German Wwii
What was the the reasons for British & Americans firebombing and killing German civilians in the Second World War?
Ron and Alex. Thank you both for clear answers and concise. I have a standard answer when the subject of Dresden rises. For those of you who have read my answer before I apologize. For those you who don`t, please read until the end for the facts I learned from 30 years of research with many authors ECORD Office and the public at Kew. The biggest problem of treating the issue of the bombing of Germany, is that it is judged against the modern morals and standards of behavior. Civilians suffered during the war from the earliest times. When the barbarians sacked Rome they slaughtered men, women and children. When the French stormed the Spanish cities during the Spanish civil war within the citizens have been killed and the cities violated and looted. The powers during the 19th century and early 20th century set of rules more stringent conduct during the war attempts to prevent such excesses, but until the Geneva Convention came there was no hard and fast “rules of war.” In 1945 Geneva Convention does not prohibit general bombardment of a city to destroy its industrial capacity. We must look at Dresden in the light of the morality of the time. Some people in Dresden and elsewhere claim that the bombing of Dresden by the RAF and the USAF is a crime war. In my opinion, it was not. I’m not in any way denying the fact that what happened in Dresden was horrific and appalling. The bombing of Dresden has been used since 1945 as a tool to beat the RAF about its conduct during WW2. The bombing of an industrialized city from the air in an attempt to destroy their industry or to cause this loss of morale among its inhabitants who have stopped working is not a crime by the settlement of the war in 1945. The bombing of Coventry, London and other British cities in 1940 and 1941 was not a war crime. In Europe we have not had the “industrial zones” granted cities in the New World. The plants were in and around areas where the workforce has experienced. One side of the street would be the wall of the factory; on the other side of the street would be the workers’ houses. Unfortunately this has led to what today is called “collateral damage” Dresden burned so heavily for several reasons. There was a medieval town with many wooden buildings. There had been a dry winter in the region which means many buildings were a tinderbox. The people were not used to air raids and did not have the knowledge you need to quickly deal with incendiaries. The raids had little opposition because his air defenses had been taken by the Germans for use on the Eastern Front. Therefore, the bombers were able to put their loads in a concentrated space with or without little opposition. Dresden was not “chosen for destruction.” This was a raid on an industrial center that will quite right, with terrible consequences due to many circumstances some of which I listed above. Why did so many people die? The 35,000 people who died (the top number absolute using all reliable sources) did so for the reasons above and the fact that Dresden Air Raid Precautions were appallingly bad. There have been little, if any, properly constructed public shelters despite money having been allocated for those who have been expended by the citizens local air raid shelters on their houses in the suburbs. People therefore sheltered in basements of houses which, because of the storm over filled noxious fumes and killed the occupants before the houses collapsed on them and burned their corpses. Many people have claimed in the past 60 odd years that Dresden was a quiet peaceful going about its business and waiting for war to end. Reading the paragraphs below are extracted from the search by myself and many others for the truth about “quiet, peaceful, nothing to do with the war in Dresden. In early 1945, war was far from over. The Allies were still camped outside the borders of Germany, the V2 rockets were still down. The Allies had just fought the Battle of the Bulge where the supposedly defeated Germans suddenly hit a huge hole in the Allied lines, German Jets and Rocket came out of production lines and proceed to tear the hell of Allied air fleets. It was an operation conducted for several reasons. 1. An application of the Russians at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. General Antonov “We want the junction of railways Dresden bombed “Meeting between the Chiefs of Staff as reported by an interpreter. The documents kept at the office of public records, Kew 2. It was a base of operations against the German Marshall Konev `s left flank as he advanced into Germany. (See above) captured German High Command papers Berlin in 1945 that “Dresden is to be fortified like a military fortress, to be held at any price.” These statements are also supported by decrypts from Bletchley Park Ultra. 3. ammunition depot in the old Arsenal Dresden. 4. the troop strength and the center transport transferring an average of 28 trains through the troops of the yard every day. Russian intelligence sources and other documents stored in a public office in Kew 5. communications center. Most telephone lines connecting the High Command of the Eastern front, which was in Dresden. 6. Quote The Chamber of Dresden 1944. “The pace of work in Dresden is determined by the needs of our army.” There were 127 factories in the Dresden area Municipal. The most famous of these was the celebrated Zeiss camera and manufacturer of optics. In 1945, he turned to the bomb equipment and time fuses. (If you think the Dresden China Works making those lovely shepherds are the most famous, they are actually made Meisen within 12 km of the river and have always been.) A factory that previously made to write and sewing machines was made firearms and ammunition The waffle maker and the machine has been the production of marzipan for torpedoes the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. The crafts in the old city were using their woodworking skills to make the tail assemblies for V-1. Other factories were not as warlike goods as projectors, aircraft components, field telephones and radio mode 2. Yet another quote, “He who knows Dresden only as a cultural city would be very surprised to be made aware of the intense and versatile Dresden one of the places FOREMOST Industrial Reich. (Caps are mine) Sir Arthur Harris? An exponent of post-war bombing campaign? Nope both wrong. It comes from the Municipal Council of Dresden Yearbook 1942. The men who carried out these acts is the desire to make a world in which their descendants and fellow countrymen, including myself, can live free from persecution and freedom with to ask questions and form their own opinions. For those of you who feel it necessary to label the war criminals and I ask if you think you could have asked a similar question in Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan?