The Atrocious Bombing of Dresden, Germany :: European Europe History

The barbarous battery of Dresden, Germany On February 13-14, 1945 the British Royal Air Force gave the finalclearance to commence what would later become know as maven of the greatestatrocities that has ever been commited against a civilian population. Thatnight the RAF launched 796 bombers and 9 Mosquitoes which carried 1,478 tons of explosives in addition to 1,182 tons of incendiary bombs (Dear311) which turned the city of Dresden, Germany into a virtual inferno.This attack included another strike by the US Air Force the followingmorning. The attack on Dresden was never a legitimate act of war, and itsresult was the terroristic mass murder of over 135,000 raft. Bombing civilian targets in enemy territory became an open issue onMarch 30, 1942 when the Prime Ministers science advisor, Professor F.A.Lindemann (who later was recognized as Lord Cherwell) delivered to WinstonChurchill a give notice (of) which contained a strong argument in favor of strikingcivilian target s. Cherwells report contained the final rationalizationfor the political platform Bomber Command was undertaking, and it would henceforthbe paper-clipped to the plans of the bomber offensive. (Hastings). In hisreport, Lindemann estimated that xl tons of explosives detonated inheavily populated areas would destroy the homes of 4,000-8,000 commonwealth. Thereport in like manner stated that there was a population of 22 million people infifty-eight of the major cities in Germany. Lindemann claimed that anation of refugees could be the result of strategic air attacks. It iswildly believed among scholars that the information cont.ained in thisreport was the basis of the attack on Dresden. Lindemanns figures were correct, but his thinking was immoral and inhumane. The people to whom his statistics referred so objectivelywere innocent civilians, more than half of them women and children. Theassault upon them was nil more that out-right murder. Any benefitgained by destroying th ese civilians. lives, families, and homes wascountered ten-fold by the moral reprehensibility of such(prenominal) a clearlycriminal act. The city of Dresden was a historic essence of Europe, and was knownworld wide for its splendid architecture. It was the capital of Saxony,and located along the banks of the Elbe river. Dresden had very littleindustrial activity, and it was a target only once before in a small raidby the US Air Force in October of 1944. It was a city that was also knownfor its production of fine China, and its glorious museums (Dear 311).