What about the allied forces' firebombing of Dresden? Was that terrorism?

Question

65,000 dead civilians by U.S. and British forces ON PURPOSE!!

Answer 1

How many people died in German concentration camps?
What about London V 1 and V 2 rockets.? Who destroyed 85 % of Warsaw?

Answer 2

Tough one. from the pre action and post action reports the firestorm on Dresden was not expected. The raid was to accomplish two things, negatively impact the will of the German people to continue to support their leaders and to reduce the effectiveness of the submarine pens also located there. Terrorism, by definition is when an non-uniformed group attacks with out regard to the military outcome, but just to disrupt and "terrorize". The Dresden raid at the least escapes the terrorism definition because of the definition of declared enemies. War is hell, especially on the bystanders, ask the people of London. No one in the world had knowledge of what such a raid would do any more than the two nuclear attacks on Japan.
To take this one step further the two bombs dropped on Japan actually resulted is the saving of lives had we had to invade through conventiional means. I recall a Japanese cartoon where a Japanese ship fired on a US ship, which blew an American sailor into the air. the sailor had an ship tatooed on his chest and a Japanese rifelman shot him in the chest sinking the ship. I recall diagrams of beach fighting emplacements that made Iwo Jima look like a sandbox. The Germans as well as the Japanese peoples really could not have given a rip about either war, but their politicians did therefore.... Something had to be done to break the will of those in power to bring the wars to a successful conclusion in our favor or as one other respondant wrote, the allied leaders could have been held up as war criminals.

Answer 3

It was terrorism, and it was wrong. Dresden was a beautiful baroque town that went up in flames because it was mass-bombed by the allied forces. The heat from, the bombing became so intense that it formed a vortex that sucked everything toward the center of the city, where the bombing was most intense. I believe it was unnecessary and it only destroyed a scenic town with much historical value. It is a very poor excuse to say that we were just doing what hitler did, or that it was revenge on Hitler, because Hitler wasn't the guy that the U.S. army was modeling its warfare style after. Such petty justifications never work.
Yes, the bombing of dresden was tragic, but, despite the cost, dresden rebuilt itself - though it's still not what it was before.
However, inversely, don't justify Hitler's actions by showing what little evil the allies did. Hitler can't even be compared to his enemies - really, something was wrong with that guy.

Answer 4

"war is hell"

-General William Tecumseh Sherman

we constantly think that wars can be fought now adays without any harm to civilian population centers. What people dont realize is that by bending over backwards to not hurt civilians you actually cause more human suffering in the long run.

The bombings of Dresden and the two nukes against Japan helped end the war faster and saved more human lives on both sides.

Answer 5

By firebombing, they were ending the war much quicker. It demoralized the population, and forced the leadership to crumble and give up.

Though 65000 civillians were killed on the opposite side, it probably saved another 200000 people (at least!) in concentration camps that would have died if the war was another 3-4 months longer.

Answer 6

No, no, NO! Germany and Japan were EVIL. World War Two was a Good War (tm). The Evil Axis Powers people deserved to be burned alive in their arsenals, factories, homes, and churches. The US of A was incapable of doing anything bad during WW II. Everything was justified, no matter how many Evil Axis People had to die. We had to keep the World safe from Evil Nazis and Japs. Tojo and Hitler would be sitting in your living room drinking saki and schnapps right now if we hadn't firebombed Dresden.

You kids and your liberal ideas.

Answer 7

Just because civilians were killed does not make an act terrorism. Terrorism is an act used to intimidate governments into making political decisions. Civilian casualties in a war especially one in which air strikes are greatly used is not terrorism.

Answer 8

9 million and counting of the people Germany killed. Was that terrorism?
Were the camps?
Were the gases used by Germany in WW1 terrorism?

Answer 9

That was total war, meant to save civilization. Thankfully the Axis lost or you would be worshiping Hitler as your savior.
Tammi Dee

Answer 10

Of course that was terrorism. As was the bombing of Guernica. But if it makes you feel better the Germans killed ten fold that amount of people.