By Isaac Kalembe Akiiki
Introduction: Allied bombing raids on Dresden on February 13-15, 1945, that almost completely destroyed this German city became a symbol of the “terror bombing” campaign against Germany, which was one of the most controversial Allied actions of the war.
Throughout the war, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had called for increased British air raids against the population centres of Germany in order to swamp German authorities and services, particularly transportation, with hordes of refugees.
As the Allied forces closed in on the Third Reich in 1945, such targets became more feasible because of the air superiority and improved navigation techniques of the Anglo-American bomber force.
A historic city: Before World War II, Dresden was called “Florence on the Elbe” and was considered one of the world’s most beautiful cities because of its architecture and art treasures.
Having never previously been attacked in the war, the city offered increased value for terror bombing against an inexperienced population.
On the night of February 13, the British Bomber Command hit Dresden with an 800-bomber air raid, dropping some 2,700 tons of bombs, including large numbers of incendiaries.
Aided by weather conditions, a firestorm developed, incinerating tens of thousands of people.
The U.S. Eighth Air Force followed the next day with another 400 tons of bombs and carried out yet another raid by 210 bombers on February 15.
It is thought that some 25,000-35,000 civilians died in Dresden in the air attacks, though some estimates are as high as 250,000, given the influx of undocumented refugees that had fled to Dresden from the Eastern Front.
Most of the victims were women, children, and the elderly.
Post-war era: After the war, German and Soviet authorities considered levelling the Dresden ruins to make way for new construction.
But local leaders forced a compromise for rebuilding part of the city centre and placing the modern construction outside – in effect, encircling old Dresden with a newer city.
After reunification in 1990, Germany undertook the extensive reconstruction of the inner city as a moral and political objective, unveiling new works at various stages with much fanfare in an effort still ongoing in the 21st century.
Dresden has returned to much of its former grandeur as a centre for art and culture.
Strategic bombing?
The bombing of Dresden was a historic benchmark that demonstrated the power of strategic bombing.
Critics say that the military value of the bombing did not justify Dresden’s near destruction and that the city could have been spared, like Rome, Paris, and Kyōto.
War crime? Given the high number of civilian casualties and the relatively few strategic targets, some even called the bombing of Dresden a war crime, though both the British and the American militaries defended the bombing as necessary.
Cultural treasures: What happened in Dresden in February 1945 was apocalyptic.
“Florence on the Elbe,” as Dresden was popularly known, was a strikingly beautiful place.
Before World War II people had flocked there to see the 18th-century church, the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady).
The Zwinger, the impressive palace complex commissioned by Augustus the Strong (1670-1733), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, pulled in thousands.
Lovers of art could devote days to collections of Renaissance and Baroque paintings in the *Semper Gallery*, including works by Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, and Van Dyck.
During the 19th century the presence of composers Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner established Dresden as a force in the Romantic movement.
Early bombings: Until the attack, Dresden, Germany’s seventh largest city with 600,000 inhabitants, had largely escaped the mass destruction inflicted on other urban centres.
The United States Army Air Force had bombed it twice – once in early October 1944 and again three months later.
The second attack, targeting Dresden’s marshalling yards, had killed scores of workers.
Nonetheless, most of Dresden’s anti-aircraft guns and the crews manning them were relocated elsewhere in the Reich.
Refugee influx: Although its historic centre still stood intact, the city did not escape the impact of the ongoing collapse of the German war effort on the Eastern Front in January and February 1945.
About 300,000 men, women, and children desperately fled to Dresden as the Red Army advanced into Silesia.
These refugees packed the train stations, terrified of what lay ahead.
Although they had good reason to be terrified, the evacuees and Dresden’s permanent residents indulged in dangerous forms of straw-clutching.
Flattering to deceive: The 18-year-old Götz Bergander, who survived the raids in a shelter, later related how rumours proliferated.
Some individuals believed that the RAF refused to hit Dresden since an aunt of Winston Churchill supposedly resided somewhere in town.
Others claimed that the Allies planned to make it the capital of post-war Germany.
Why would the Allies attack a city with such immense cultural treasures, many dared to ask.
Some contended a refugee centre like Dresden would certainly be spared.
Those delusions quickly withered on February 13, 1945.
Recipe for attacks: As Soviet troops moved deeper into eastern Germany, the Allied leadership focused on Dresden, as well as the neighbouring Saxon cities of Chemnitz and Leipzig.
Air attacks on these sites would degrade the Germans’ ability to resist the Soviets.
Despite post-war claims that Dresden had no military significance, it was in fact a rail centre important to the Third Reich’s faltering war effort in the East.
There were also factories engaged in arms production there.
RAF offensive: Ordered by Deputy Chief of the Air Staff Norman Bottomley to bomb the city, Air Marshal Arthur Harris, head of the Royal Airforce (RAF)’s Bomber Command, envisioned massive raids on Dresden.
Long wanting to target it, he intended to totally eliminate Dresden’s capacity to aid the Wehrmacht.
