes in the original text resurface in the new text. The tone, however, is more positive, because of the choice of certain words and the additional context provided. The controversy over the text panel reached such heights in the past two years that veterans groups threatened to boycott the war museum at one point.

Even the Senate got involved, when the subcommittee on veteran's affairs released a report urging the museum to present its facts in a way that would not offend veterans, even unintentionally.

The abrupt and unexplained departure in June of the museum director, Joe Geurts, also appears to have been related to the controversy.

Geurts and his staff had publicly opposed a revision of the text panel up to that point. However, the museum's board believed changes were necessary and when it became publicly known changes would be made, various historians and museologists accused the war museum of pandering to special interest groups rather than being concerned with objectively presenting history.

O'Neill, the temporary replacement for Geurts, said the new wording was reached through talks among museum staff, outside experts and some veterans organizations, including the Royal Canadian Legion and the Mayday Committee -- an ad hoc organization of air force veterans formed more than a year ago to lobby the museum for changes to the Bomber Command exhibit.

The following are the new and old texts about Bomber Command. First the new one:

. The Bombing Campaign

The strategic bombing campaign against Germany, an important part of the Allied effort that achieved victory, remains a source of controversy today.

Strategic bombing enjoyed wide public and political support as a symbol of Allied resolve and a response to German aggression. In its first years, the air offensive achieved few of its objectives and suffered heavy losses. Advances in technology and tactics, combined with Allied successes on other fronts, led to improved results. By war's end, Allied bombers had razed portions of every major city in Germany and damaged many other targets, including oil facilities and transportation networks. The attacks blunted Germany's economic and military potential, and drew scarce resources into air defence, damage repair, and the protection of critical industries.

Allied aircrew conducted this grueling offensive with great courage against heavy odds. It required vast material and industrial efforts and claimed over 80,000 Allied lives, including more than 10,000 Canadians. While the campaign contributed greatly to enemy war weariness, German society did not collapse despite 600,000 dead and more than 5 million left homeless. Industrial output fell substantially, but not until late in the war. The effectiveness and the morality of bombing heavily-populated areas in war continue to be debated.

. The original panel was called Strategic Bombing: An enduring Controversy. This is the text:

Mass bomber raids against Germany resulted in vast destruction and heavy loss of life.

The value and morality of the strategic bomber offensive against Germany remains bitterly contested. Bomber Command's aim was to crush civilian morale and force Germany to surrender by destroying its cities and industrial installations. Although Bomber Command and American attacks left 600,000 Germans dead, and more than five million homeless, the raids resulted in only small reductions in German war production until late in the war.
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spidge · Oct 23, 2007

Thank God that text was changed. Attempts are still being made to use present day ethics to denigrate events of nearly 65 years ago.

I had a rip roaring to and fro about this on another forum regarding Dresden. Debate based on hindsight using today's ethical standards is not debate.

Antipodean Andy · Oct 23, 2007

See them as "war criminals"? Puh-lease. Even by today's ethics how could anyone bring themselves to that conclusion? Dumb ar*es.

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