Here is David Irving's view which he published twice: once in a Revisionist journal (1) and again as the first chapter of his book on Dresden (2007). Warning: if you believe this, it might force you to conclude that the Nuremberg accusation of 'Planning, preparing, initiation and waging of a war of aggression' - supposedly the supreme war crime - applies more to Britain than it did to Germany.
He [Churchill] knew from code-breaking, he knew from reading the German air force signals, which were broken on May 26, 1940, that Hitler had given orders that no British town was to be bombed. London was completely embargoed. The German air force was allowed to bomb ports and harbors and dockyards, but not towns as such. Churchill was greatly aggrieved by this. He wondered how much longer Hitler could afford carrying on war like this. Hitler, as we know, carried on until September 1940 without bombing any English towns. The embargo stayed in force, we can see it in the German archives now, and we know from the code-breaking of the German signals, that Churchill was reading Hitler's orders to the German air force: not on any account to bomb these towns. So there was no way that we could drag in the Americans that way unless we could provoke Hitler to do it. Which was why, on August 25, 1940, Churchill gave the order to the British air force to go and bomb Berlin. Although the chief of the bomber command and the chief of staff of the British air force warned him that if we bombed Hitler, he may very well lift the embargo on British towns. And Churchill just twinkled. Because that was what he wanted -- of course.
"At 9:15 that morning he telephoned personally the bomber commander, himself, to order the bombing of Berlin -- one hundred bombers to go and bomb Berlin. They went out and bombed Berlin that night, and Hitler still didn't move. Then Churchill ordered another raid on Berlin, and so it went on for the next seven or ten days until finally, on September 4th, Hitler lost his patience and made that famous speech in the Sport Palace in Berlin in which he said: "This madman has bombed Berlin now seven times. If he bombs Berlin now once more, then I shall not only just attack their towns, I shall wipe them out!" ("Ich werde ihre Städte ausradieren! " ) A very famous speech. Of course German schoolchildren are told about the Hitler speech, but not told about what went first. They're not told how Churchill set out deliberately to provoke the bombing of his own capital. And on the following day Churchill ordered Berlin bombed again. And now of course the Germans started bombing the docks in London, the East End of London, finally the city of London and the West End on November 6 and 7, 1940. In September 1940, 7,000 Londoners were killed in the bombing as the result of Churchill's deliberate provocation.
the Luftwaffe began attacking British fighter airfields in August - an activity that was legitimate in terms of the conventions and agreements of warfare: whereas British city bombing was a complete negation of all these principles and conventions.
Here is a comment from the book, by Benjamin Colby, 'Twas a famous Victory' which may be helpful:
With British fighter airfields suffering acutely from Luftwaffe assaults, Churchill ordered a series of night raids on Berlin for the specific purpose of diverting German attacks from the airfields to London. After Berlin was attacked six times, the German air force was ordered to attack London, and, as Churchill anticipated, the pressure on the airfields was relieved. Thus began the blitz ...
In 1935 and again in 1936, Hitler had made proposals for the prohibition of bombing outside battle zones but met no response in Britain, where longrange bombers were being designed and plans being drawn up to make the bombing of Germany the nation's chief weapon in the event of war. The "whole raison d'etre" of the Bomber Command, organized in 1936, "was to bomb Germany should she be our enemy." The German Air Force, on the other hand, was designed primarily for close support of the army. Sir Arthur Harris, chief marshal of the British Bomber Command, states that the Germans had no strategic bombers at all, and even in daytime the Luftwaffe "was fitted only to carry out the work of a tactical air force, not strategic attack."
After the British army was evacuated from Dunkirk in late May, Hitler, mistaking the temper of the British people, made peace overtures and expected Britain to abandon the war. Leave was granted to many in the German army, and part of the Luftwaffe was shifted elsewhere. But Britain would not quit. The night bombing of Germany continued....
In the air battles that followed, the Luftwaffe aimed at military objectives, and the RAF official historians write that, as late as the latter part of August, "the governing object of the enemy was still the destruction of the RAF and especially of Fighter Command."
So effective were the German attacks on airfields that toward the last of the month it appeared that British reserves of fighter aircraft would be exhausted within three weeks. In this situation (after bombs had been falling on German cities for months), the German bombers seeking to attack air installations near London lost their way and dropped their bombs on London. That these bombs were dropped by error, and that the Luftwaffe was still operating "under orders to conform to the old and longstanding rules of bombardment," is attested by Liddell Hart.
On August 25, 81 bombers were dispatched in the first of a series of night raids on the German capital. Not until September 7, after the sixth bombing attack on Berlin, did the Luftwaffe begin the blitz in retaliation... Liddell Hart wrote that the Germans were justified in describing the attack on London as a reprisal, following six successive RAF attacks on Berlin. "Moreover, they took the initiative a few weeks later in proposing a mutual agreement to restrict such city bombing - although they still had the immense advantage in bombing strength."
My general comment: this looks like a story of how Churchill got his war going which the people of England didn’t want, and Germany certainly didn’t, by keeping on bombing German cities, even going so far as to start bombing the capital city, Berlin, before it responded. Even today the British people do not believe this, they think the ‘Battle of Britain’ starting in August 1940 was aggression, was aggressive war – and they have branded Irving a ‘falsifier of history’ (High Court, 12 April 2000) for telling it like it happened.
1. Institute for Historical Review: Churchill and U.S. Entry Into World War II Autumn 1989, Vol. 9, pp. 261-286):
