Others maintain that it was ghastly, but Hitler started it so needed to be answered in a language he understood. Unfortunately, records show that the first intentional “area bombing” of civilians in the Second World War took place at Monchengladbach on 11 May 1940 at Churchill’s orders (the day after he dramatically became prime minister), and four months before the Luftwaffe began its Blitz of British cities.
I guess Warsaw doesn’t count then.
Of course, the Condor Legion destroyed Guernica in 1937, and the Japanese began terror bombing of Chongqing, China, a year later.
Blaming the start of such bombing on Churchill is historically wrong, and as I’ve mentioned on an earlier thread on this subject, Dresden was the last major intact communications and transport hub in Germany at the time of the attack, and that alone gave the target substantial military value. There was also additional war work going on in the city per Frederick Taylor’s excellent 2005 book on this subject.
In short, to simply say Dresden was a terror attack is inaccurate. The death toll was high, yes, but a large number of Freepers appear to have been taken in by post-war Soviet and East German propaganda, which portrayed the city as simply a hovel of defenseless civilians in order to discredit the West.
Could the attacks have been done differently? Possibly. Should they? That is for history to decide.
war is, indeed, ghastly
so is the result of not fighting true evil, when the ghastliness can last far far longer