Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet GCB, OBE, AFC (13 April 1892 – 5 April 1984), commonly known as "Bomber" Harris by the press, and often within the RAF as "Butcher" Harris, was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) RAF Bomber Command during the latter half of the Second World War. In 1942, the British Cabinet agreed to the "area bombing" of German cities. Harris was tasked with implementing Churchill's policy and supported the development of tactics and technology to perform the task more effectively. Harris assisted British Chief of the Air Staff Marshal of the Royal Air Force Charles Portal in carrying out the United Kingdom's most devastating attacks against the German infrastructure and population, including the Bombing of Dresden.

Harris's continued preference for area bombing over precision targeting in the last year of the war remains controversial, partly because by this time many senior Allied air commanders thought it less effective and partly for the large number of civilian casualties and destruction this strategy caused in Continental Europe.

Arthur Harris in Joe Steele
Air Marshall "Bomber" Harris attended the Basra Conference in 1943 as one of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's senior military advisers. At the banquet held at the successful completion of the conference, the participants drank heavily and gave toasts. Air Marshall Harris toasted "May American planes treat Japan as the RAF is treating Germany". It took some time but eventually the U.S. began a bombing campaign against Japan using hundreds of B-29s to drop tons of incendiaries on one city at a time starting with Tokyo and continuing until Japan surrendered.