Dresden was not unique. Allied bombers killed tens of thousands and destroyed large areas with attacks on Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin, and the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
But the bombing has become one of the most controversial Allied acts of World War Two. Some have questioned the military value of Dresden. This story contains graphic images. Dresden is the capital of the state of Saxony. Before the bombing it was referred to as the Florence on the Elbe or the Jewel Box, for its climate and its architecture.
By February , Dresden was only about km miles from the Eastern Front, where Nazi Germany was defending against the advancing armies of the Soviet Union in the final months of the war. The city was a major industrial and transportation hub.
Scores of factories provided munitions, aircraft parts and other supplies for the Nazi war effort. Troops, tanks and artillery travelled through Dresden by train and by road. Hundreds of thousands of German refugees fleeing the fighting had also arrived in the city. 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. RAF bomber raids on German cities had increased in size and power after more than five years of war.
Planes carried a mix of high explosive and incendiary bombs: the explosives would blast buildings apart, while the incendiaries would set the remains on fire, causing further destruction.
Previous attacks had annihilated entire German cities. The resulting assault and unusually dry and hot weather caused a firestorm - a blaze so great it creates its own weather system, sucking winds in to feed the flames - which destroyed almost the whole city. The attack on Dresden began on 13 February Close to RAF aircraft - led by pathfinders, who dropped flares marking out the bombing area centred on the Ostragehege sports stadium - flew to Dresden that night. In the space of just 25 minutes, British planes dropped more than 1, tons of bombs.
Some jumped into reservoirs built in the city centre to assist firefighters. However, these were ten feet deep, smooth-sided and had no ladders — many drowned. Very few of those in the city centre survived — those that did provided a vivid picture of what it was like to be in a firestorm.
There were so many bodies that this took two weeks to complete. A vast amount of the city was destroyed and when the Red Army took it over, the city had all but ceased to exist. In the midst of winter with refugees pouring westwards and troops to be rested, roofs are at a premium. The intentions of the attack are to hit the enemy where he will feel it most, behind an already partially collapsed front, to prevent the use of the city in the way of further advance, and incidentally to show the Russians when they arrive what Bomber Command can do.
We were completely surprised and rushed back down to the cellars of the hospital. The fire had become a furious white and yellow, and the sky was just one massive mountain of cloud. Only two-and-a-half hours passed before the populace confronted a second wave of Lancasters. This group consisted of heavy bombers, more than twice the size of the first wave. Between approximately and a. The firestorm created in the initial raid now reached a fury of devastation that beggars the imagination.
The fire melted iron and steel, turned stone into powder, and caused trees to explode from the heat of their own resin. People running from the fire could feel its heat through their backs, burning their lungs. Yet everyone who survived that night especially recalled the ferocious winds accompanying the fires. With towers of smoke from the RAF attacks still shooting 15, feet into the air, the Americans had enormous difficulty finding their targets. And this was not the finale.
On February 15, a fourth raid hit Dresden. More than Bs, originally sent to destroy an oil plant close to nearby Leipzig, switched targets due to poor weather. The marshaling yards were not hit. The same could not be said about residential areas. The Eighth Air Force returned on March 2 and April 17, again going after the rail yards and industrial districts. Dresden remained ablaze for weeks. Bergander recalled how unceremoniously the dead were treated.
Fear of disease led the Germans to pile the corpses on top of iron grates, soak them with benzene, and cremate them. SS personnel played a key role in creating these makeshift funeral pyres. The smell permeated everything. Dresden was a key transport junction. To Churchill and his war cabinet, this made Dresden a strategic target.
Bombing the city might halt the flow of German troops and speed the advance of the Soviet army into Germany.
Bombing Dresden might help the Russian war effort. There may have been another reason for choosing Dresden as a target. Bombing was believed to have an effect on morale.
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