Why Was Dresden So Heavily Bombed?

[Zincwarrior]

Ah. Area bombing.

A reminder, the Bomb was developed to be used against the Germans. They surrendered before it could be used.

 

[the watcher]

The Germans and Japanese were racing the US to get the Bomb, and everyone had just about enough by this time. This is what happens in wars, it gets ugly fast. That's why we should try to avoid them. Tit for tat, that's what happens, and if you weren't there you can't look through the eyes of those that were there, only hopefully learn something. If you want to lazy boy quarterback try to imagine what the people living in 1945 would think of how our nation is behaving today.

 

[expat500]

Even taking the premise as legit, do two wrongs make a right?...aka whataboutism.

It’s easy to talk morality, in these woke days.

 

[JGalt]

Since I wasn't there when it happened and neither was anyone in this thread, all I can do is repost what Wikipedia wrote about it..

Now don't argue with Wikipedia, or else you'll be one of those evil "far-righties."

"The Allies saw the Dresden operation as the justified bombing of a strategic target, which United States Air Force reports, declassified decades later, noted as a major rail transport and communication centre, housing 110 factories and 50,000 workers supporting the German war effort.[8][9] Several researchers later asserted that not all communications infrastructure was targeted, and neither were the extensive industrial areas located outside the city centre." Critics of the bombing argue that Dresden was a cultural landmark with little strategic significance, and that the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and were not proportionate to military gains.[11][12][13] Some claim that the raid was a war crime.[14] Nazi propaganda exaggerated the death toll of the bombing and its status as mass murder, and many in the German far-right have referred to it as "Dresden's Holocaust of bombs".[15][16]"

Bombing of Dresden - Wikipedia

 

[expat500]

Nazi propaganda exaggerated the death toll of the bombing and its status as mass murder, and many in the German far-right have referred to it as "Dresden's Holocaust of bombs"

After what they did.

 

[mikegriffith1]

The bombing attack on Dresden, Germany, stands among the most controversial Allied actions of World War II. From February 13 to 15, 1945, 800 bombers dropped some 2,700 tons of explosives and incendiaries, decimating the German city. Tens of thousands died.

American prisoners of war had heard the “whump a whump” of distant aerial bombings many times before. But on February 13, 1945, they heard Dresden’s fire sirens howl right above their heads. German guards moved them two stories down into a meat locker. When they came back to the surface, “the city was gone,” remembered writer and social critic Kurt Vonnegut—one of the American POWs who witnessed the Dresden bombing.

Observers noted early on that the bombing of Dresden not only meant the death of civilians but the destruction of a center of European culture and Baroque splendor. Since the rule of August the Strong (1670-1733), the “German Florence” on the Elbe, was home to famous collections of art, porcelain, prints, scientific instruments and jewelry.

Many Germans perceived a particular injustice in the late bombing of Dresden in February 1945—a sentiment that gained some international traction in the postwar years. Dresden was a densely crowded city in the winter of 1945, filled with refugees fleeing the advancing Red Army. For most of them, the end of the war looked near and inevitable and a full-scale attack was unnecessary.

There was really no excuse for bombing Dresden, especially not so heavily. We knew Germany was on the verge of collapse. To call the Dresden bombing gratuitous and immoral is an understatement.

Many people don't realize that FDR and some of his top officials were virulently anti-German--not just anti-Nazi but viscerally anti-German. They were seriously entertaining proposals to kill tens of thousands of Germans after Germany surrendered, and to divide Germany into several independent states. One plan would have allowed occupation authorities to literally destroy all German industry--plants and equipment--in the entire Ruhr. Thankfully, cooler, more humane heads prevailed.

 

[BackAgain]

The bombing attack on Dresden, Germany, stands among the most controversial Allied actions of World War II. From February 13 to 15, 1945, 800 bombers dropped some 2,700 tons of explosives and incendiaries, decimating the German city. Tens of thousands died.

American prisoners of war had heard the “whump a whump” of distant aerial bombings many times before. But on February 13, 1945, they heard Dresden’s fire sirens howl right above their heads. German guards moved them two stories down into a meat locker. When they came back to the surface, “the city was gone,” remembered writer and social critic Kurt Vonnegut—one of the American POWs who witnessed the Dresden bombing.

Observers noted early on that the bombing of Dresden not only meant the death of civilians but the destruction of a center of European culture and Baroque splendor. Since the rule of August the Strong (1670-1733), the “German Florence” on the Elbe, was home to famous collections of art, porcelain, prints, scientific instruments and jewelry.