Operation Gomorrah: Operation Gomorrah, the RAF’s obliteration of Hamburg in July 1943, provided a fearful precedent.
So did the strikes against Kassel in October of that same year, and Darmstadt in September 1944.
Tens of thousands of civilians had been killed in these operations.
The air offensive against Dresden and other Saxon cities would be a joint operation, though, between the RAF and the United States Eighth Air Force.
Bad weather: Due to uncooperative weather, the Americans could not bomb Dresden during daylight hours on February 13.
That meant Harris’ bombers would be the first to strike.
Death from the sky: The unchallenged initial wave of Lancasters dropped a deadly combination of high-explosive bombs and incendiaries on Dresden, beginning at 10:15 p.m. that night.
The bombs forced everyone to seek shelter, while the incendiaries started fires.
Sitting ducks: The bomber crews, facing no resistance, found the weather was also sufficiently benign to allow low-level, accurate marking.
The crews themselves, relieved of the necessity of staying toward the limit of flak range, could moreover bomb in a careful and relatively relaxed fashion at a lower altitude than usual, in this case mostly between 10,000 and 13,000 feet.
Hellfire: In a short window of about 15 minutes, they unleashed 880 tons of bombs on Dresden’s city Centre.
The high-explosive weapons shattered windows, gouged out craters in the streets, and flattened walls.
Firefighters were forced to take cover. The bombs also set in motion waves of high-pressure air.
As the incendiaries falling on the roofs of buildings ignited manifold small fires, a firestorm, one of the most dreadful outcomes of hi-tech warfare, ensued.
The inferno: What happened then in Dresden, with its structures of brick, sandstone, and dry wood, was apocalyptic.
City authorities usually could count on a thousand firefighters, but the inferno was too much for them and for the relief that came from neighboring cities.
Second wave: Only two-and-a-half hours passed before the populace confronted a second wave of Lancasters.
This group consisted of 550 heavy bombers, more than twice the size of the first wave.
Between approximately 1:20 and 1:40 a.m. the Lancasters inundated a city already aflame.
Firestorm: The firestorm created in the initial raid now reached a fury of devastation that beggars the imagination.
Historian Donald Miller writes vividly of the hell unleashed: “People’s shoes melted into the hot asphalt of the streets, and the fire moved so swiftly that many were reduced to atoms before they had time to remove their shoes.
“The fire melted iron and steel, turned stone into powder, and caused trees to explode from the heat of their own resin.
“People running from the fire could feel its heat through their backs, burning their lungs.”
Death by suffocation: Miller also points out a forgotten fact, that 70 percent of the victims actually suffocated from carbon monoxide discharged by combustion.
It is no surprise that the German author, Jörg Friedrich, chose to title his controversial book on the Allied bombing of Dresden and other cities simply Der Brand (The Fire).
Hurricane: Yet everyone who survived that night especially recalled the ferocious winds accompanying the fires.
The assault on Dresden was like a hurricane. All the conditions for a perfect firestorm coincided.
At noon the following day, Ash Wednesday, more than 300 B-17 Flying Fortresses from the United States Eighth Air Force struck Dresden.
With towers of smoke from the RAF attacks still shooting 15,000 feet into the air, the Americans had enormous difficulty finding their targets.
They did hit the beleaguered city’s marshalling yard but residential areas were also bombed.
Fourth raid: And this was not the finale. On February 15, a fourth raid hit Dresden. More than 200 B-17s, originally sent to destroy an oil plant close to nearby Leipzig, switched targets due to poor weather.
The marshalling yards were not hit. The same could not be said about residential areas. Even that did not end Dresden’s torment.
More raids
The Eighth Air Force returned on March 2 and April 17, again going after the rail yards and industrial districts. Dresden remained ablaze for weeks.
Burying the dead
The dead were treated unceremoniously. Fear of disease led the Germans to pile the corpses on top of iron grates, soak them with benzene, and cremate them.
SS personnel played a key role in creating these makeshift funeral pyres. The smell permeated everything.
Allied prisoners of war were forced to help extract bodies from the rubble.
At least an American POW was executed, purportedly for looting.
Mass graves became the final resting places for thousands.
Death toll
A widely accepted estimate is 35,000 killed during the 37 hours of terror. Rival claims go far higher.
The German government, however, proposed 25,000 as a defensible guess. Since so many victims were immolated after the attacks, we will likely never know the precise number.
Necropolis – city of the dead
The February raids turned “Florence on the Elbe” into a ruined necropolis, a city of the dead.
The images snapped by many a photographer month after the firestorm have not lost any of their capacity to unsettle.
Allied prisoners held in Dresden during the bombing, such as British Rifleman Victor Gregg and the American Kurt Vonnegut, whose post-war novel Slaugherhouse Five vividly conveyed the resulting carnage, condemned the attacks.
Winston Churchill went so far as to write, “the destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing.”
Conclusion: While there were legitimate military targets in Dresden, it is debilitating to imagine how one can sanction the deliberate targeting of the civilian population. Suffice to say, the fate of Dresden raises much doubt on what is permissible, even in the best of causes. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
