Posted on 02/15/2015 4:34:47 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
The BBC’s coverage of the bombing of Dresden in which Britain was described as ‘worse than the Nazis’ was condemned as disgraceful by RAF veterans and MPs last night.
Despite dedicating more than 32 minutes of airtime to the 70th anniversary of the fire-bombing that killed tens of thousands at the end of the Second World War, there was barely a mention of British airmen who lost their lives.
The BBC’s four major news shows and Radio 4 interviewed multiple German survivors of the bombings.
They also showed a British prisoner of war who berated those who ordered the raids, adding it was ‘demonic’ and ‘evil’.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
As long as it was finalized by the UK is really all that matters to me, a final solution to Nazism, which was a good thing I hope you agree...
The British bombing became less selective after the Rotterdam blitz in May of ‘40. That had already been proceeded by the indiscriminate bombing during the Polish invasion.
That is why RAF personnel would sometimes referred to Air Marshal Arthur Harris as Butch Harris. Short for butcher.
In the Pacific, Japan fought without quarter for opponents, both combatants and civilians. Japan killed prisoners of war, used civilians and POWs as biologic warfare guinea pigs, and massacred civilian populations. American troops were forced to take no prisoners because Japan's Bushido Code ordered its soldiers to fight to the death and made no provision for surrender. The last two 1945 battles of the Pacific War, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, produced more killed and wounded on the American side than all Pacific invasions before February 1945. Okinawa traumatized the USN for years after it was fought — more sailors were killed than wounded with 28 ships sunk and 368 damaged. Of 183,000 American troops committed, over 12,000 were killed, 38,000 wounded. Japanese forces casualties were 110,000 killed, 7,000 captured. Between 40,000 to 150,000 Okinawan civilians were killed from 1 April to 22 June 1945.
The Dresden bombing was vile. It was a plan that pushed thing more than a bit too far. That being said it’s not the pilots fault, it’s the folks that came up with the plan that was structured for maximum death and destruction that are to blame.
This has nothing to do with our moral relativism. The
Dresden bombing started being questioned pretty much right away, by Churchill himself. Being the good guys comes with a certain price, and part of that price is being able to say you took things a bit too far.
Yep. Like the man told the judge, “The fight started when he hit me back”.
I’ll see your Dresden and raise you Warsaw, Rotterdam and Coventry.
War’s a nasty business, don’t start them.
Really? Then you shouldn't have any problem sourcing it or something close to it.
Well, other than that Malmedy, thing.
The Civil War is a little different since the enemy is a fellow American. I was mostly thinking of foreign wars with countries like Germany, or enemies like radical Islamists. I might be tempted to spare fellow Americans and just blow up the buildings.
Between the UK and Germany perhaps, but not for the Nazis. You'll have to revise history elsewhere.
60,000,000 people were killed plus many more wounded because of the Germans during the 2nd world war they started. In WW1 it was another 16,000,000 people killed and 10’s of millions wounded.
They and the Japanese killed and wounded millions of people and displaced hundreds of millions of people around the world. I have no sympathy for them.
Yep. They'll be out in force this August.Don’t worry, there are a few FReepers who feel the same way about allied “war crimes”.
Bomber Harris was a war criminal. His entire plan was to reduce all Germany to rubble, on the theory that he would be able to prevent war production, and that the populace would rebel against Hitler - you know, the way the British rebelled against Churchill </sarcasm>In so doing he obliterated the very concept of “civilian.” It reached a point where the USAF was successfully choking off Germany’s oil supplies (which, tho it clearly affected the civilian population, didn’t kill civilians as a goal in itself), and was strangling the German war effort. Harris put all his chips on the table to prevent “diversion” of British bombing capacity from city busting (which was pretty much sawing sawdust by that point) to reinforcing USAF successes which were known to be shutting down Germany’s military capability. Germany was desperate for many things at that point, but far from least among them was - gasoline. Recall that plans for Germany’s Dec ’44 all-out Battle of the Bulge offensive critically depended on capturing Allied fuel supplies along the way to Antwerp.
If you know that your most effective thrust is to bomb petroleum infrastructure, and instead you choose to prioritize bombing civilians . . .
- Fire and Fury
- The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945
Randall HansenAfter the bitter experience of having the armistice of WWII turn out to be a mere chance for Germany to reload, America liked the idea of unconditional surrender. Churchill wasn’t on board, but FDR put him in a position where he couldn’t argue against it. Whenever you think of the fanaticism of the German defensive war against the invasion of the Western allies during WWII, think not only of the propaganda of the Nazis but also of the “unconditional surrender” policy FDR had announced. The Germans didn’t think they had a choice.
- The New Dealers' War:
- FDR and the War Within World War II
by Thomas FlemingBalance that criticism of FDR, however, with the explanation of why America was extremely short on military equipment on Pearl Harbor Day 1941, and yet was “the arsenal of democracy” (not to mention of communism) shortly thereafter (hint: from the start of WWII FDR was helping Britain - and from the Fall of France in May 1940, FDR was frantically gearing up for war production, and using the initial war production to sustain Britain’s independence of Germany).
- Freedom's Forge:
- How American Business Produced Victory in World War II
Arthur Herman
Look up your own sources. Or are you too lazy?
Hardly the outcome.
Lend-Lease and American troops tilted things, as did their entry into WWI.
As a matter of fact, it was the disgraceful attachment on whatever wealth that Germany had that led to the rise of Hitler and WWII.
My father was a major in the infantry!
My uncle was a Sergeant in the field artillery.
I was in Korea.
Where in the hell have you been, cupcake?
City of Ruins - Warsaw 1945
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx3aGiurRbQ
This is why I shed no tears about Dresden
“...In August of 1940, two [Luftwaffe] aircraft ... jettisoned a negligible amount of bombs over London ...
So Churchill ordered the fifth bombing and the Luftwaffe began the blitz.”
HomerBohn and ilk must revel in their self-bestowed sense of moral superiority. How precious, that they bolster such by second-guessing the decisions and actions taken in the midst of a serious war, now three generations behind us.
Their stance is that much more odious: the people they are poormouthing are nearly all dead. Some did die, or endure great suffering and sacrifice, to afford modern critics safety, comfort, and leisure - to make invidious moral comparisons.
In any war, one can be moral, or be effective. To choose the first is to negate the second. Imbecilic; not all that moral either, at the end of the day.
As I read Bohn’s posting...the familiar strains of the march theme of Hogan’s Heroes began playing in my head as John Williams might have arranged and conducted it when he led the Boston Pops.(You know...musical variations of any simple tune where he adds wonderful extra codas fat with brass and cymbal crashes as well as always finding a way to slip in a hidden star wars type flourish as well...in this case...THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK)/sarcasm on!
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