Dresden 45

Today marks the 65th anniversary of the Dresden terror bombing in Germany near the end of World War II.  From the night of Feb 13th through 14th, 1945 the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the USAAF mercilessly firebombed the city center of this yet, untouched capital of Saxon.  The result?  The evisceration of 15 square miles of city block and the slaughter of up to 40,000 people.  It remains as one of the worst war crimes perpetrated to date.

The razing of Dresden, as ordered by Winston Churchill was quite likely for reasons other than defeating the Germans.  Dresden had been declared as Die Lazarettstadt, a hospital city and also known as Fluechtlingsstadt, or City of Refugees--not as a crucial launching pad for Nazi operations.  The key military and industrial installations that were in Dresden, resided in the suburbs--not the center city that was destroyed.  In addition, a key railway station that was allegedly targeted remained structurally intact enough to be operational within days.  The most damning evidence that this was not a strategic military operation is that a key Luftwaffe airfield, only a few kilometers north of the city, was not attacked.  

The aerial assault resulted in an ocean of fire purportedly 3 miles long by 2 miles wide.  Temperatures of 1100 degrees Farenheit sucked the oxygen into the fire and winds of 100 miles per hour hurled people into the raging inferno.  Victims perished by being burned alive, via direct hits from carpet bombing, and most disturbingly by asphyxiation, as the giant fire pulled the oxygen out of cellars, basements and other places of gathering.  Needless to say, it has been described by survivors as an utter scene of panic and horror.  The aftermath--the carnage, the cremation of bodies stacked high in pyres, burning day after night is equally gruesome.

So why was Dresden attacked?  The conventional argument that it was to defeat the Germans doesn't hold up given the facts.  The alternate argument--to weaken the Eastern front for the Soviets also is equally untrue.  It has been falsely claimed that the Soviets requested an Allied air campaign--in fact the Russians were marching forward so quickly that the Anglo-Americans feared that they would penetrate deeper into Germany than they wanted them to.  According to this article by Jacques Pauwels, Dresden was destroyed because of Operation Thunderclap.  Thunderclap, a plan to obliterate a German city evolved in its goal--no longer to defeat the Germans, but to send a message to the Kremlin that the UK/US air power would reign supreme.  To let Stalin know in no uncertain terms that they better play the game right, or a similar fate could happen to any city in Russia.  Dresden was carefully picked for its location on the East near the Russians and as a virgin, untouched city--to show the effects of superior, massive Western air firepower.  The evidence strongly supports this.

The Dresden firestorm was seen at least 50 miles away (some reports of 180 miles) and up to 15,000 feet high, well in the glancing eyeballs of the advancing Red Army.  The British RAF could have easily have flown solo on this project.  But the USAAF joined forces--not only to provide Churchill some cover in this heinous act, but to show that this was a multi-player game and the the Ruskies best be afraid.  It is quite unfortunate that this chess match, the opening salvo in the Cold War, was played with the lives of so many--a massacre remembered, 65 years ago today.