Posted on 02/13/2013 9:04:00 AM PST by Kid Shelleen
It's the 68th anniversary of the Dresden bombing. In Britain, we don't think about it as much as, perhaps, we should. The bare facts. More than 1,200 RAF and USAAF bombers attacked the city between the 13th and 15th of February 1945, in four raids. They dropped 3,900 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs, killing between 22,000 and 25,000 people, almost all civilians. The city's anti-aircraft defences had all been moved to defend the industrial works of the Ruhr valley. The details are chilling.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
Failure of the United States to maintain effective neutrality in WWI led directly to the postwar conditions that resulted in the rise of the Nazis and then the initiation of WWII.
Ich glaube bei der peeps Vogel...
Germans were losers.
The Germans had no compunction against targeting civilian populations.
The RAF bombers who carried out the attack were patriots who did their duty.
Comments like yours makes me think we were far too merciful.
As Churchill pointed out - the German is either at your feet or at your throat.
“The railroad component of the argument, by itself, in my mind, would be sufficient to warrant the city’s destruction.”
The fact that there was one single living person in the city warrants its total destruction. The mere fact the city existed warranted its total destruction. It was war, not a civil matter but a military one. Kill everyone and destroy everything until the enemy ceases to exist or unconditionally surrenders; that is war.
I’ve seen so many figures for the total number of fatalities in the Dresden raids. 140,000 is the number that was once bandied about.
I’ve seen so many figures for the total number of fatalities in the Dresden raids. 140,000 is the number that was once bandied about.
Remember, Many Supported those ideas when they first came around.
Dresden was a transportation hub and despite being considered an ‘open city’ the city was home to over 300 small-to-large factories that were turning out war materiel for the German forces. The rail yard was full of arms and ammunition as was evidenced by multiple observed secondary explosions during the bombing raid. The synthetic oil refineries were also valid military targets. Add to this the presence of flak units deployed around Dresden as seen in the German newsreel, “Die Deutsche Wochenschau”, of 8 September 1943 and it is clear that the city was a valid military target.
That a bunch of Germans perished in the attacks bothers me not in the least given that had the Germans been able to do the same to an American city there is no doubt that they would have.
You could even find a few that think burning Chris Dorner alive was a fine idea...
“Failure of the United States to maintain effective neutrality in WWI led directly to the postwar conditions that resulted in the rise of the Nazis and then the initiation of WWII.”
Not according to current curricula.... Students are being taught that it was the “unfair” terms and conditions that were applied to Germany after WWI that started the second world war.
That war, WWI and the aftermath is the proximate cause of WWII, and later the various wars in the Middle East.
It’s unfortunate that Germany bore the brunt of WWI and severely punished economically with totally unreasonable lreparations as a result of the cowardly French and the ignorant rulers of the United Kingdom.
They not only paved the way for a Hitler, but insured WWII and the Japanese entry into that war.
There are so many good histories that delve deeply into this that it would be good for us to read and understand how this catastrophe happened.
So many weasels in the equation like Stalin who murdered his own civilians by the millions far exceeding Herr Hitler’s tally.
The German economy could not keep the German military supplied.
It worked.
Boohoo all you want about it.
I don't care if it hurt people's little feelings. I don't care if the survivors thought the allied forces were brutal meanies.
It doesn't matter one damned bit how much resolve they had. Resolve was unable to produce enough bullets, beans, petrol, replacement tires, warm clothing, or any of the other things the front line troops needed.
The battle of the bulge fizzled out for the Germans simply because they ran out of supplies.
It doesn't matter one damned bit how squeamish you are about war Muawiyah.
If there is a war here in your lifetime, there will not likely be only two factions and it will be fought at the level described here.
Grow up.
When Germany remembers this(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice), I MIGHT give a SHIT about “Dresden”.
The allies lied why they bombed Dresden. It was to kill civilians of course. Most of the industrial capacity was located in Dresden’s suburbs, which were spared. I recall watching the History channel and they stated that in a few months the industrial capacity was back to 70% of what it was before the bombing. Pretty impressive considering much of the work force would have been homeless.
Well said.
60,000 British civilians were killed in the air raids, 300,000 to 600,000 German civilians.
Your outrage is based on the assumption that all Germans were guilty of the misdeeds of their leaders, and therefore killing any German, even old people and kids, was fully justified.
How does this differ in ethical principle from Ward Churchill’s belief that all Americans are guilty for what he and many Muslims see as America’s misdeeds in the Middle East, and therefore the killing of any Americans, such as on 9/11, is fully justified?
In fact, since Americans freely elect our leaders, and the Germans didn’t, you can make a decent case that American civilians are more responsible for their country’s actions that German civilians were.
I think Ward was wrong, but I’m curious how you can logically disagree with him since your basic moral positions are the same. Except for the fact that you think calling “our people” is wrong, while presumably killing “their people” is ok.
It’s called “War”.
One side loses, the other side wins.
I would like to somehow get that message through to our current leadership.
We been “dickin” around for A long time.
So I assume your opinion of the Atomic bomb drops over Hiroshima and Nagasaki are similar?
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