Sebald and the Bombing Campaign

[Richard Romeo]

Hi all you mateys and scabies--

excellent excerpt from this week's New Yorker of Sebald's The Natural History of Destruction--what struck me was Sebald's claim that Sir Arthur Harris, head of Bomber Command, who apparently enjoyed killing on a massive scale, was unwilling to detour bombing raids from the cities to German rail, industrial and other hard military targets, even when it was known that bombing of civilians was not working towards ending German morale and the war. Sebald claims that all the systems and structures that were put into play was at the point unstoppable, the War machine was moving along of its own volition. The idea that there's no Them running the show but this mechanistic juggernaut impervious to any who would deny her her daily blood is pretty frightening.
The descriptions of the firebombings is even more so.

Rich