I've been saying the same thing for years. Dresden and Hamburg were pretty much leveled. I can't think of the third German city that was bombed into the ground. There were no innocent civilians on either side in those days of all out warfare. It was destroy the enemy by any means.
And like many have mentioned here, after my Father's Army beat Hitler and Mussolini, were told they were headed to Japan. He once told me he was so grateful we nuked Japan. He and every solder, Army Air Corp, knew they were heading to their deaths in Japan.
It was widely known by our troops in Europe about the fanatical training of every Japanese citizen to defend their Emperor who they considered a god. It would have been a slaughter on both sides. It would have made Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Okinawa, Peleiu, Saipan look like skirmishes. Those Jap crazies had to be nuked twice. Good.
There are plenty of radio broadcasts that reported all the celebrations in the streets here in the US after the Japs surrendered.
Believe me, those folks loved the bomb.
i think it was Cologne....