Churchill subsequently distanced himself from the bombing.[94][100][101] On 28 March, in a memo sent by telegram to General Ismay for the British Chiefs of Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff, he wrote:
It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed. Otherwise we shall come into control of an utterly ruined land… The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing. I am of the opinion that military objectives must henceforward be more strictly studied in our own interests than that of the enemy.
The Foreign Secretary has spoken to me on this subject, and I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives such as oil and communications behind the immediate battle-zone, rather than on mere acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive.[10
While Dresden was harsh, in general the Western Allies treated the Germans fairly for the most part...that’s why they surrendered in droves to them....as opposed to the Soviets, where they fought them tooth-and-nail right up to the bitter end.....The Soviets lost 150,000 men in the Battle of Berlin, alone. I suspect if it had been the Western Allies that liberated Berlin, they would have taken it without much of a fight.