Many Germans perceived a particular injustice in the late bombing of Dresden in February 1945—a sentiment that gained some international traction in the postwar years. Dresden was a densely crowded city in the winter of 1945, filled with refugees fleeing the advancing Red Army. For most of them, the end of the war looked near and inevitable and a full-scale attack was unnecessary.

Why Was Dresden So Heavily Bombed? | HISTORY

By the end of the three‑day Allied bombing attack of World War II, the German city had been leveled and tens of thousands were dead.

www.history.com

It wasn’t going to incinerate itself!

 

[Crepitus]

No

Yes.

 

[Zebra]

It was a transportation hub. That's why it was destroyed so completely.

That was not the reason

 

[Oddball]

Many people don't realize that FDR and some of his top officials were virulently anti-German--not just anti-Nazi but viscerally anti-German. They were seriously entertaining proposals to kill tens of thousands of Germans after Germany surrendered,

Ironic, since the Windsors are Saxons.

 

[expat500]

Can't you?

Twenty years of this.

 

[Oddball]

Since I wasn't there when it happened and neither was anyone in this thread, all I can do is repost what Wikipedia wrote about it..

Now don't argue with Wikipedia, or else you'll be one of those evil "far-righties."

"The Allies saw the Dresden operation as the justified bombing of a strategic target, which United States Air Force reports, declassified decades later, noted as a major rail transport and communication centre, housing 110 factories and 50,000 workers supporting the German war effort.[8][9] Several researchers later asserted that not all communications infrastructure was targeted, and neither were the extensive industrial areas located outside the city centre." Critics of the bombing argue that Dresden was a cultural landmark with little strategic significance, and that the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and were not proportionate to military gains.[11][12][13] Some claim that the raid was a war crime.[14] Nazi propaganda exaggerated the death toll of the bombing and its status as mass murder, and many in the German far-right have referred to it as "Dresden's Holocaust of bombs".[15][16]"

Bombing of Dresden - Wikipedia

 

[Zebra]

There was really no excuse for bombing Dresden, especially not so heavily. We knew Germany was on the verge of collapse. To call the Dresden bombing gratuitous and immoral is an understatement.

Many people don't realize that FDR and some of his top officials were virulently anti-German--not just anti-Nazi but viscerally anti-German. They were seriously entertaining proposals to kill tens of thousands of Germans after Germany surrendered, and to divide Germany into several independent states. One plan would have allowed occupation authorities to literally destroy all German industry--plants and equipment--in the entire Ruhr. Thankfully, cooler, more humane heads prevailed.

The Morgenthau plan

 

[Crepitus]

That was not the reason

But it was the reason. No matter what the conspiracy theorists say today.

 

[Oddball]

A reminder, the Bomb was developed to be used against the Germans. They surrendered before it could be used.

Fucking ridiculous...The B-17 couldn't carry it, and no B-29s were even conditionally deployed to Britain.

 

[JGalt]

Has everything to do with it, when casting a lens on the past.

I think history is fluid and ever-changing. All that anyone knows is dependent upon whomever yells the loudest in the present time.

 

[Oddball]

I think history is fluid and ever-changing. All that anyone knows is dependent upon whomever yells the loudest in the present time.

To this day, Dresden had no military value....So much so that it was a central gathering point for civilian refugees, from the areas that did have value and were the scenes of fighting.

Firebombing it was an atrocity.

 

[Zebra]

To this day, Dresden had no military value....So much so that it was a central gathering point for civilian refugees, from the areas that did have value and were the scenes of fighting.

Firebombing it was an atrocity.

Very much so

 

[expat500]

To this day, Dresden had no military value....So much so that it was a central gathering point for civilian refugees, from the areas that did have value and were the scenes of fighting.

Firebombing it was an atrocity.

Not to forget:

Albert Speer, Nazi Germany’s Minister of Armaments, recalled a meeting in 1940 when Adolf Hitler endorsed Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring’s proposal to hit London with a massive number of incendiary bombs: “Göring wants to use innumerable incendiary bombs of an altogether new type to create fires in all parts of London. Fires everywhere. Thousands of them. Then they’ll unite in one giant area conflagration.”
“Göring has the right idea,” said Hitler. “Explosive bombs don’t work, but it can be done with incendiary bombs—total destruction of London. Of what use will their fire department be once that really starts?”

 

[Zincwarrior]

Yes.

Maybe?

I think Zebra is a RUssobot, just FYI.