why was the bombing of dresden so controversial

The city was a major industrial and transportation hub. A 1953 US report on the bombing concluded that the attack destroyed or severely damaged 23% of the city's industrial buildings, and at least 50% of its residential buildings. 5 Group, based at RAF Coningsby. [57], The main bomber force, called Plate Rack, took off shortly after the Pathfinders. Terms & Conditions; Privacy Policy In the midst of winter with refugees pouring westward and troops to be rested, roofs are at a premium, not only to give shelter to workers, refugees, and troops alike, but to house the administrative services displaced from other areas. Theres also the nagging question of timing. [132] The society is committed to reconstructing the historic city centre as much as possible. We saw the burning street, the falling ruins and the terrible firestorm. [77] Frederick Taylor in Dresden (2004), basing most of his analysis on the work of Bergander and Schnatz, concludes that no strafing took place, although some stray bullets from aerial dogfights may have hit the ground and been mistaken for strafing by those in the vicinity. Longmate describes a 22 September 1941 memorandum prepared by the British Air Ministry's Directorate of Bombing Operations that puts numbers to this analysis (, *The number of bombers and tonnage of bombs are taken from a USAF document written in 1953 and classified secret until 1978 (. The death toll for that night is included in the overall estimated total of 37,000 for the series of raids. I mention this, he said, because, for a long time, the Government, for excellent reasons, has preferred the world to think that we still held some scruples and attacked only what the humanitarians are pleased to call military targets. I can assure you, gentlemen, that we tolerate no scruples.. ", "I cannot forget these terrible details. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. At 22:03 the Local Air Raid Leadership issued the first definitive warning: "Warning! [138], The bombing of Dresden has been used by Holocaust deniers and pro-Nazi polemicistsmost notably by British writer David Irvingin an attempt to establish a moral equivalence between the war crimes committed by the Nazi government and the killing of German civilians by Allied bombing raids. Witness the deadly strategic bombing of Hamburg and Dresden by the Allies in World War II, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/bombing-of-Dresden, The National WWII Museum - Apocalypse in Dresden, February 1945, World War II Database - Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities, History Learning Site - The Bombing of Dresden, Warfare History Network - Recalling the devastation of Dresden. Far-right politicians in Germany have sparked a great deal of controversy by promoting the term "Bombenholocaust" ("holocaust by bomb") to describe the raids. Seven hundred and twenty-two heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force and 527 of the USAAF would drop more than 3,900 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices as part of the planned bombing of Dresden. Why did Britain and America bomb Dresden? - Quora Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Allied bombers killed more than 1 million civilians in Germany and Japan, Miller has calculated. There was no electricity or water. Vonnegut notes that many of those railroad facilities were not actually bombed, and those that were hit were restored to operation within several days.[176]. The Dresden bombings achieved the strategic objectives that underlay the attack and were of mutual importance to the Allies and the Russians. It is oft repeated that Churchill ordered the firebombing of Dresden as a vicious payback for the German bombing of Coventry (which Churchill is often accused of allowing to burn rather than reveal his access to the German codes -see FH 35). Troops, tanks and artillery travelled through Dresden by train and by road. Seventy years ago, in the final stages of World War II, a German city of Baroque architecture and art was turned into a flaming caldron. 5 Group flying over the head of the fan (Ostragehege stadium) on prearranged compass bearings and releasing their bombs at different prearranged times.[63][64]. [114][115][116] 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. (Today I know that these unfortunate people were the victims of lack of oxygen.) It first tried to do so in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, but the UK and the US would not agree, since to do so would have been an admission of guilt for their systematic "area bombing" of German and Japanese civilians. The thundering fire reminded me of the biblical catastrophes that I had heard about in my education in the humanities. The southeastern suburbs and two nearby towns were hit this time, along with bridges, train stations, depots, warehouses, and railroad marshaling yards. As the incendiaries fell, the phosphorus clung to the bodies of those below, turning them into human torches. bombing of Dresden Historian Donald Miller writes vividly of the hell unleashed:Peoples shoes melted into the hot asphalt of the streets, and the fire moved so swiftly that many were reduced to atoms before they had time to remove their shoes. So instead the Nazis sent in troops with flamethrowers. The