Posted on 02/13/2017 7:06:40 AM PST by Kid Shelleen
On the evening of February 13, 1945, the most controversial episode in the Allied air war against Germany begins as hundreds of British bombers loaded with incendiaries and high-explosive bombs descend on Dresden, a historic city located in eastern Germany. Dresden was neither a war production city nor a major industrial center, and before the massive air raid of February 1945 it had not suffered a major Allied attack. By February 15, the city was a smoldering ruin and an unknown number of civilians–somewhere between 35,000 and 135,000–were dead.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
I have been to Dresden. The city center still bears scars from the firebombing.
It was pretty straightforward for 'Bomber' Harris: the Germans sowed the wind and they should reap the whirlwind. Now, the Dresden bombing was of virtually no significance strategically or tactically at that point in the war in Europe, but nevertheless, once the genie is out of the bottle events can spiral out of hand. The Brits took a heckuva pounding in 1940 - 1941 and payback is a b*tch.
I believe the bombing of Hamburg in 1942 (?) was even more deadly.
I recall reading that the air swept in to feed the fires were tornado like in speed and actually sucked people up into the maelstrom.
I’m thinking that the mindset was payback for V1, V2 etc. bombings, Coventry Cathedral, London civilian deaths etc.
Where is the military value there? Or why was there military certainty in lobbing a 2,000 pound warhead somewhere in London?
I don’t get it.
If only the nazis would have given us a list of which cities not to hit! Considering what they did, its amazing to hear their lamentations on how unfair and cold hearted the western Allies and Russians were in the closing months.
The firebombing on Tokyo in March of ‘45 claimed 100,000 or more lives.
Retaliation for bombing Coventry, England’s largest nearly intact medieval city and its cathedral.
(or maybe you could fix the thread title...)
Indeed they did, but the residents of Dresden did not have inputs to the Fuhrer's policy. The firebombing of Dresden was a war crime, plain and simple. The Brits lost all moral high ground in doing so. The estimate of 135,000 is exceptionally low, high estimate was at or more than 1,000,000. Modern warfare (WWI +) is not about revenge and that is all Dresden was.
Wow, still in before the Dresden ruers and apologists.
After the second atomic bomb was dropped the US again hammered Japan with conventional bombs killing tens of thousands. These are forgotten in the leftist weeping and wailing over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Ping for later.
Rats, missed it by THAT much.
There is no 'war crime' in defeating an enemy who incinerated 6 million Jews.
Huh? The bombs were dropped August 6th and 9th respectively and the Japanese surrendered on the 12th. And even if true they HAD NOT SURRENDERED!
No way.
My folks and I arrived in Japan in the early 50s.
The scars were still quite evident. Large swaths of Sagamihara and Yokohama were empty fields of rubble.
Old Japanese men still wearing their Imperial Army caps tended the little grocery stores, dock works, etc.
Remember, Japan murdered 10 million Chinese and Mao murdered 45 million of his own people .
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