The bombing was at the request of Stalin. (Geeez, we had to placate our greatest ally.) Dresden was packed with refugees from the east, including eastern Europeans fleeing the Russians. Yes, there was a rail head there but by the time the city was bombed most of the train traffic was at a standstill. It was more like continually kicking someone who was laying down on the ground. The war was at its end, it would have ended even if they ignored Dresden and left it as a pocket.
Oh, and it should be recognized that the cities that got A-bombed in Japan were little-bombed before that. This was done purposefully by the US so that the A-bomb damage would be shocking. Who's to say that Dresden might not have been preserved up to that point for similar reasons? The Bomb was being developed to be used primarily against Germany after all.
“It was more like continually kicking someone who was laying down on the ground.”
War is brutal, dirty business and you don’t want to be the loser. You should throw EVERYTHING you have against the enemy, from nukes to spitballs. Hurt him, demoralize him, obliterate him, as fast as you can. It isn’t over until he is isn’t moving. Hesitating will get you killed.
The Red Army was doing about 90% of the fighting and dying at that point in the war. The US and UK were still regrouping after the Battle of the Bulge, where the Nazis almost broke out.
The Red Army needed to make sure that the rail links between the eastern and western command elements of the Wehrmacht were broken up as much as possible, to diminish the Nazi advantage of better internal lines.
Dresden was packed with refugees from the east, including eastern Europeans fleeing the Russians.
A common claim, but not really substantiated. Who would be refugees from the Russians? German nationals settled in Slavic territory - most of whom were making their way to Berlin, not Dresden. Perhaps also Slavic collaborators from the Balkans - except that the Nazis had destroyed all the rail lines and bridges in their retreat from those areas.
Yes, there was a rail head there but by the time the city was bombed most of the train traffic was at a standstill.
Completely untrue - the Nazis were repairing rail lines around the clock and routing combat elements very efficiently through their remaining rail network. Vienna hung on for two months after Dresden because the Nazis were able to rout several divisions to the city by rail.
It was more like continually kicking someone who was laying down on the ground.
After the Dresden bombing, the Nazis had 1 million men still under arms and inflicted 360,000 casualties on the Red Army between February and April 1945. That's hardly lying down.
The war was at its end, it would have ended even if they ignored Dresden and left it as a pocket.
The war was far from over - after Dresden there was still the battle for Vienna and for Berlin. If Dresden - strategically located between the two - had been fully operational as a supply and transport link, those battles would have taken far longer. One of the main reasons why Berlin fell when itr did was because the Nazi forces fleeing Vienna could not effectively link up with the defenders of Berlin. They wound up wasting energy in useless breakouts, or lost unit integrity or surrnedered piecemeal.
If they could have been routed north by rail to Berlin, it's likely that Japan would have fallen before Germany did.
The Red Army was already beyond reliable lines of supply.