American inquiry established that the Soviets, under allied agreements for the United States and the United Kingdom to provide air support for the Soviet offensive toward Berlin, had requested area bombing of Dresden to prevent a counterattack through Dresden, or the use of Dresden as a regrouping point following a German strategic retreat. (That figure has been repeated for decades, but in 2008 an independent historical commission formed by the city of Dresden concluded that approximately 25,000 persons died in Dresden and another 30,000 were injuredstill a tremendous number.). Even British Prime Minister Winston Churchill expressed doubts immediately after the attack. Suddenly, I saw people again, right in front of me. At 21:59 the Local Air Raid Leadership confirmed that the bombers were in the area of Dresden-Pirna. [92], According to the official German report Tagesbefehl (Order of the Day) no. What happened in Dresden in February 1945 was apocalyptic. WebWhy were the Dresden bombings so controversial, when the Nazis bombed London so ruthlessly? [46] Colonel Harold E. Cook, a US POW held in the Friedrichstadt marshaling yard the night before the attacks, later said that "I saw with my own eyes that Dresden was an armed camp: thousands of German troops, tanks and artillery and miles of freight cars loaded with supplies supporting and transporting German logistics towards the east to meet the Russians".[47]. But there were too many corpses to bury, he said. The German national air-defence system could be used to argueas the tribunal didthat no German city was "undefended". [128] The baroque Church of Our Lady (completed in 1743) had initially appeared to survive the raids, but collapsed a few days later, and the ruins were left in place by later Communist governments as an anti-war memorial. I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me and made my reputation, such as it is. A British paratrooper, Victor Gregg, who had been taken prisoner at Arnhem, Holland, was a POW at Dresden, and he said, The people of Dresden believed that as long as the Luftwaffe kept away from Oxford, Dresden would be spared.. Kurt Vonnegut, a private serving in the 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division, was one of thousands of Americans captured by the Germans in December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge. In the end, the only political action the German government took was to exploit it for propaganda purposes. The bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945 remains one of the more controversial events of World War II. It was a wonderfully beautiful city and a symbol of baroque humanism and all that was best in Germany. Tornado-like winds roared through the city, sucking up oxygen and feeding the inferno. [120][121][122] This was completed on 1 April 1945: the moment has come when the question of the so called 'area-bombing' of German cities should be reviewed from the point of view of our own interests. (Gregg wrote a book about his experiences titled Dresden: A Survivors Story.). [81], Of 796 British bombers that participated in the raid, six were lost, three of those hit by bombs dropped by aircraft flying over them. Many historians have written about the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the all-Black 92nd Infantry Division, who fought with distinction during World War II. [160], German author Gnter Grass is one of several intellectuals and commentators who have also called the bombing a war crime.[161]. The death toll of 135,000 given by Vonnegut was taken from The Destruction of Dresden, a 1963 book by David Irving. Attacks there, where main railway junctions, telephone systems, city administration and utilities were, would result in "chaos". According to Dr. Gregory Stanton, lawyer and president of Genocide Watch: every human being having the capacity for both good and evil. Some have questioned the military value of Dresden. He asserted in Dresden im Luftkrieg (1977) that only a few tales of civilians being strafed were reliable in detail, and all were related to the daylight attack on 14 February. Among its treasures were the baroque Zwinger Palace, the State Opera House known as the Semper Oper, and the Frauenkirche, the latter built in the 1700s. They found no bullets or fragments that would have been used by planes of the Dresden raids. [a] Three more USAAF air raids followed, two occurring on 2 March aimed at the city's railway marshalling yard and one smaller raid on 17 April aimed at industrial areas. I can see her to this day and shall never forget it. At the Arcadia Conference, held in Washington, DC, from December 24, 1941 to January 14, 1942, the Western Allies agreed to a Germany First policy to govern global strategy, but the question where to engage Germany, and when, remained unsettled. Long wanting to target it, he intended to totally eliminate Dresden's capacity to aid the Wehrmacht. It was no longer pinkish-red. The cloud cover was still thick, so the bombs were dropped again using H2X radar. Dresden was a civilian town with no military significance. WebThe punishing, three-day Allied bombing attack on Dresden from February 13 to 15 in the final months of World War II became among the most controversial Allied actions of the In the case of Dresden, as in many other similar attacks, the hour break in