Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Into the inferno: Families boiled alive as they hid in water tanks and fleeing survivors trapped in molten tarmac... 75 years on, the most horrifically vivid account you'll ever read of the Allied bombing of Dresden – by a British PoW who saw it all
UK Daily Mail ^ | February 12, 2020 | Victor Gregg and Risk Stroud

Posted on 02/13/2020 7:17:08 AM PST by C19fan

During the final months of World War II, from February 13 to 15, 1945, Allied forces bombed the ancient, cathedral city of Dresden, in eastern Germany.

The bombing was controversial because Dresden's contribution to the war effort was minimal compared with other German cities — though it was a key transport junction and used by German forces to defend the country against Soviet forces approaching from the east.

Before the huge air raid, it had not suffered a major Allied attack. By February 15, however, it was a smouldering ruin — 2,400 tons of high explosives and 1,500 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped on the city. An unknown number of civilians, somewhere between 35,000 and 135,000, were dead.

British rifleman Victor Gregg was one of hundreds of men being held as a PoW in the city by the Germans. On the 75th anniversary of the start of the bombing, this is his eyewitness account of the devastation he left behind.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: bombing; dresden; eussr; fakenews; germany; neonazipropaganda; raf; waaaaaaaaaahmbulance; war
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 201-206 next last
To: SanchoP

WRONG. He did it immediately after the attack and demanded their bombing strategy be changed.


121 posted on 02/13/2020 9:07:50 AM PST by discostu (I know that's a bummer baby, but it's got precious little to do with me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

If they didn’t like war then they shouldn’t have started one. War isn’t a law enforcement operation. It is obliterating the enemy until they cease to exist. If we can’t trust you, we’ll destroy you.


122 posted on 02/13/2020 9:10:01 AM PST by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PUGACHEV

But his example was wrong. In the bayonet situation it’s kill or be killed, you stick him or he sticks you. These women and children trying to keep their houses from burning down weren’t about to kill anybody. And ethics ALWAYS exist. That’s the point of ethics. And you ran right into the problem, there’s no evidence that it shortened the war, or more importantly that a less vicious civilian targeting version of the bombing would have prolonged it. There’s a reason Churchill changed their bombing tactics after Dresden. It was not a justifiable tactic, at least as he saw. I agree with him.


123 posted on 02/13/2020 9:10:51 AM PST by discostu (I know that's a bummer baby, but it's got precious little to do with me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 116 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

This was far more controversial.

It really did not shorten the war by much. The nukes saved millions of American and Japanese lives. It save an entire culture.

Dresden had been spared. But damn, it was quite the firestorm.


124 posted on 02/13/2020 9:13:58 AM PST by Vermont Lt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2banana
You think directly targeting and killing innocent people, with no military purpose, is OK?

Cite which specific events you are speaking about. Perhaps Nanking? or Warsaw? or Stalingrad? or maybe Manila?

A fact lightly touched on in the story was that Stalin demanded Dresden be bombed because it was a transportation hub in the way of his advancing army.

125 posted on 02/13/2020 9:21:33 AM PST by pfflier
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: precisionshootist

Then how come we just didn’t go into German towns and machine gun everyone there? Because we’re not barbarians.


126 posted on 02/13/2020 9:26:04 AM PST by bigdaddy45
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: C19fan

Before the huge air raid, it had not suffered a major Allied attack.


It is possible this was held in reserve just like some of the Japanese cities.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/atomic-bomb-on-germany.html

The article discusses the logistics of putting the b29’s in Europe. Remember there were 3 atomic bomb “kits” (kits were complete atomic bomb airbases) completed. One was assembled in the US for testing, one was assembled in the pacific, and one was held in reserve.


127 posted on 02/13/2020 9:26:11 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Michael.SF.

HEY! Why bring me into it?


128 posted on 02/13/2020 9:26:12 AM PST by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: 2banana; Dilbert San Diego

“You think directly targeting and killing innocent people, with no military purpose, is OK?
You are no better than ISIS.” [2banana, post 16]

Only the factually ignorant can believe Dresden wasn’t a legitimate target.

Look at a map, then post.

Dresden was a transportation hub; the Allies feared the Wehrmacht would retreat through there, regroup, and hole up in Bavaria - a mountainous region very difficult to attack.

Dresden was also home to a number of industries as vital to the German war effort as armored vehicle assembly plants and aircraft factories: optics, gun sights, electronics, seals for hydraulics, various other precision small parts. Factories too small to be located and targeted individually.

