Bombing of Dresden 1945

[Mari]

In 1945, Arthur Harris decided to create a firestorm in the medieval city of Dresden. He considered it a good target as it had not been attacked during the war and was virtually undefended by anti-aircraft guns. The population of the city was now far greater than the normal 650,000 due to the large numbers of refugees fleeing from the advancing Red Army.

On the 13th February 1945, 773 Avro Lancasters bombed Dresden. During the next two days the USAAF sent over 527 heavy bombers to follow up the RAF attack. Dresden was nearly totally destroyed. As a result of the firestorm it was afterwards impossible to count the number of victims. Recent research suggest that 35,000 were killed but some German sources have argued that it was over 100,000.

Even though some ppl still say it was payback for Coventry (1940) - it was not. Harris created a list of some fifty major target cities, usually selected for their size, war production, or critical location on transportation routes. In short, Dresden was not a vengeance target, but a military one, and one more 'built up area' that was to be destroyed like the others in Germany.

However... I am from Dresden and so is my whole Family. My Grandparents almost died during that Air Raid so of course I find NOTHING funny about this. My Grandmother was 16 and my Grandfather was 18 when all that happened and they we´re lucky they made it. Of course they told me a lot of things about what they have seen, heard and how it felt to have to go through this...

Since today is the 66th Anniversary of of the bombing of Dresden I thought I make this Thread...

[fuckyourshit]

fail

[Mari]

Originally Posted by fuckyourshit

fail

Nope :). Stupid Pics were gone for some reason... Now there back lol....

[Faline]

Nice post

[dooshman]

Well, you can blame only one person for all this chaos, death and destruction, and his name is Adolph Hitler. Just reminding you, so you don't go jumping the gun and pointing the finger at the wrong people for this.

[Mari]

Originally Posted by dooshman

Well, you can blame only one person for all this chaos, death and destruction, and his name is Adolph Hitler. Just reminding you, so you don't go jumping the gun and pointing the finger at the wrong people for this.

Nobody points the finger... and NO you can´t blame Adolf Hitler for ALL this...

[eatonbeavers]

Great post MaLoSco.
I am glad your grand parents survived this.
It must have been very scarry being a civilian living in Dresdun when all of this was happening.

[dooshman]

Originally Posted by MaLoSco

Nobody points the finger... and NO you can´t blame Adolf Hitler for ALL this...

Oh? Who shares the fault? Mussolini (I don't know why I picked this loser's name)? Perhaps it was the failure of the Treaty of Versailles? The Great Crash of 1929? The United States, Great Britain and France's failure to block German rearmament? Von Hindenburg? Von Papen? Hmmm. Gotta think about that.

One person is responsible for the destruction in Europe, and that's Hitler. Not Stalin, Roosevelt, Chamberlain, Churchill, The Great Crash, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, Frank Sinatra, Ma' Bell, but Adolph Hitler. His prejudices and megalomania drove him to an obsessive desire to conquer and destroy. Sad part about it, he didn't give a rat's ass about his own people, and in the end, threw them away as if they were garbage. Oh, by the way, Hitler wasn't even German. He was Austrian. What a character.

And the decision to bomb Dresden wasn't Arthur Harris', but rather, he gave his "opinion" to his superiors that this would be a most desirable target. The reason behind this action were the reports from British intelligence that large German troop movements from west to east were passing through the virtually untouched railways and roads close to and through Dresden, and these same troops were being used to try and stem the tide of the advancing Red Army. The Allies wanted to help the Soviets as much as possible, since, by early February, 1945, Zhukov's soldiers had already established a foothold west of the Oder River, only 70 miles from Berlin, and was preparing to make a final surge for the German capital. To create as much mayhem as possible among the German populace, and to destroy moral among the civilians and military, the United States and England launched a massive, three-day, round-the-clock bombing campaign of Dresden, Chemnitz and Leipzig, with the RAF striking at night, and the USAAF striking during the day.

There was no one person who made a decision regarding this operation (Thunderclap), but, rather, the collective whole of Allied political and military leaders. Their goal was to bomb an aggressive, malevolent and stubborn enemy to submission. Amen to the Allies.

[Captain Condom]

Originally Posted by MaLoSco

Nobody points the finger... and NO you can´t blame Adolf Hitler for ALL this...

What a stupid post. If Hitler had not declared war on the rest of Europe and killed millions and millions of innocent people then your country would not have been attacked.
I am glad your grand parents survived but remember they most likely voted him in power in the first place.

[Mari]

Originally Posted by devilhunter

What a stupid post. If Hitler had not declared war on the rest of Europe and killed millions and millions of innocent people then your country would not have been attacked.
I am glad your grand parents survived but remember they most likely voted him in power in the first place.

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-m...tarted-the-war

Of course my country would have been attacked, one way or another this was a World War. He killed millions and millions of innocent ppl? That was a little dramatic dnt u think? It was WAR so yeah ppl were killed. Nobody of my Family voted the Nazis in the first place it was a Eat or be eaten situation. You were with them or else.... In the end Adolf Hilter was just a tool and not more... Anyway that Dresden Air Raid was NOT necessary at all - Dresden had no military importance at that stage of the war and wasn't an industrial city....