between the RAF raids was a deliberate ploy to attack the fire fighters, medical teams, and military units. [169][170] In 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing, Anti-Germans praised the bombing on the grounds that so many of the city's civilians had supported Nazism. ), In a 2014 BBC interview, Gregg further recalled that the POWs were sent into the city on a detail to search for survivors. I was aghast. If both were obscured, they would bomb the centre of Dresden using H2X radar. [c][61] The 'Master Bomber' Wing Commander Maurice Smith, flying in a Mosquito, gave the order to the Lancasters: "Controller to Plate Rack Force: Come in and bomb glow of red target indicators as planned. Since so many victims were immolated after the attacks, we will likely never know the precise number. WebIn the context of this destruction, and because the raids occurred when Nazi Germany's collapse was all but certain, they were immediately controversial. After the outbreak of World War II, the German Luftwaffe bombed Warsaw, Rotterdam, London, Coventry and other cities. Bombing of Dresden in World War II - Wikipedia Air chiefs decided an attack on Dresden could help their Soviet allies - by stopping Nazi troop movements but also by disrupting the German evacuations from the east. of Dresden [90] The same report said that the raids had destroyed the Wehrmacht's main command post in the Taschenbergpalais, 63 administration buildings, the railways, 19 military hospitals, 19 ships and barges, and a number of less significant military facilities. Close to 800 RAF aircraft - led by pathfinders, who dropped flares marking out the bombing area centred on the Ostragehege sports stadium - flew to Dresden that night. Sometimes the victims looked like ordinary people apparently peacefully sleeping. [7] Despite the current understanding of the ability of Nazi Germany to continue the war, at the time, Allied intelligence assessments over emphasized the danger of the Russian advance faltering or the establishment of a Nazi redoubt in Southern Germany (see Alpine Fortress). [167] This provoked an outrage in the German parliament and triggered responses from the media. After he ran from his familys apartment building, it was destroyed by a bomb; his older sister and her two small children died. [134], The reconstruction of the surrounding Neumarkt buildings continues to this day. [25], A large scale aerial attack on Berlin and other eastern cities was examined under the code name Operation Thunderclap in mid-1944, but was shelved on 16 August. Although its historic center still stood intact, the city didnot escapethe impact of the ongoing collapse of the German war effort on the Eastern Front in January and February 1945. Bergander recalled how unceremoniously the dead were treated. Similar rallies take place every year.[171]. [159], Historian Donald Bloxham states, "The bombing of Dresden on 1314 February 1945 was a war crime". The unease was made worse by an Associated Press story that the Allies had resorted to terror bombing. In March 1945, Churchill himself sent a memo intended for the British Chiefs of Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff: 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. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. The Bombing of Dresden: Was the Attack Fully Justified? And, with most of its antiaircraft guns having been removed to defend elsewhere, Dresden was essentially undefended as the bombers strucka sitting duck. So many people were horribly burnt and injured. Steinhoff, Johannes, Peter Pechel, and Dennis Showalter. Churchill subsequently re-evaluated the goals of the bombing campaigns, to focus less on strategic targets, and more toward targets of tactical significance. There were also factories engaged in arms production there. [129], The new Frauenkirche was reconstructed over seven years by architects using 3D computer technology to analyse old photographs and every piece of rubble that had been kept and was formally consecrated on 30 October 2005, in a service attended by some 1,800 guests, including Germany's president, Horst Khler, previous chancellors, Gerhard Schrder and Angela Merkel, and the Duke of Kent. Factories there produced gun sights, bomb fuses, poison gas.. Seventy years ago, she was a 3-year-old whose family had fled their home near the Russian front. Not even four when the war ended, Maria was surrounded by death. The photographs snapped by Richard Peter months after the firestorm have not lost any of their capacity to unsettle. The Germans started the war, was his firm conviction until the day he died in 1984. Some argue it is a moral failing for the Allies, or even a war crime. The Media's Coverage of the Supreme Court Is Embarrassing [11] Critics of the bombing have asserted that Dresden was a cultural landmark with little strategic significance, and that the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and were not proportionate to the military gains. 