The Germans were really attacking and hurting the English air force. They were bombing aircraft factories and English air fields. Churchill was told it was likely the way things were going,that Germany was going to achieve air superiority. Everyone knew that if Germany got air Superiority they would launch an invasion and defeat Britain.
Churchill took a gamble. He ordered a highly risky attack. He ordered the Bombing of Berlin. Hitler was furious. The German air force had been careful not to bomb civilian areas. They did not want the British to bomb German cities. . The German Generals knew what Churchill was doing. They wanted to continue their campaign to achieve air superiority. Hitler overruled his generals He ordered massive air attacks on London in retaliation. It was exactly what Churchill hoped for.
While Hitler attacked London, England was able to build enough planes and enough air strips to defeat the German air force in the Battle of Britain.
Dresden was bombed because it was a college town. Churchill thought that if we killed a lot of German intellectuals they would be so mad at Hitler they might figure out a way to overthrow his regime. It backfired.
After the war research showed that the attack convinced many Germans that they had to win the war or we would kill them all.
We need to understand that wars are not fought by gentleman's rules. A nation facing defeat will do what ever it takes to survive. That includes using any tactic they think might help them survive.
Roosevelt read somewhere that the Japanese were very afraid of bats. He seriously proposed dropping plane loads of bats on Japan. Wiser heads prevailed.
I remember going to movie theaters during WWII. I was just a little boy. The news reel would show dead Japanese and dead Germans mowed down by our troops. The audience would scream and wildly applaud. So did I.
Dresden was bombed because of it's rail lines and it's ability to resupply their troops. The Germans had to be utterly destroyed. They had to lose the very notion of waging war...and they did.
They got their comeuppance.
Not sure any of this makes sense.
As far as revenge on the German people goes, it was after the war when the borders were redrawn for Czechoslovakia and Poland that all the Germans who lived there were forcibly sent packing to the new Germany much farther West. I've seen estimates that over 2 million civilians died on the march.
This was AFTER the war, not DURING the war.
After the war research showed that the attack convinced many Germans that they had to win the war or we would kill them all.