Daniel Knowles
Daniel is an author and historian specialising in the war at sea and the war in the air during the Second World War. Following graduating with a Joint Honours degree in history and politics from Northumbria University, he has written several books on the Second World War including Tirpitz: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Great Battleship, The Battle of the Denmark Strait and RAF and USAAF Airfields in the UK During the Second World War.
Elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2022, Daniel has appeared and worked on television documentaries including the series Secret Weapons of World War II. Alongside this he has delivered papers on RAF Bomber Command at higher education institutions, appeared on podcasts and written articles which have appeared in Britain at War magazine.
Alongside his career as an author and historian, Daniel is the Supply Chain Manager and RP for RMI Global Solutions, a bespoke solutions partner which supports operations in complex environments and manages risk though medical, security and technical solutions.
His book builds upon his university dissertation and offers an insight into RAF Bomber Command's longest and most enduring battle. The work looks at the ways in which Bomber Command and the bombing of Germany has been portrayed in the years following the Second World War. The book focuses on the portrayals of Bomber Command in film, on TV and in literature and sheds a new light on how attitudes to Bomber Command have changed over time and have impacted upon the way we commemorate and remember the courage and sacrifice of the men of Bomber Command.
Reaping the Whirlwind: The Changing Perceptions to the Wartime Role of RAF Bomber Command
8 May 1945 saw peace descend upon Europe as six bitter years of fighting came to an end. For RAF Bomber Command, another battle was beginning.
Formed in 1936, Bomber Command became Britain’s primary means of striking back at Nazi Germany during which a relentless air campaign and Germany was conducted which devastated cities, crippled industrial production and forced the diversion of German resources away from the front lines.
During the course of the campaign, known as area bombing, which sought to cripple Germany’s capacity to wage war, cities such as Lübeck, Rostock, Hamburg, Dortmund, and Dresden were reduced to rubble. Yet the cost was staggering: over 55,000 aircrew, all of whom were volunteers, would lose their lives making serving as an airmen in Bomber Command one of the most dangerous roles of the war.
In the aftermath of victory and in the shadow of Germany’s ruined cities, Bomber Command faced condemnation rather than celebration. Vilified for its methods, it was omitted from Churchill’s VE Day speech and largely shunned, its legacy becoming one of moral controversy and historical neglect.
Reaping the Whirlwind traces the shifting legacy of Bomber Command’s campaign against Germany from the war years through to the 21st Century, examining how Bomber Command has been portrayed in literature, on screen and in the public memory. In this a fresh and unique analysis of the campaign and of the service is offered which looks at whether the
campaign could have unfolded differently and whether the post-war judgement has been entirely fair and justified.
Through rigorous research, Reaping the Whirlwind offers a compelling reassessment of Bomber Command’s operations over Europe and the long shadow that its efforts to bring about victory during the Second World War have cast over Britain’s remembrance of war.
