Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
29 January 2011
German City of Dresden
Bombed into Rubble
Towards the end of World War II Dresden was
all but destroyed when 800 Allied aircraft
dropped bombs and incendiary devices on the city
During World War II, civilians were targeted deliberately from the air. In 1940, Britain’s capital, London, suffered 57 consecutive nights of bombing by the German Luftwaffe. The aerial attacks continued throughout the war with other cities being hit.
The allies did their share of bombing civilians as well, including one devastating raid on the German city of Dresden.
Huge Air Raid Triggers Firestorm
On the night of February 13-
The bombing was so intense, that a firestorm started. The raid caused so many fires in a concentrated area that the air above them became superheated.
The very hot air rose rapidly and drew huge volumes of air into the fires at ground level. The roaring rush of heated air upwards had the power of a tornado, strong enough to pick up people and suck them into the flames.
Others sheltering underground were asphyxiated as all of the oxygen was sucked out
of the bunkers by the fires raging above them.
Debate over
Dresden Death Toll
Historians have argued over the number of people killed in the raid, some claiming the death toll was as high as half a million.
In 2004 a special commission of 13 prominent German historians was set up to examine the records of the attack. Bojan Pancevski of The Daily Telegraph (October 2008) reported on the work of the commission and wrote that it “concluded that no more than 25,000 people died during the attacks, debunking the claims of many revisionist historians who wished to compare the bombing to the Holocaust.”
Was the Dresden Attack a War Crime?
Ever since the raid on Dresden questions have been asked about whether or not it constituted a war crime. The attack clearly broke Geneva Conventions about protection of civilians.
Roy Akehurst was a wireless operator who took part in the raid on Dresden. At Spartacus
Educational he is quoted as saying: “We seemed to fly for hours over a sheet of fire
-
Justification for the Dresden Attack
Air Marshal Arthur Harris, known as Bomber Harris (right) was in charge of organizing
the attack on Dresden after receiving orders to do so from Britain’s Prime Minister
Winston Churchill.
Harris had introduced the tactic of area bombing cities, a system used earlier by the Germans and which they called terror bombing. Some have suggested the Dresden raid was payback for German terror bombing of Coventry, Rotterdam, Warsaw, and many other cities.
Harris himself, said Dresden was a significant military target. It was the largest unbombed city in Germany and was serving as a communication centre for the battle against the Soviet armies advancing from the east.
Warning to the Soviet Union
Writing in Workers World (February 23, 1995) John Black advanced the theory that Churchill used the raid to send a message to the Soviet Union.
Many senior war strategists, among them Churchill, concluded that after the defeat of Germany, the Western Allies were going to be facing a belligerent Soviet Union in Europe.
Black wrote that, “Churchill’s goal in Europe was not only to destroy the military
machine of Britain’s imperialist rival -
By this thesis, the destruction of the city was to show the Soviets just what allied bombing was capable of doing and make them think twice about any military adventures.
To reach this political goal, wrote Black “the U.S. and British rulers could easily
sacrifice more than 35,000 non-
Sources
“Dresden Bombing Death Toll Lower than Thought.” Bojan Pancevski, The Telegraph, October 2, 2008.
“Bombing of Dresden.” Spartacus Educational.
“The Truth about the 1945 Bombing of Dresden.” John Black, Workers World, February 23, 1995.
© Canada and the World, January 2011
All rights reserved
By many estimates 85 percent of Dresden (right) was destroyed in the bombing raids of February 1945.
DEATH
BY MOONLIGHT
In 1991, Terence and Brian McKenna made a documentary series, The Valour and the Horror, about Canada and the Second World War.
One episode, Death by Moonlight: Bomber Command tells the story of the raids on Dresden.
This segment created enormous controversy and a group of Canadian Air Force veterans sued the filmmakers, claiming they had been slandered by being portrayed as war criminals. The lawsuit lost at every court level including the Supreme Court of Canada.
However, a Senate committee sided with the veterans and said the filmmakers made some assertions for which there was little supporting evidence.
“That the bombing of Dresden was a great tragedy none can deny. It is not so much
this or the other means of making war that is immoral or inhumane. What is immoral
is war itself. Once full-
Robert Saunby
Deputy Air Marshal
Bomber Command
REBUILDING AND RECONCILIATION
At the time of its bombing into rubble Dresden was one of the most beautiful cities in Europe characterized by magnificent baroque architecture.
Today, much of Dresden has been restored to its former glory through reconstruction of its eighteenth century buildings.
A major symbol of this rebuilding is the Frauenkirche (below).
This great church, almost completely flattened in 1945, was reopened in 2005. Part of the cost of rebuilding was picked up by British donations to the Dresden Trust.