Ernst
Maraiswrites from
Edleen, South Africa,

How
accurate is a Penguin?

GERHARD
Rohringer and William
Blair point out some inaccuracies in The Penguin
Historical Atlas of the Third Reich.

I recently read an excellent book by Max
Hastings “Bomber Command” (ISBN 0 330 39204 2) on the bombing offensive. There is a moving chapter about the destruction of Darmstadt. He acknowledges David
Irving’s contributions, praises his generosity as a historian.

Like Irving, his research was meticulous, such as sourcing material from the AIR files in the Public Record
Office; Operational Record Books; numerous interviews, also with Bomber Harris. The chapter “The Balance
Sheet” makes interesting reading. He writes:

The
obliteration of Germany’s cities in the spring of
1945, when all strategic justification had vanished,
is a lasting blot on the Allied conduct of the war and
on the judgement of senior Allied airmen.

Quoting the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden,
593,000 German civilians died and 3.37 million dwellings were destroyed.

He writes: “The cost was very high. 55,573 aircrew, almost all officers and NBCOs, among the finest and most highly trained material in the British Empire, were killed.”

The irony is that the bomber offensive did not break
Germany as was Bomber Harris’s intention.

Ernst
Marais

Penguin’s Atlas of the
Third Reich (ed: Richard Overy) is full of howlers, says
Gerhard Rohringer | William
Blair suggests the errors follow a conformist pattern |
Both readers spot still more howlers in the Atlas | Max
Hastings gave the true data for air raid deaths in
Germany

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