4.24 17 ratings3 reviews *Includes pictures *Includes contemporary accounts In the middle of February 1945, the Allies were steadily advancing against the Germans from both east and west, with British and American forces having repulsed the German offensive during the Battle of the Bulge and the Soviet Unions Red Army pushing from the east. His enquiry reflected the importance that the Soviet Union attached to an attack on the city, following intelligence reports that Germany was moving large numbers of troops towards the Breslau Front. SS personnel played a key role in creating these makeshift funeral pyres. But the bombing has become one of the most controversial Allied acts of World War Two. Ordered by Deputy Chief of the Air Staff Norman Bottomley to bomb the city,Air Marshal Arthur Harris, head of the RAF's Bomber Command, envisioned massive raidson Dresden. Because the city lacked adequate bomb shelters, many civilians took to their basements. After all, innocent civilians were killed by the jets that were used as bombs on Sept. 11, 2001. After 9/11, Reifer said, instead of the U.S. invading Iraq, did you see the American people say Lets hold back and not get involved?. Grierson answered that the primary aim was to attack communications to prevent the Germans from moving military supplies, and to stop movement in all directions if possible. One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. As family lore or academic history, Dresden is a thorny subject with multiple interpretations and few easy answers. [151] It is also stated that the important Autobahn bridge to the west of the city was not targeted or attacked, and that no railway stations were on the British target maps, nor any bridges, such as the railway bridge spanning the Elbe River. At this point in the war, the citizens of the capital of the German state of Saxony were beginning to think that they were living a charmed life. Fire brigades rushed into the heart of the burning city, working without success to contain the fires that were now devouring block after block of apartments, shops, churches, and historic structures. Initial German estimates put the number of dead at around 200,000; postwar analysis lowered the numbers to around 25,000. The Nazi Holocaust was among the most evil genocides in history. But to do so was always repugnant and now that the Germans are beaten anyway we can properly abstain from proceeding with these attacks. It was overdone, it was excessive and is to be regretted enormously," but, "A war crime is a very specific thing which international lawyers argue about all the time and I would not be prepared to commit myself nor do I see why I should. Mass graves became the final resting places for thousands. The last group to attack Dresden was the 306th, and they finished by 12:30. We realize that we haven't always hit our objectives. It must have been visible to the pilots from a hundred miles away. They sent these gifts of survival. A handful of stunned survivors picked their way through the still-burning rubble, searching for relatives or anything of value. John Kenneth Galbraith was among those in the Roosevelt administration who had qualms about the bombing. [104], On 25 February, a new leaflet with photographs of two burned children was released under the title "DresdenMassacre of Refugees", stating that 200,000 had died. Vonnegut, being American, did not want to write his account in such a way that the whole thing could be blamed on the British. Sixty bombed Prague, dropping 153 tons of bombs, while others bombed Brx and Pilsen. Operation Gomorrah, the RAFs obliteration of Hamburg in July 1943, provided a fearful precedent. Soon Dresden was engulfed in the kind of hellish firestorm that had destroyed Hamburg in July 1943 and killed 41,800 people. Exact figures are unknown, but reliable estimates were calculated based on train arrivals, foot traffic, and the extent to which emergency accommodation had to be organised. At 22:00 hours, the force heading for Bhlen split away from Plate Rack, which turned south east toward the Elbe. On the morning of 14 February 431 United States Army Air Force bombers of the Eighth Air Force's 1st Bombardment Division were scheduled to bomb Dresden near midday, and the 457 aircraft of 3rd Bombardment Division were to follow to bomb Chemnitz, while the 375 bombers of the 2nd Bombardment Division would bomb a synthetic oil plant in Magdeburg. WebA brilliant theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer was tapped to head up a laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as part of U.S. efforts to develop nuclear The marshaling yards were not hit. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The second attack, three hours later, was by Lancaster aircraft of 1, 3, 6 and 8 Groups, 8 Group being the Pathfinders. bombing of Dresden [9], During his post-war interrogation, Albert Speer, Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production, said that Dresden's industrial recovery from the bombings was rapid. WebCritics of the bombing have asserted that Dresden was a cultural landmark with little strategic significance, and that the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and were [b] This was a group of Lancasters from Bomber Command's 83 Squadron, No. On February 15, a fourth raid hit Dresden. Suddenly, I saw people again, right in front of me. The raid did not use extraordinary means but was comparable to other raids used against comparable targets. As historian Kenneth P. Werrell states in his article, The Strategic Bombing of Germany in WWII: Costs and Accomplishments, perhaps in no other field of history do so many 'feel' and believe so much, rely on so little analysis and proof, It took three weeks before he was reunited with his mother., Another survivor, Hanns Voight, said later, Never had I expected to see people interred in that state: burnt, cremated, torn and crushed to death. They fainted and then burnt to cinders. An RAF memo issued to airmen on the night of the attack gave some reasoning for the raid: Dresden, the seventh largest city in Germany and not much smaller than Manchester is also the largest unbombed builtup area the enemy has got. