The Leadership, Direction and Legitimacy of the RAF Bomber Offensive from Inception to 1945

This book offers a fresh approach to the debate on the RAF's bomber offensive by using modern strategic leadership theory as an analytical tool to examine the campaign. In particular, it looks at the legality and legitimacy of the offensive and explores the key interfaces between the military leaders, the politicians and allies. It also looks at the major controversies in the aims and objectives of the campaign and the personalities involved.Modern literature from the leadership field is used to consider the challenges facing those charged with the formulation and execution of the offensive. Aspects of the senior leadership disputes are also dealt with in the context of the leadership literature and in the wider context of the strategic challenges then facing Churchill, Sinclair and Portal.A multi-disciplinary bent to the book enables the reader to move beyond the narrow confines of military considerations to the thorough investigation of the legality, legitimacy and morality of the offensive.

Introduction2. The Intellectual Context3. The Organisational Context4. From Disarmament to the Outbreak of War5. From the Outbreak of War to Area Bombing6. The Strategic and Grand-Strategic Dimensions, 1942-457. The Strategic and Operational Interface, 1942-458. The Strategic Leadership ChallengeAppendicesBibliographyIndex