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Dresden deserves to be remembered
UK Telegraph ^ | 02/13/2013 | Tom Chivers

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: anniversary; dresden; raf; wwii
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To: VanDeKoik
But they did have it coming to them.

The Germans as a nation, no doubt.

The individual old people and kids in those air raid shelters, not so much.

61 posted on 02/13/2013 9:41:17 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: KC_Lion

All wars go through progressive cycles of increasing brutality. The longer a war grinds on, the more brutal it becomes.

The American Civil War began with dress parades; it ended with corn cribs and hog pens in Georgia and the Shenandoah Valley being military targets.

World War 1 saw a “Christmas Truce” in 1914. By 1918, the use of every kind of gas was practiced on both sides.

World War 2 had an early phase of the deliberate sparing of hospital ships by both sides. By 1943, they were being sunk. The bombing of Warsaw and Rotterdam were considered barbaric. The firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo were simply the continuation of military policy.

“It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.” - Robert E. Lee


62 posted on 02/13/2013 9:42:35 AM PST by henkster (I have one more cow than my neighbor. I am a kulak.)
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To: muawiyah
Your 'substantial research on the matter' failed to reveal that:
    Dresden was a major rail nexus
    Dresden was Germany's seventh-largest city and the largest remaining unbombed built-up area.
    An official 1942 guide to the city described it as "one of the foremost industrial locations of the Reich".
    As late as 1944 the German Army High Command's Weapons Office listed 127 medium-to-large factories and workshops that were supplying the Wehrmacht with war materiel.

Dresden was well worth bombing.

63 posted on 02/13/2013 9:42:50 AM PST by agere_contra (I once saw a movie where only the police and military had guns. It was called 'Schindler's List'.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Total war = no civilians.

Ask the Poles and Russians about what happened to their cities at the hands of the Germans.

Had the Germans been able to continue their attacks on London, it too would have been obliterated.

The fire bombings of Hamburg, Dresden, and Tokyo were awful, horrible attacks. That was the point.

The British did not start the war. Their losses were staggering and they had been fighting it for 2.5 years before we came in. Its wrong to judge people fighting for their lives, 70 years later.


64 posted on 02/13/2013 9:44:08 AM PST by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: bigdaddy45

I never thought I would see the day when so many FReepers would raise their voices in agreement with Hanoi Jane.

And yes, that’s exactly what they’re doing.


65 posted on 02/13/2013 9:44:51 AM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: muawiyah

The part about there being 25K less of them to resist. Real war is about annihilation of the other sides ability to make war. The American Civil war was not won because the union generals had such ability on the battlefield. It was won because Sherman burned the civilians out of their homes and burdened the south with total devastation. Real war is won when the civilians can no longer support their army. We have managed to not learn that lesson. Hence we have yet to win a war since WWII.


66 posted on 02/13/2013 9:45:45 AM PST by Steamburg (The contents of your wallet is the only language Politicians understand.)
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To: treetopsandroofs

Well it certainly had something to do with it. The French and British kept their boot on Germany’s neck long after WWI was over. And the Germans, being disciplined and proud, didn’t like it too much. You can argue with it, but Hitler’s rise had a lot to do with the conditions people were living under.

Interesting how, nearly 70 years after WWII, which left Germany as a divided, destroyed nation... who is economically ruling Europe? The German work ethic is constant, and won’t keep them down for long.


67 posted on 02/13/2013 9:45:54 AM PST by bigdaddy45
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To: bigdaddy45

I would rather we used one bomb and dropped it on the Kremlin.


68 posted on 02/13/2013 9:46:42 AM PST by IbJensen (Liberals are like Slinkies, good for nothing, but you smile as you push them down the stairs.)
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To: muawiyah

You sound like s STUPID, SPINELSS, “Libertatian” SOB. If you think that if we would have stayed(sp?) out of WWI the Kaiser, and his Ottoman Buddies would have just “Left us alone” WRONG! Learn HISTORY the Germans were wetting up RIGHT here in the US a “Fifth Column” around 1915 or so. Would you have rather have had to fight the Central Powers here or would you have rather faught them in Europe and/or Asia. Oh that’s right Cowards like YOU would have found some other BS “reason” not to fight(just like COWARDS always have)!


69 posted on 02/13/2013 9:46:56 AM PST by US Navy Vet (Go Packers! Go Rockies! Go Boston Bruins! See, I'm "Diverse"!)
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To: BlueLancer
At the same time the Allies knew where all the death camps were and McCloy refused to allow any bombing of the railheads serving those camps ~ some suspect because his real master, Joe Stalin wanted to kill as many Jews as possible (one of the things the Kremlin and the Fuhrer Bunker agreed on).

So, no railroad bombing arguments are valid when you are bouncing around moral quandries ~

70 posted on 02/13/2013 9:47:10 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: IbJensen

Sure they didn’t...


71 posted on 02/13/2013 9:47:52 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (NRA Life Member)
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To: Kid Shelleen

**** The city’s anti-aircraft defences had all been moved to defend the industrial works of the Ruhr valley.****

Then the Germans should have declared it to be an “OPEN CITY”.


72 posted on 02/13/2013 9:48:05 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar ( Too old to cut the mustard any more.)
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To: BJ1

“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.”

Ah, so if they hadn’t managed to get back up to 70% (instead of 100%) in a FEW MONTHS, it would have been ok.

Remember to keep believing public education and Big Media headlines!

This sickens me. I feel like I’ve visited DU and need a bath.

Screw this. I need to take a break from all the leftism at FR.

I MIGHT be back, but I want to puke.


73 posted on 02/13/2013 9:48:05 AM PST by treetopsandroofs (Had FDR been GOP, there would have been no World Wars, just "The Great War" and "Roosevelt's Wars".)
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To: Sherman Logan

IT WAS WAR YOU STUPID BASTARD!


74 posted on 02/13/2013 9:48:33 AM PST by US Navy Vet (Go Packers! Go Rockies! Go Boston Bruins! See, I'm "Diverse"!)
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To: muawiyah

You seem to forget Bosnia. The Bundeswehr were very active there. The Bundeswehr will remain in Afghanistan after the USA cuts and runs too.


75 posted on 02/13/2013 9:49:02 AM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Steamburg

The British were horrified that the American militia would deliberately target officers and indian scouts but it worked. They were horrified at loyalists being driven from their homes but again, it worked.


76 posted on 02/13/2013 9:49:44 AM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Steamburg; cripplecreek
Real war is won when the civilians can no longer support their army.

Well Said, the Populace is always the weakest link.


77 posted on 02/13/2013 9:50:02 AM PST by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Warsaw, Rotterdam and Coventry deserve to be remembered.


78 posted on 02/13/2013 9:50:02 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: CodeToad

” 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.”

But the first law the of the winner’s history does not allow this concept to be applied to William T. Sherman.


79 posted on 02/13/2013 9:50:20 AM PST by Rebelbase ( .223, .224, whatever it takes....)
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To: KC_Lion; cripplecreek
cripplecreek ~ Folks will just have to forgive my lack of sympathy for those who allowed, encouraged, or participated in events that led to the war.

KC_Lion ~ Remember, Many Supported those ideas when they first came around.

Just like many support Obama today.

The end of our trail isn't likely to be prettier.

80 posted on 02/13/2013 9:50:22 AM PST by null and void (Gun confiscation enables tyranny. Don't enable tyranny.)
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