I do think Dresden was not the best Target. It was untouched and we did it to appease Stalin. FLAME AWAY!
Hindsight’s 20/20. We did what we thought was right at the time.
“I do think Dresden was not the best Target. It was untouched and we did it to appease Stalin. FLAME AWAY!” [crazydad, post 46]
Flames not required. You are completely mistaken about Dresden as a target complex - there are no facts supporting your argument. “Appeasement” of the USSR was secondary.
First, the city was a rail transportation hub: troops, supplies, vehicles, weapons had to go through there, either from the production centers in the west, to deploy on the Eastern Front; or Wehrmacht forces redeploying from the Eastern Front to the West had to go through in the other direction. 30 seconds’ perusal of a map should dispel any confusion here.
There was also real fear on the part of the Western Allies that German forces would retreat into Bavaria (the Nazi “homeland”) and the Alps, make common cause with the gauleiters, SS, and other fanatic Nazis, and prosecute irregular warfare from mountain redoubts for the foreseeable future. Taking out Dresden as a transportation nexus cut off that avenue of retreat.
Dresden did not have much heavy industry, but it was home to several vital light industries and manufacturers of small precision parts. Optics firms were numerous. Small parts and optics were just as important to the Third Reich’s war making capacity as tank chassis and artillery tubes. Think radios, weapon sights, aircraft instruments.
The Third Reich’s Ministry of Propaganda tried to make a big deal out of the Allied air attacks of February 1945. Taking Herr Doktor Goebbels’ hot air at face value is still a foolish move, 74 years after the fact.