Bombing of Dresden

On February 13-15, 1945, allied British and American air forces bombed Dresden, Germany. Targeting a famous hub of culture and history in Germany, the bombing of Dresden has gained intense notoriety because of the incredible devastation it caused in comparison with the tactical gains.


Dresden's location within Germany.

The bombing was undertaken as an effort to assist the Soviet advance from the Eastern Front pushing toward Berlin.  Germany had recently failed in its efforts to stymie the Allied forces in the West, and with the Battle of Bulge already unsuccessful, Germany moved its defenses to try and slow the Soviet advance.  With the opposite front now vulnerable, it was reasoned that sacking German civilian and industrial centers in the South could cause a huge amount of chaos and divert attention from resisting the Soviets.  Winston Churchill decided that targets must be chosen to cripple German infrastructure, and pressured his officials to draw up plans for bombing.  To this end, Dresden was chosen as a target because of its war industry and the number of refugees that had collected to escape the Soviet advance.  It was reasoned that a devastating blow could force Germany to surrender more quickly.

The raid began on February 13th, with several waves of bombers seeking to utterly destroy parts of the city.  The first wave dropped flares to light up the target area, and the second wave dropped heavy explosives to destroy roofs and rupture water lines, which would make the city unable to effectively combat fires.  This allowed incendiaries to be dropped, about 200,000 incendiaries in all, which burned the city uncontrollably.  The next two days, American bombers devastated what areas had been left unharmed by the British RAF, as bad weather diverted some US bombers from other cities toward the civilian areas in Dresden.


A devastated portion of Dresden.

The aftermath of the raids was apocalyptic, with large parts of the city completely wasted, and as many as 25,000 (almost entirely civilian) casualties.  Although large civilian casualties were not new to the war, the bombing of Dresden became notorious after it became apparent that it was not as crucial of a military target as originally claimed.  In fact, it later surfaced that a large reason the city was chosen was because it was a prized cultural treasure in Germany, and also because it would target refugees fleeing the Soviet advance.  It became a point of German propaganda that the attacks were simply senseless violence against innocent civilians, and the lack of significant military targets seemed to support this idea.

Even so, the raids did accomplish their goal of forcing Germany's hand, with Germany formally surrendering on May 8, 1945.  At least part of the motivation to surrender was the evaporation of civilian support for the war effort, likely a consequence of intense destruction of Dresden.  Even if the raids were unjustified, they seem to have been effective.  Debate continues to this day about the necessity of the raids.