“The raid was a rush job, a request by the Soviets to an RAF who had no strategic interest in the city. If the RAF ‘spared’ the factories, then it wasnt deliberate. Just sheer luck.
Dresden was an important military hub. Thats why it was bombed, to help the Soviets.”
That may very well be true that Dresden was attacked to help the Soviets. But I don’t follow how you say the RAF had no strategic interest in the city and then go on to say it was an important military hub. wha?
The first wave was high explosives to destroy the buildings. Why come back three more times with incendiary bombs and hit the exact same area over and over, unless the intention was to kill civilians? My only point is to say that this raid from the start doesn’t pass the smell test. Just be honest and say we killed civilians as part of our total war strategy and be done with it.
Incendiaries were an important component of night-bombing because fire is not only devastating: it acts as a marker. This was particularly important in cloudy conditions.
Later bombing waves tended to hit the same place because this was night-bombing. Specialist pathfinders might lay flares and TIs to diversify the attacked area once the original target was considered devastated, but the biggest flare target was always the flaming area left by the first wave.
Remember - during WW2 it wasn't trivially easy to hit a city at night. Some German bombers memorably managed to bomb one of their own cities (Freiberg I think) in the early stages of the war.
It was an important military hub, outwith of whether the British had any interest in it. Thats simply a fact.
It was in the Soviet field of operations, and thats why we were asked to level the place.
Strategically for the British, it was too far east for us. Our eyes were further west: the Ruhr, the Rhine and the North German plain.
It was an important military hub, outwith of whether the British had any interest in it. Thats simply a fact.
It was in the Soviet field of operations, and thats why we were asked to level the place.
Strategically for the British, it was too far east for us. Our eyes were further west: the Ruhr, the Rhine and the North German plain.