The 2nd World War it is probably the saddest period in modern history. But within all the innumerable atrocities that were committed in the war there are some that stand out above others. One of them is undoubtedly the bombing of dresdenan operation in which the allies took their revenge against Nazi Germany by burning the city of Dresden to the ground.
When talking about the war crimes and atrocities of the Second World War, one almost always thinks directly of Nazi Germany and the barbarities they committed, such as the concentration camps in which they tried (and almost succeeded) in annihilating an entire people, the Jewish. However, they were not the only ones who committed true atrocities, but were also victims of some of them. The good side, that of the allies, also took justice into their own hands at one point, bombing the city of Dresden with the sole objective of returning to the German nation part of the suffering it had caused.
The bombing in Dresden
Three days of madness, horror and death. The bombing of Dresden it had no other name. A war crime that unfortunately was not declared as such because those who carried it out were the supposed “saviors of the world”, those who defeated and brought to light the entire damned Nazi holocaust. But for the English and Americans, Germany needed a lesson. It mattered little that war was on her last breath; that the Russians practically perfected the assault on Berlin after having crossed the Oder, or that even the Westerners had already crossed the Rhine. It didn’t matter that Dresden It was full of war wounded and refugees fleeing the horror of other cities, trying to find their way to Berlin looking for one last place to hide. It mattered little that this was not an important strategic point at the time, nor was it an important obstacle in the advance of the troops.
It was a lesson, and a promise made to Stalin during the Yalta Conference on February 11 that the British and Americans had to fulfill.
That February 13, 1945 has remained in history as the largest bombing recorded on a civilian population. The city of Dresden was practically annihilated.. Monuments, bridges, buildings, houses, streets, nothing was left standing, only ruins and death. 35,000 according to the English, 350,000 according to the Germans…
It was 10:09 p.m. on February 13 when German radio stations cut off their broadcast to transmit warning sounds of approaching Allied planes. Nobody could have thought that the 9 “mosquitoes” (English fighters) of reconnaissance were going to mark Dresden as the big goal. But they did so by delimiting it with red flares, and illuminating the entire city with as many to avoid mistakes by the bombers.
Minutes later, 245 bombers flew over the city. The rain of bombs was such that the only bomber shot down was because a bomb dropped by another bomber flying above him fell on him. It was 10:15 p.m. and 15 minutes of intense bombardment were enough to leave the city in ruins. 524 blockbuster bombs, each capable of destroying a full block of streets, plus 1,800 explosive bombs were dropped in that first attack. They did not try to avoid any buildings: they bombed everything, including hospitals, nursing homes and schools. The city was a hopeless wail of screams and sobs. But still, they were not satisfied.
They no longer needed mosquito planes to target them in the second wave of planes. It was 1:30 p.m. in the morning. The city was on fire. Rescuers and medical help had arrived from nearby cities, but when they heard the noises again of the bombers approaching they were already upon them. This time no one could tell them because the city was without electricity. The number of bombers had doubled. On this occasion 550 British Lancaster bombers flew over Dresden. And the bombs they carried on this occasion were incendiary bombs meant to do as much damage to buildings as possible. No more and no less than 650,000 bombs were dropped and 15 square kilometers of territory were bombed. With this second bombing, Dresden, a city that had historically become famous for the art and culture it contained, was reduced to ashes. Curiously, a projection of this second bombardment is kept at the Imperial War Museum in London.
The chaos was complete. There was no water, no food, no medicine, no sufficient means to put out the flames in the city, or care for the hundreds of thousands of wounded. And yet the horror was not over.
At 12:12 p.m. On February 14, the third wave of bombers arrived, dropping another deluge of death on the city. This time there were 311 B-17 bombers from the US forces accompanied by five fighters. this time 1,800 explosive bombs and more than 126,000 incendiary bombs fell on the city. The fighters that accompanied them dedicated themselves to strafing the groups of survivors who, as best they could, escaped from the city.