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The U.S. Eighth Air Force followed the next day with another 400 tons of bombs and carried out yet another raid by 210 bombers on February 15. On 5 January 1945, two North American B-25 Mitchell bombers dropped 300,000 leaflets over Dresden with the "Appeal of 50 German generals to the German army and people". In the United States, U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, who also felt the heat from the destruction of Dresden, authorized an inquiry that came to the conclusion that the raid, based on the intelligence available, was fully justified because Dresden was a place through which German forces could be moved to reinforce their lines on the Eastern Front. In that sense it is an absolutely exemplary tragedy for the horrors of 20th century warfare and a symbol of destruction.. The US lost one. Germany was on its knees. By now, the thousands of fires from the burning city could be seen more than 60mi (97km) away on the ground, and 500mi (800km) away in the air, with smoke rising to 15,000ft (4,600m). On the night of February 13, the British Bomber Command hit Dresden with an 800-bomber air raid, dropping some 2,700 tons of bombs, including large numbers of incendiaries. More than 3,900 tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs would be dropped on the city in the two-day raid. Bergander has left us this unforgettable statement: There was an indescribable roar in the airthe fire. Some historians also believe that Roosevelt and Churchill worried that after the war their ally Stalin and the USSR might become a threat and wanted the obliteration of Dresden to serve as a demonstration of Allied military powerand a warning to Stalin to not challenge the West. "The Bombing of Dresden," in. The idea that Germany was completely down and out was really not the case.. The firestorm created in the initial raid now reached a fury of devastation that beggars the imagination. The U.S. Eighth Air Force was scheduled to fly the initial strikes during the bombing of Dresden on February 13 but they were canceled because of poor weather. Today I know that these unfortunate people were the victims of a lack of oxygen. A story at the time published by the Associated Press news agency said the Allies were conducting terror bombing, spreading further alarm. I think these three reasons probably cover the bombing. While there were legitimate military targets in Dresden, how can one sanction the deliberate targeting of the civilian population? Survivors of the bombing and firestorm remove rubble from the streets of Dresden in March 1946; by then the city was under Soviet occupation and more hardships lay ahead. If, however it is also a startling one, this is probably less the result of widespread understanding of the nuance of international law and more because in the popular mind 'war criminal', like 'paedophile' or 'terrorist', has developed into a moral rather than a legal categorisation". Initially, some of the leadership, especially Robert Ley and Joseph Goebbels, wanted to use it as a pretext for abandonment of the Geneva Conventions on the Western Front. Soon, the five foot five airman would make US military aviation history. It became more and more difficult to breathe. In total, the British lost six bombers in the attack, three to planes accidentally hitting each other with bombs. [160] He further argues there was a strong prima facie case for trying Winston Churchill among others and a theoretical case Churchill could have been found guilty. To my left I suddenly see a woman. At age 12, Alejandro Nazario lived on the street until he met an Escondido patrol officer who put him in protective custody. His studio having burned in the attack with his life's work, Rudolph immediately set out to record the destruction, systematically drawing block after block, often repeatedly to show the progress of clearing or chaos that ensued in the ruins. It was her introduction to the Holocaust, and she was shocked. But local leaders forced a compromise for rebuilding part of the city centre and placing the modern construction outsidein effect, encircling old Dresden with a newer city. [173] In one of those essays, Vonnegut paraphrased leaflets dropped by the Allies in the days after the bombings as saying: To the people of Dresden: We were forced to bomb your city because of the heavy military traffic your railroad facilities have been carrying. Read about our approach to external linking. I am of the opinion that military objectives must henceforward be more strictly studied in our own interests than that of the enemy. Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. Alternatively, the report warned that the Germans might hold out until November if they could prevent the Soviets from taking Silesia.
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