Posted on 02/13/2007 2:06:22 PM PST by MplsSteve
On the night of February 13-14 1945, two waves of British Lancaster bombers devastated the east German city of Dresden.
The targets of these raids were Dresden's rail lines as well as a series of smaller factories that were producing gunsights and other precision optical devices for Germany's war effort.
High explosive bombs were dropped first and were followed up by incendiary bombs which turned Dresden into a giant firestorm. The worst damage occurred in the inner city and immediate eastern suburbs of Dresden.
According to a Dresden police report, at least 12000 dwellings were destroyed as well as a numerous hospitals, warehouses, churches, etc. Casualties were enormous and to this day there is still debate over the total. The most recent estimate shows 25000 killed in the raid, primarily as a result of the firestorm.
For years afterwards, there has been debate as to whether the bombing raid (which was followed up days later by an 8th Air Force Raid against Dresden's railyards) as to whether the firebombing constituted a war crime.
Comments or opinions - anyone?
If I recall correctly, this bombing was done to placate Stalin. The Russians requested it. It is said that the city was full of refugees at the time. Since the Germans were down to their last rounds, it didn't have much effect on the outcome. "Slaughter House 5" comes to mind as a resource.
The Blitz was the sustained bombing of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 16 May 1941 in World War II. It was carried out by the Luftwaffe, and hit many towns and cities across the UK, but the main attack was concentrated on London. The Blitz killed about 43,000 people and destroyed more than a million houses.
Germany defined the terms. No matter how crappy civilian deaths are, Germany had not capitulated yet. VE and VJ days were both preceeded by substantial damage to cities.
Looking at historical events with a present day lens is a slipperly slope.
The author omits, if I recall correctly, that the U.S Air Force followed up with a raid during the next day.
Goebbels asked for "Total War," and he got it.
You are correct.
I was speeding thru the typing of my post.
I overlooked the 8th AF's raid the next day.
Sorry.
A more rational age.
When the enemy defines the terms of the battles, the only effective response is bigger and better.
If war is a last resort, no further explanation or discussion is warranted.
I know this will sound trite, since it is used so often to discredit otherwise useful statements, but...
Can you cite an authoritative source for this claim? I have never heard of it.
Dresden had a lot of old wooden structures, so the town burned to beat hell. As someone mentioned, "Slaughterhouse 5" was inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's having lived through the bombing as a POW, and for that matter may have led to his having become a writer in the first place.
Strategic bombing in WWII was shown (even during the war, to some extent) to have failed to make much of a dent in German industrial output, in part because Germany used so many underground facilities, and also in part because the bomb accuracy was pretty poor. Luis Alvarez discusses this in his memoirs, which I'm reading right now; there's an article by Freeman Dyson in the recent Technology Review (I think that's the name of the mag) regarding his work for the Allied aerial bombing efforts that sort of overlaps. Omar Bradley discusses the lack of bombing accuracy including friendly fire type losses both in the invasion of Sicily and in Overlord and Cobra.
As a sidebar, a couple of years ago there was an interview with a German air veteran who described (in one of those war mags) having to bomb bridges inside Germany to slow the Russian advance. In at least one case, the roads still go to the bend in the river, but the bridge was never rebuilt, perhaps because it's no longer German on both sides. :') Early on, German Stukas were used to good effect against Russian tanks (the Russian T-34 is generally considered the best WWII tank or one thereof). Luftwaffe bombing over British targets was mostly a form of terrorism, as there were no German invasion plans. Luftwaffe losses were considerable due to radar coordination of British defenses, and somewhat pointless. The V1s (small, pulse-jet, nuisance weapons) were built in large numbers, and launched in large numbers, but were shot down in large numbers. The V2 was the trump card, but came too late, and didn't have much of a warhead for the expense involved.
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.