Bombing of dresden?

Question

. Why did the Allies bomb Dresden?




2. What was the result of the bombing?




3. Who was responsible for the bombing - Churchill, Harris, someone else?

Answer 1

1. Dresden was a military target....railroad center, howver, the trains were up and running a week after the bombings.

2. A firestorm erupted from the incendiaries that were dropped and a cultural center filled with civilian refugees were obliterated.

3. He was known as "Bomber" Harris among his contemporaries. Some have said Churchill was getting back at the Germans for the bombing of Coventry, however, he claimed that it was not his decision.

Answer 2

Dresden had zero importance militarily speaking. The outcome was the destruction of one of the most beautiful cities in europe and 1000s of civilians meeting the most horrible of deaths. It was a bombing based on the premise of breaking the moral of an already broken down folk. Read the book "Dresden" for a detailed history of the bombings.

Answer 3

It was an overture to the Cold War to show the Russians that Western Air Power might be strong enough to keep Stalin from having Konev and Zhukhov push their armies rolling west through all of Germany. It also came right at the time of the Yalta Big 3 conference in Russia. It was also a month before the giant US firebombing of Tokyo, that killed more folks than the atomic bombs in August.
I am sure Harris and Curtis LeMay had a lot to say about it.

Answer 4

1.- The Allies bombed Dresden because they were in war with Germany. It was a war of annihilation.

2.- The almost complete annihilation of Dresden, with more or less 280,000 dead.
Its bombardment followed the pattern set by the Germans :

"he who uses force unsparingly without reference to the bloodshed involved, must obtain a superiority if his adversary uses less vigor in its application...."
On War p. 102
German General Carl von Clausewitz

3.-Responsible for the bombing were the British for the first wave 880 tons of bombs. Americans for the second wave 1554 tons of bombs and 165 tons of incendiary bombs.
Churchill wanted to "increase the terror".

"Terror" that the Germans had spread all over the world and who wanted to liquidate all Jews. They deserved no less.

Answer 5

1. The Railroad was a military target. Second answer-to show the Russia army what the RAF and US Army Air Corps were capable of so they would not continue their westward march.

2. Death and lots of it, mostly refugees, innocent civilians, and POWs

3. It was part of the huge terror bombing campaign carried out by the US and UK. All their top leaders were responsible since none bothered to say it was bad idea.

Answer 6

They bombed it to destroy both the industry there, and to destroy the city itself, in retaliation for the German's previous bombing of Allied cities. (The Germans never destroyed any city though).
The result was, the Germans were able to rebuild it into an industrial city, when it had been small and cottage industry- not what the Allies hoped.