Bombing of Dresden in World War IIDresden, 1. Rathaus) over the destroyed city. The bombing of Dresden was a British/American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, that took place during the Second World War in the European Theatre. In four raids between 1. February 1. 94. 5, 7. British Royal Air Force (RAF) and 5. United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,9. Three more USAAF air raids followed, two occurring on 2 March aimed at the city's railroad marshaling yard and one small raid on 1. April aimed at industrial areas. A liberating defeat: Berlin and the end of World War II. On May 8, 1945, the remnants of the Wehrmacht leadership capitulated, ending World War II in Europe after. You look like someone who appreciates good music. Listen to all your favourite artists on any device for free or try the Premium trial. II-A in Berlin (Alternativtitel: Drei Bayern an der Spree) ist eine deutsche Kom. Der Film ist die Fortsetzung von IA in Oberbayern. Bombing of Dresden; Part of Strategic bombing during World War II: Dresden after the bombing raid. Berlin; Charlottenburg; Vertigo - II by mesutilgim (95918) Previous Photo Next Photo. This is a view from the inside of Berggruen Muesum in Berlin. The Reasons Historians Call WWII A 'Jewish Creation' From YesConcepts [email protected] 9-13-2. Immediate German propaganda claims following the attacks and post- war discussions. Critics of the bombing argue that Dresden was a cultural landmark of little or no strategic significance, and that the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and not proportionate to the commensurate military gains. Large variations in the claimed death toll have fueled the controversy. In March 1. 94. 5, the German government ordered its press to publish a falsified casualty figure of 2. Was There Really a Rava II? Industry information at your fingertips. Over 200,000 Hollywood insiders. Enhance your IMDb Page. Dresden raids, and death toll estimates as high as 5. The Red Army had launched their Silesian Offensives into pre- war German territory. The German army was retreating on all fronts, but still resisting strongly. On 8 February 1. 94. Red Army crossed the Oder River, with positions just 7. Berlin. The Eastern and Western Fronts were getting closer, the Western Allies started planning to bomb Berlin and several other eastern cities in conjunction with the Soviet advance in order to cause confusion among German troops and refugees. A special British Joint Intelligence Subcommittee report titled German Strategy and Capacity to Resist, prepared for Winston Churchill's eyes only, predicted that Germany might collapse as early as mid- April if the Soviets overran its eastern defenses. Alternatively, the report warned that the Germans might hold out until November if they could prevent the Soviets from taking Silesia. Hence, any assistance provided to the Soviets on the Eastern Front could shorten the war. At the time of bombing, the Soviets were conducting their Lower Silesian Offensive. Plans for a large and intense aerial bombing of Berlin and the other eastern cities had been discussed under the code name Operation Thunderclap in mid- 1. August. These were now re- examined, and the decision was made to draw up a more limited operation. On 2. 2 January 1. RAF director of bomber operations, Air Commodore. Sydney Bufton, sent a memo to the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sir Norman Bottomley, suggesting that what appeared to be a coordinated air attack by the RAF to aid the current Soviet offensive would have a detrimental effect on German morale. On 2. 5 January, the Joint Intelligence Committee supported the idea, as it tied in with the ULTRA- based intelligence that dozens of German divisions deployed in the west were moving to reinforce the Eastern Front, and that interdiction of these troop movements should be a . That evening Churchill asked the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, what plans had been drawn up to carry out these proposals. He passed on the request to Sir Charles Portal, the Chief of the Air Staff, who answered that . Pray report to me tomorrow what is going to be done. Attacks there, where main railway junctions, telephone systems, city administration and utilities were located, would result in . In response, Chief of the British Air Staff Portal, who was in Yalta, asked Bottomley to send him a list of objectives to discuss with the Soviets. Bottomley's list included oil plants, tank and aircraft factories and the cities of Berlin and Dresden. A British interpreter later claimed that Antonov and Joseph Stalin asked for the bombing of Dresden, but there is no mention of these requests in the official record of the conference and the claim was assessed as possible Cold War propaganda. The white- colored areas were held by Germany, the rose ones by the Allies, and the bright- red color denotes the Allied advances in the fronts. Dresden was Germany's seventh- largest city and, according to the RAF at the time, the largest remaining unbombed built- up area. Taylor writes that an official 1. Nonetheless, according to some historians, the contribution of Dresden to the German war effort may not have been as significant as the planners thought. The US Air Force Historical Division wrote a report in response to the international concern about the bombing - the report remained classified until December 1. This said that there were 1. German war effort at the time