At 10:15 a.m. On February 15, the Frauenkirche Church, the symbol of the city, finally collapsed. But still, there was still one last airstrike of lesser consistency this time. 211 American B17s dropped a further 460 incendiary bombs.
Even after those days, the horror continued, as the fires took several days to go out and the dead accumulated in the streets. In addition to the toxic cloud produced by the vapors from the bombs, the fire, the ashes, the lack of breathable air, there was the risk of disease. On February 25, 3,865 bodies had to be cremated, unidentified, in the current old market square. 25,000 were buried in the cemetery.
If you want to see the before and after of this beautiful city, Dresden, you have the images at sobrefotos.com
One more fact: Arthur Harris was the “lucid” inventor of this type of bombing: massive bombing of civilian populations to reduce enemy morale. England granted him the title of Sir for his enormous “worth”…
Dresden, known as the “Florence of the Elbe” for the signs of the Renaissance and Baroque that could be seen in its streets since the Middle Ages, had lost everything. Fortunately, after years of effort and hard work, Dresden has regained its beauty and peace. Being currently one of the most visited cities in Germany.
The reactions on the part of the Germans were immediate, although they evolved as time passed since the bombing. Goebbels is said to have wept for 20 minutes of rage after learning of the attack on the city, and that he blamed Goring entirely. Goring was one of Hitler’s most trusted lieutenants, but by this point in the war he had already lost all credit for him as he dedicated himself to living opulently and neglected his military charges. In the following months the German media emphasized the fact that in the city of Dresden there were no weapons factories or weapons stores of any kind and that it was an eminently cultural city.
On the flip side, the bombing of Dresden also caused it to be the first time that British intellectual circles questioned the methods being used to defeat Nazi Germany. From many sectors the bombing was seen as an inhumane act in which the British army only tried to terrorize the city and the rest of the city. The British army defended itself by saying that the city of Dresden was an important communications center and that this was precisely its objective, to destroy communications with Dresden to prevent the transfer of weapons.
Churchill sent a telegram to the British urging them to stop indiscriminate bombing of German cities. The telegram was answered by the British commander Arthur Harris, who justified the bombing of Dresden by saying that it was a nest of arms factories and an administrative center that was still intact. Furthermore, he added that all the German cities left standing together were not worth a single British soldier.
It must be said that the bombing of the city of Dresden is not the largest carried out by the allies during the Second World War, although in this sense there are many doubts about the figures of deaths (which, as we have already seen, range between the 30,000 that the allies to the 300,000 that the Germans say). If we look at the official figures, other cities suffered even more virulent bombardments, such as tokyo, where more than 100,000 people died. Even some German cities had more casualties than Dresden as a result of the bombing, for example hamburgin which the allies affirm that the bombings left some 60,000 dead.
The bombing of Dresden has gone down in history as one of the symbols of the cruelty and senselessness of war. It is true that Nazi Germany was also very cruel to other nations and had no scruples in trying to exterminate entire races. However, taking a retaliation of this caliber when the enemy is already defeated is a totally disproportionate measure, aimed only at giving the German nation a great lesson and making it pay for all the suffering it had caused during the years of war.
And it is that in wars, even if you try to fight a common enemy, nobody has friends and nothing matters except killing more people than your rival. In a war the good guys are never the good guys. Moreover, the allies shielded themselves on many occasions in the need to make drastic decisions to carry out great slaughters. Without going any further, you just have to remember how the war ended, after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The bombing of Dresden left the morale of the German nation very touched, a nation that saw how its entire structure was collapsing. Today international opinion is still wondering (although the answer is clear) if Dresden really was an important strategic objective. However, the intensity of the bombing was totally disproportionate, with the aim of completely reducing the city to ashes. There are still those who wonder if it really was an excessively aggressive retaliation or if it was directly a war crime.
We hope that you liked the article and that you know something more about this sad episode (another one) in our history): To finish, we leave you with a video and some links that you might find interesting to complement the information in the article.
Links of interest
In Overstory we have many other articles that you may find very interesting:
And if you liked the article, do not hesitate to share it with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Google +.