However, wherethat line should be drawn is extremely problematic. Some people believe that all the genuinely innocent victims of the firestorm should be painstakingly named, in the same way that Berlin’s Jews were listed for the Holocaust Museum, so that any future commemoration will be for them and them only. They argue very passionately that this is the only way to avoid the cloudy thinking that mixes the guilty with the innocent, and thereby devalues any commemoration of Hamburg’s tragedy. ²³

I do not believe this is the answer. If such a register were ever created, it would necessarily have to include many people who do not fit with the spirit of the idea. For example, there were countless men and women in Hamburg who supported Hitler, who believed in ‘final victory’ and who hated Jews, but who were never required to do anything active for the Nazi Party. It would make me very uncomfortable if such people were included among the innocent victims of the firestorm, but how could they possibly be excluded? Freedom of speech and freedom of political association are two of the cornerstones of democratic society – by this token even the most ardent supporter of Nazism must be deemed innocent if they have not committed any actual crime.

Equally, some people for whom such a register seems designed might easily find themselves left off. Many soldiers privately hated the war, and despised Nazi policies yet still took up arms for their country. Hans Scholl is a perfect example. As the founder of the White Rose movement, he was executed for printing anti-Nazi leaflets – yet he had also served as a soldier in the German Army. Most Germans would say that Scholl was a victim of the Nazi regime rather than one of its perpetrators. But if he had been killed by a bomb before he had had the chance to print his leaflets, or while he was still in the army, would he have ended up on the other side of the dividing line?

The problem with listing the innocent is that everyone not listed then becomes guilty by default. The distress that this would cause countless families in Hamburg is surely too high a price to pay. In any case, I doubt that a register of the innocent would remove all ambiguity: disputes would inevitably arise, causing yet more distress, and in the absence of absolute proof it would be impossible to make a decision one way or the other. Guilt and innocence are rarely clear-cut concepts, no matter how much we would like them to be, and we must be prepared to allow for a rather broad grey area between the two.

If a line must be drawn, it should therefore be a broad conceptual one. Those people who both supported the Nazi Party and actively involved themselves in furthering its goals cannot, mustnot, be mourned publicly. Those who resisted the Nazis both in thought and deed should be remembered in our prayers. Everyone else should be left to God, in the faith that He will know His own.

* * *

I have written here about blame, about guilt, about morality, but in the end this book is not about any of those things. My main intention has never been to judge the events of the past, only to offer a reminder that they happened. One can always argue about who should be commemorated, and how, but in the end the most important thing is that a commemoration takes place at all: otherwise these terrible events will be forgotten. The world is already beginning to forget. Once the generation that lived through them has gone, there will be nobody left to tell the story first hand. That is perhaps the most dangerous thing of all. When the power of their direct experience is lost there will be little to prevent us stumbling into exactly the same mistakes all over again.

The purpose of this book, therefore, has been to try to give an impression of what bombing means to those unlucky enough to be caught up in it. There was nothing particularly special about any of the people whose experiences are recorded here. Those who flew the Allied bombers or the German night fighters were perfectly ordinary young men – a fairly typical cross-section of the societies from which they came. The people of Hamburg were also ordinary people, trying to go about their daily business in the same way they always had. And yet they were forced to live through some of the most terrible events the world has ever seen, simply because they happened to be born in the wrong time and place. In another time it could have been any of us.

Despite this, there are many who continue to harbour grudges – on the one side towards the Allied airmen who unleashed their bombs on Germany, and on the other side towards the German system, the German war generation, even Germany itself.

To those who continue to blame the Allies, and particularly the RAF veterans, for the way they conducted the war, I would say this: do not be too quick to judge history with the benefit of hindsight. What might seem obviously wrong to us today was not nearly so clear-cut in 1943. Their commanders might have made errors of judgement, but on the whole the men themselves acted honourably, and selflessly, at a time when civilization itself stood on the brink of the abyss. For this, if nothing else, subsequent generations owe them a debt of gratitude.

Likewise, for those who still harbour prejudices towards Germany, I have just one thing left to say. The bombs left their mark not only on Germany’s cities, but also on its population. In the aftermath of the firestorm the German appetite for war quickly began to crumble, not only in Hamburg but across the country, and by the summer of 1945 it had disappeared. It has never really returned since. A nation that was once proud of its martial tradition is now one of the most pacifist countries in Europe, and one that is quick to admonish others for rushing into war. ²⁴

It is this innate pacifism that is perhaps the most lasting single effect of the bombing war. Since 1945, Germany has deployed its troops only in peace-keeping operations. This is in marked contrast to the USA, Britain, France and the USSR, who between them have waged wars in almost every corner of the planet. Hamburg has returned to its traditional role as a city of commerce, and its many newspapers and television companies remain fervently anti-war. The old U-boat yards at Blohm & Voss now work only in the repair and conversion of trade ships and passenger liners. Whatever else can be said about Germany – and much is still said – it cannot be denied that her people have learned their lesson.

1. Churchill and Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference, where the Combined Bomber Offensive was first agreed.

2. Sir Arthur Harris, Commander-in-Chief, RAF Bomber Command.

3. Major General Frederick L.Anderson, commander of US VIII Bomber Command.

4. Hitler arrives at Hamburg’s airport on one of his many pre-war visits. He never returned once war had broken out, despite appeals for a morale-raising tour after the city was destroyed.

5. Karl Kaufmann, Hamburg’s gauleiter and a loyal disciple of the Führer.

6. Göring (left) was head of the Luftwaffe, but it was Erhard Milch (right) who ran the show. Chief of Air Staff Hans Jeschonnek (centre) shot himself shortly after the bombing of Hamburg.

7 Colin Harrison: ‘One minute I was a school boy, next minute they called me a man and put me in an aeroplane.’