of the raid. It also said there were barracks, hutted camps, and a munitions storage depot. Cook, a US POW held in the Friedrichstadt marshaling yard the night before the attacks, later said that . In the midst of winter with refugees pouring westward and troops to be rested, roofs are at a premium, not only to give shelter to workers, refugees, and troops alike, but to house the administrative services displaced from other areas. At one time well known for its china, Dresden has developed into an industrial city of first- class importance.. The intentions of the attack are to hit the enemy where he will feel it most, behind an already partially collapsed front.. According to historian Donald Miller, . The Eighth Air Force had already bombed the railway yards near the centre of the city twice in daytime raids: once on 7 October 1. It had been decided that the raid would be a double strike, in which a second wave of bombers would attack three hours after the first, just as the rescue teams were trying to put out the fires. Other raids were carried out that night to confuse German air defences. Three hundred and sixty heavy bombers (Lancasters and Halifaxes) bombed a synthetic oil plant in B. There was a huge uproar, since the Yalta agreement handed parts of Poland over to the Soviet Union. There was talk of mutiny among the Polish pilots, and their British officers removed their side arms. The Polish Government ordered the pilots to follow their orders and fly their missions over Dresden, which they did. Group, acting as the Pathfinders, or flare force, whose job it was to find Dresden and drop magnesium parachute flares, known to the Germans as . The next set of aircraft to leave England were twin- engined Mosquito marker planes, which would identify target areas and drop 1,0. TIs). The attack was to centre on the Ostragehege sports stadium, next to the city's medieval Altstadt (old town), with its congested, and highly combustible timbered buildings. The main bomber force, called Plate Rack, took off shortly after the Pathfinders. This group of 2. 54 Lancasters carried 5. There were 2. 00,0. The high explosives were intended to rupture water mains and blow off roofs, doors, and windows to create an air flow to feed the fires caused by the incendiaries that followed. The Lancasters crossed into French airspace near the Somme, then into Germany just north of Cologne. At 2. 2: 0. 0 hours, the force heading for B. By this time, ten of the Lancasters were out of service, leaving 2. Dresden. The sirens started sounding in Dresden at 2. CET). Bomb the glow of red TIs as planned. The fan- shaped area that was bombed was 1. The shape and total devastation of the area was created by the bombers of No. Group flying over the head of the fan (Ostragehege stadium) on prearranged compass bearings and releasing their bombs at different prearranged times. By now, the thousands of fires from the burning city could be seen more than 6. The German sirens sounded again at 0. Between 0. 1: 2. 1 and 0. Lancasters dropped more than 1,8. The bomber groups would be protected by the 7. North American P- 5. Mustangs of VIII Fighter Command, which meant that there would be almost 2,1. United States Eighth Air Force over Saxony during 1. February. There is some confusion in the primary sources over what was the target in Dresden, whether it was the marshalling yards near the centre or centre of the built up area. The report by the 1st Bombardment Division's commander to his commander states that the targeting sequence was the centre of the built up area in Dresden if the weather was clear. If clouds obscured Dresden but Chemnitz was clear, Chemnitz was the target. If both were obscured, they would bomb the centre of Dresden using H2. X radar. The mix of bombs for the Dresden raid was about 4. Taylor compares this 4. Berlin on 3 February, where the ratio was 1. This was a common mix when the USAAF anticipated cloudy conditions over the target. B- 1. 7 Flying Fortresses bombed Dresden, dropping 7. The rest misidentified their targets. Sixty bombed Prague, dropping 1. Czech city while others bombed Brux and Pilsen. The 3. 79th bombardment group started to bomb Dresden at 1. Friedrichstadt district west of the city centre as the area was not obscured by smoke and cloud. The 3. 03rd group arrived over Dresden 2 minutes after the 3. Dresden using H2. X radar to target this location. The groups that followed the 3. Dresden obscured by clouds and they too used H2. X to locate the target. H2. X aiming caused the groups to bomb inaccurately with a wide dispersal over the Dresden area. The last group to bomb Dresden was the 3. Strafing of civilians has become a traditional part of the oral history of the raids since a March 1. Nazi- run weekly newspaper Das Reich claimed that this had occurred. He asserted in Dresden im Luftkrieg (1. February. He concluded that some memory of eyewitnesses was real, but that it had misinterpreted the firing in an airfight as being deliberately aimed at people on the ground. He also reconstructed timelines with the result that strafing would have been almost impossible due to lack of time and fuel. The official historical commission collected 1. They found no bullets or fragments that would have been used by planes of the Dresden raids. On 1. 5 February, the 1st Bombardment Division's primary target. Dresden was also obscured by clouds, so the groups targeted the city using H2.
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