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Bombing of Dresdon

On February 13-14, 1945 the British Royal Air Force gave
the final clearance to commence what would later become known as
one of the greatest atrocities that has ever been commited
against a civilian population. That night the RAF launched 796
bombers and 9 Mosquitoes which carried 1,478 tons of explosives
in addition to 1,182  tons of incendiary bombs (Dear 311) which
turned the city of Dresden, Germany into a virtual inferno. This
attack included another strike by the US Air Force the following
morning. The attack on Dresden was never a legitimate act of war,
and its result was the terroristic mass murder of over 135,000
people.
     Bombing civilian targets in enemy territory became an open
issue on March 30, 1942 when the Prime Minister.s science
advisor, Professor F.A. Lindemann (who later was recognized as
Lord Cherwell) delivered to Winston Churchill a report which
contained a strong argument in favor of striking civilian
targets. .Cherwell.s report contained the final rationalization
for the program Bomber Command was undertaking., and it would
henceforth be paper-clipped to the plans of the bomber offensive.
(Hastings). In his report,  Lindemann estimated that forty tons
of explosives detonated in heavily populated areas would destroy
the homes of 4,000-8,000 people. The report also stated that
there was a population of 22 million people in fifty-eight of the
major cities in Germany. Lindemann claimed that a nation of
refugees could be the result of strategic air attacks. It is
wildly believed among scholars that the information cont.ained in
this report was the basis of the attack on Dresden. 

        Lindemann¦s figures were correct, but his thinking was
immoral  and inhumane. The people to whom his statistics referred
so objectively were innocent civilians, more than half of them
women and children. The assault upon them was nothing more that
out-right murder. Any benefit gained by destroying these
civilians. lives, families, and homes was countered ten-fold by
the moral reprehensibility of such a clearly criminal act.
        The city of Dresden was a historic center of Europe, and
was known world wide for its splendid architecture. It was the
capital of Saxony, and located along the banks of the Elbe river.
Dresden had very little industrial activity, and it was a target
only once before in a small raid by the US Air Force in October
of 1944. It was a city that was also known for its production of
fine China, and its glorious museums (Dear 311). The city was not
at all suspected to be a target for attack because of the
population influx that had occurred in result of refugees running
from allied forces. Due to this situation, the Germans moved most
of their air defense stations to other cities that were more
likly targets.  The city had become a hub for not only refugees,
but also for POW camps, and hospitals. Of the 19 hospitals in the
city, three were totally demolished, and the rest were partially
damaged. Many of these hospitals housed wounded allied soldiers.
(Barnes Review 10) The attack resulted in the incineration of
over 135,000 civilians. The motive behind the attack was to
destroy the city, and in effect weaken enemy morale both
militarily, and on the home front. The Allied forces did not take
into account the political harm that this tremendous loss of of
civilian lives would bring upon them.

 In January, 1943, at the Roosevelt-Churchill Casablanca
Conference this directive read "Your primary aim will be the
progressive destruction and dislocation of the German Military,
industrial and economic system, and the undermining of the morale
of the German people to the point where their capacity for armed
resistance is fatally weakened..(Barnes Review).  The method
comprised to strip the Germans of their morale was the
destruction of their cities.  Several weeks after the fact,
rescue teams found bunkers where ¦the heat had been so intense
that nothing remained of their occupants: only a soft undulating
layer of grey ash was left in one bunker, from which the number
of victims could only be estimated as between ¦¦250 and 300¦
(Irving ???) This layer of ash the was the remains of hundreds of
people was the result of the firestorm that the incendiary bombs
created. The explosions required oxygen, and as a result it
created gust moving toward the center. These gusts became intense
fireballs, and scorched everything in the city. One eye witness
said ¦Howling gusts of hurricane force whipped flames in all
directions. Nothing seemed to be spared. I watched little trains
of flame race alone garden paths and ignite a tree of even stone
ornament. (tunley???)_   Very little survived the path of this
burning storm. Most of the city was destroyed, and the death toll
was enormous. Even Churchill himself went on record to admit that
this had not been a positive military procedure. He was quoted in
saying ¦we...see to it that our attacks do not do more harm to
ourselves in the long run than...to the enemy¦s war effort.
(Parrish 164)_)  Even though it was later admitted a mistake by
the allies, it is possible that they had valid military
intentions, but did not carefully weigh all of the cause and
effects the would result. The idea that lowering the morale of an
enemy nation was a key strategy, and was  taken very seriously by
the commanders of the allied forces. There was a major train
station in the city of Dresden, and and even though it was one of
few sites not greatly damaged, the use of the city as a
transportation hub was terminated by the Germans. It is very true
that destroying homes results in refugees which cause problems
inside the country, but blowing the homes up and killing the
people was the only to acomplish this goal. The idea of lowering
morale probably should have been investigated a little more
thoroughly, but the allies did what they felt they had to do in
order to terminate Hitler¦s Reign.

            The bombing of Dresden was not a legitimite act of
war, it was a horrible mass murder of a civilian community, but
it may have have aided the allied cause in some ways. Even though
the allies lots  respect on their home front, and subjected
themselves to the criticism of the media, in some ways the result
helped the cause.  It is only logical that this Holocaust in
Dresden lowered morale throughout Germany¦s civilians. Germany
had to have realized at this point how terrible the war had
become, and what its results could be. This is a terrible way to
get that point across, but the point was made quite successfully,
at the expence of 135,000 lives, mostly of women,children, and
elders.            
                  The bombing of Dresden was a terrible mistake on the
part of the allied forces. They failed to properly predict the
consequences of their actions, and as a result destroyed a
beautiful city, and a large percentage of its inhabitants. Even
if the death numbers were not intended to be so high, negligence
is no excuse. The results of any aggression are responsibility of
the aggressor, and in this case the aggressors actions resulted
in mass murder.