07 February 2012

TNA profiled in another BBC TV program

For a second day I'm having to write that if I was in the UK I'd have been able to watch a BBC TV program that profiled a resource from The (UK) National Archives.
The documentary 'Bomber Boys' told the story of RAF Bomber Command, and showed a document at TNA, the 'Butt Report' within file AIR 8/1356, which demonstrated how ineffective bombing raids were in the first two years of WW2. According to a Wikipedia article:

  1. Of aircraft recorded as attacking their target, only one in three got within 5 miles [(8 kilometres)].
  2. Over the French ports, the proportion was two in three; over Germany as a whole, the proportion was one in four; over the Ruhr it was only one in ten.
That lead to Bomber Harris being put in command, coincidentally at a time when the four-engined Lancaster bomber became available.
Kudos to the communications folks at TNA, or whoever else is responsible for ensuring the organization got proper credit. Exposure through a program such as this, presumably watched by millions, should be a wake up call to those who continue to rely on counts of researchers visiting the organization in person or online as the primary index of its impact.

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