Posted on 02/13/2025 8:09:35 AM PST by DFG
On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the “Florence of the Elbe” to rubble and flames, and killing roughly 25,000 people.
Among the conclusions reached at the February 1945 Yalta Conference of the Allied powers was the resolution that the Allies would engage in concerted strategic bombing raids against German cities known for war-production and manufacturing, in an effort to bring the Nazi war machine to a crashing halt. The tragic irony of the raid on Dresden, a medieval city renowned for its rich artistic and architectural treasures, is that during the war it had never been a site of war-production or major industry.
Both Allies and Germans alike have argued over the real purpose of the firebombing; the ostensible “official” rationale was that Dresden was a major communications center and bombing it would hamper the German ability to convey messages to its army, which was battling Soviet forces at the time. But the extent of the destruction was, for many, disproportionate to the stated strategic goal—many believe that the attack was simply an attempt to punish the Germans and weaken their morale.
More than 3,400 tons of explosives were dropped on the city by 800 American and British aircraft. The firestorm created by the two days of bombing set the city burning for many more days, littering the streets with charred corpses, including many children. Eight square miles of the city was ruined, and the total body count was between 22,700 and 25,000 dead, according to a report published by the city of Dresden in 2010. The hospitals that were left standing could not handle the numbers of injured and burned, and mass burials became necessary.
Among the American POWs who were in Dresden during the raid was novelist Kurt Vonnegut, who conveyed his experience in his classic antiwar novel Slaughterhouse Five.
That is anti-semitic.
claim, i’m Austrian, not German.
**The firebombing of Dresden was horrible. I believe it was very close to being a war crime and a crime against humanity. A lot of innocent civilians were literally incinerated in the bombing and aftermath.**
“Hitler was the father to a nation of adolesents”. John Bradshaw. All are guilty.
It is my view that a negotiated end to a war is just a break until he next one. Dresden and Hiroshima/Nagasaki settled it once and for all. Moozlems and Russians didn’t get the memo.
You’re correct since the U.S. could have made Hanoi look like Dresden ten times over but didn’t. (ie:fatal aversion to “fighting to win).
What was especially tragic about Coventry was that Churchill knew the Germans’ plans for the bombing, but couldn’t warn the city because that would show the Nazis’ code had been broken.
The only reason what was done to Dresden looks so bad is because we don’t have archival film footage of what the muslims did to India a thousand years ago.
claim, i’m Austrian, not German.
Hitler was Austrian.
The Japanese rape of Nanjing, as well.
> It is my view that a negotiated end to a war is just a break until the next one. <
And there we see the foresight of FDR and Churchill. Before WW2 most wars ended in some kind of negotiated settlement. The loser lost a province. The winner gained a province.
FDR and Churchill were wise enough to understand that wouldn’t do when it came to fighting Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Interesting take.
I view the firebombing of Dresden is similar to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In isolation these events are, in point of fact horrific, but in context of the rape of Nanking, Iwo Jima, the destruction of London and Europe, then these were mad acts that seemed necessary to stop the evil madness engulfing all of humanity.
In part, I agree, it takes an almost superhuman will to unleash the oft-times necessary horrors to stop evil. However, I would also say that the wars since WW I and WW II have largely been voluntary, wars borne out of political stupidity and miscalculation rather than out of ruthless aggression.
I wonder how much of WF Bach's unpublished/unrediscovered music was burnt in the bombing?
And Vonnegut’s book “Slaughterhouse-Five.” If he wasn’t a POW near there, would we even think of Dresden?
How so?
Hitler shouldn’t have done Coventry. FAFO. Besides, we killed 4x as many people in Tokyo over 48 hours. War is hell. Maybe after 80 years they can stop whining about it.
bkmk
I know ... lol ;)
Supposedly, one purpose may have been to give the Red Army, which had a ringside seat, an example of what British (night) and American (daylight) bombing could do to a city. Basically turned Dresden into an open air blast furnace.
So it goes.
Should have firebombed the entire country. War is not a police action subject to courts and civility.
**FDR and Churchill were wise enough to understand that wouldn’t do when it came to fighting Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.**
Patton wanted Russia and MacArthur wanted China. Shouda listened to them.
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