Morally, it’s less than admirable for you to sit here in comfort, enjoying the fruits of peacetime 75 years after the fact, breezily striking a moralizing pose, denigrating the sacrifices of forbears that made your lotus-eating existence possible. It’s also a pretty cheeky display of arrogance, ingratitude, and bad taste.


129 posted on 02/13/2020 9:27:38 AM PST by schurmann
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: bigdaddy45

I would hardly expect you to admit half your family was supporting the Nazi war effort in Germany during WW II.

But they were, like it or not. The real story is that your father, having immigrated to the US after WWII managed to raise such an ignorant, bitter, and ungrateful child.

Why did your family not move to East Germany after the war?

After all, if the Allies were so unfair, why live amongst them?


130 posted on 02/13/2020 9:31:01 AM PST by RFEngineer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Williams
I would accept it as justified if it definitely shortened that war.

At that time the war was effectively over, the action was arguably worse than any bombing the Germans did in their bombings of London in it's scope and accuracy, the Luftwaffe was a bare skeleton. There can be no comparison to the bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki as far as needing to pacify a citizenship willing to fight to the last man, woman and child. There was no such attitude among the German people as a whole who were tired of a war that had drug on under the leadership of a patently insane Hitler.

131 posted on 02/13/2020 9:31:48 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: 2banana
You think directly targeting and killing innocent people, with no military purpose, is OK? You are no better than ISIS.

We stopped using WW2 rules of engagement after 1945. The US has not definitively won a war since then.

I've heard it said that a war often doesn't end until the enemy leadership has their wives and daughters crying to them, to please make it stop.

132 posted on 02/13/2020 9:33:30 AM PST by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: schurmann

Thank you.


133 posted on 02/13/2020 9:34:14 AM PST by Mr. Lucky
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: Mastador1

At that time the war was effectively over, the action was arguably worse than any bombing the Germans did in their bombings of London in it’s scope and accuracy,


Hind sight might give some perspective but YOU WERE NOT THERE. This is the same argument given for Japan.

You stand on the hill of HINDSIGHT - what if, maybe.


134 posted on 02/13/2020 9:36:40 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 131 | View Replies]

To: exinnj
If Hitler had the atomic bomb and a delivery system, he would have nuked London, New York, Moscow, and Washington, D.C. Ditto for the Japanese, although they might have targeted Honolulu, San Francisco, or Los Angeles.
135 posted on 02/13/2020 9:37:24 AM PST by Wallace T.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: A Navy Vet

This sort of article by the Daily Mail is written in hopes of making the relativistic comparison between Allied actions by the western allies, Allied actions by the Soviets and Axis actions by the Nazi. All actions by those of the past are equally bad in this sort of analysis.

Thus all “religion” is myth and superstition when viewed from a modern relativistic view point.

In this period of the European Theater, Russia was promised action by the western allies in Eastern Germany to help the resurgence of Russia who had paid greatly to stop and then throw back the Nazi eastern campaign.

I agree with your assessment.


136 posted on 02/13/2020 9:47:22 AM PST by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: PapaBear3625

‘ve heard it said that a war often doesn’t end until the enemy leadership has their wives and daughters crying to them, to please make it stop.


WWI was negotiated peace.

From this lesson, WWII was unconditional surrender from the get go. The interim of peace is longer with unconditional surrender?


137 posted on 02/13/2020 9:53:29 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 132 | View Replies]

To: fortheDeclaration

It was not just “about retaliation”.
If you do not understand logistics its not something that can be taught quickly.

But to see people like yourself spewing the talking points which were first being spewed by communist college professors during the sexual revolution is disgusting.


138 posted on 02/13/2020 9:56:10 AM PST by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 103 | View Replies]

To: 2banana

You do not have “a point”.

You have an untruth which you are trying to get military veterans who understand the second world war in all respects to swallow by repeating it over and over.

The transportation hubs in Dresden had a massive military significance and destroying them completely shortened the war.


139 posted on 02/13/2020 10:01:17 AM PST by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple
Hind sight might give some perspective but YOU WERE NOT THERE. This is the same argument given for Japan. You stand on the hill of HINDSIGHT - what if, maybe.

You're right I was not there, but you know who was? My parents in Hungary and other relatives in Germany.......so no I don't stand on the hill of hindsight, I stand on the hill of knowledge.

140 posted on 02/13/2020 10:08:39 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 134 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 201-206 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson