‘Bomber’ Harris statue next on protesters’ demolition hit list
SIR ARTHUR “BOMBER” HARRIS has become the latest target of activists demanding the removal of statues over his war record.
English Heritage is liaising with the Metropolitan Police about the safety of the statue in London after anti-racism protesters vandalised other public monuments.
The Second World War RAF commander, who pursued the Allied bombing of Nazi Germany, has a memorial outside the dedicated RAF church of St Clement Danes, in Westminster, which campaigners want removed.
Last night, a senior RAF source told The Daily Telegraph: “There is no situation where vandalising a monument of someone who fought for and delivered our freedom could ever be justified.”
Scores of statues across the UK honouring figures with links to the slave trade and colonialism have been targeted for removal by campaigners.
Harris, who helped devise the bombing of Dresden, has now been listed alongside slave traders by activists seeking to “Topple the Racists”.
Harris is blamed for the deaths of around 25,000 people in the firebombing of Dresden, which some have branded a war crime, and a general area bombing
‘This is not about erasing history. It’s about learning from history, and choosing what we want to celebrate’
which earned him the nickname “butcher”. The Topple the Racists website attacks Harris as “a colonial warmonger in Rhodesia, responsible for the bombardment of civilian villages in Mesopotamia in the early 1920s”, rather than for his Second World War record. Statues of Edward Colston and Robert Milligan have already been purged from public spaces, and campaigners want Harris’s memorial to be removed. Its erection in 1992 was opposed by the Peace Pledge Union, and current members have welcomed the reassessment of his legacy. “I don’t think Bomber Harris should be celebrated,” said Symon Hill, of the PPU. “This is not about erasing history. We’ve spoken more as a society about British history since these protests than ever before. It’s about learning from history, and choosing what we want to celebrate.”
An English Heritage spokesman, which owns the statue, said: “We take very seriously any threat to statues in our care. Last week, we installed protection at five statues. We are liaising with police regarding the Sir Arthur Harris statue.”