[tcolvin]

I see your point, Bruce, but cannot accept it.
The phrase used by BC for Lübeck - port-town - is disingenuous, and the cause of our problem.
Lübeck comprised an Innenstadt that was targetted solely because it would burn, and quays along the opposite bank of the River Trave. The quays would not burn, and were therefore not targetted, but that was where the iron ore was offloaded into trains and barges. These were a legitimate target - see the attached photo.
Burning out the Innenstadt would not and could not reduce the imports of iron ore by one kg, or damage or delay the building of one U-boat. BC knew this and thereby committed their war crime.

And, by the way, it is untrue to say that just about every town in Europe was old and flammable.
Harris' big problem was how to create firestorms in non-flammable cities like Berlin, Essen and Wilhelmshaven. For it was only with a firestorm that he got a big bang for his buck.

I know about Wilhelmshaven - it was where I went to school. Wilhelmshaven was a legitimate target because it built the Tirpitz and then built Type VII U-boats and Type XXI sections that were assembled into U-boats in Vegesack and Hamburg.
Wilhelmshaven was a Victorian town, built of hardened brick called Klinker, and BC had no way of making it burn. It was raided about one hundred times, and was the first town attacked by Bomber Command (September 4, 1939) and the first German town attacked by the VIII USAAF (Memphis Belle and all that on January 27, 1943).
The area in the centre of Wilhelmshaven around the shipyard was 90% destroyed by HE. But not one day of production in the shipyard was lost. The shipyard was only lightly damaged and easily repaired.
But the interesting point is that the exchange rate between civilians and aircrew was favourable to the civilians; 358 civilians and 94 military died in Wilhelmshaven for a total of 452 German dead, with 1,125 wounded, out of a total population of 120,000 in 1939 and 70,000 in 1944. But 406 RAF and 450 US aircrew for a total of 856 aircrew perished while dropping 19,046 tons during 5,668 sorties. I have no figure for wounded aircrew.

This phenomenon was due to the fact that Wilhelmshaven was prepared for war and accepted as a legitimate target by both sides. Every German had a place in a bomb-proof Hochbunker from 1943 onwards; it was a non-flammable town; plenty of water and Kriegsmarine labour was available for fire-fighting; and the Flak and fighter defences were very strong.
The result was that it took BC 42.1 tons of bombs to kill one person in Wilhelmshaven, compared with only 138Kg of bombs needed to kill one person in Dresden and 750Kg in Lübeck. The average for Germany was 2.5 tons, and for the UK 830Kg.

Tony