The destruction of Dresden

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This is the first of a number of films I have prepared on the charming city of Dresden and in particularly the bombing of the 13 - 14 February 1945 which completely destroyed the centre of the city. This film shows from a model what the city looked like in 1900 and this is what the authorities would like to return it to.

I get a lot of people asking me about my opinion of the bombing of German cities during WW2 and in particular that of the bombing of Dresden.
I think the first thing to do is to look at the circucmstances of the time and in particular to put oneself in the position of the people making the decisions.
By the end of January 1945 the number of targets was declining whilst the strength of the Allied air forces continued to grow.
Nonetheless Allied military casualties were continuing at a rate of hundreds of people per day and the Nazis were still putting up resistance as the Allies approached the Rhine. In the east, however, the line had completely collapsed and the Soviets were more being held back by their lack of supplies rather than resistance. They were rapidly approaching the Oder river and had crossed the 1938 German border in many places. By this time, the Allied military leaders could have been having doubts on the alliance particularly given the way the Soviets had allowed the Warsaw uprising to be crushed.
Winning the war against Germany was paramount however. Dresden was a target on account of some of the industries there as well as being a communications centre for the eastern front.
The wonderful centre (which can be seen in other films) made a target has had Lubeck, Hamburg and many other places.
There were tens of thousands of refugees in the city from Silesia. This was the first large town for people fleeing from Breslau, Oppelen, Hirschberg and many other places. These refugees were housed in the barracks to the north of the city which the army had vacated.
One of the commonest criticisms of the attack is that military targets were not hit. However it was the same military target that housed the refugees. No-one I spoke to said that any refugees were housed in the centre. On the contrary, they were deliberately placed in the barracks. Therefore this argument falls flat.
Of course the planners were not aware of this.
The next point is the responsibility of the Nazi leadership. The gauleiter, Munchmann, made next to no preparations despite meetings amongst the gauleiters. As soon as it was clear the attack was happening he got himself and some of his possessions out of the way. Exactly the same thing happened in Berlin later when the Nazi leadership fled (except Hitler, Bormann and one or two of their cronies) . Having started the war, the Nazis did not want to share the fate of Germany.

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[eddie123e]

Helenheather is a not a female -he is a male clone who for years spends hours on this and many, many other sites spewing out his ignorance Dresden was no more horrendous than the bombing of many other beautiful cities in Europe. There was no German complaint about Dresden until Walter Ulbricht, a former DDR communist president who tried to win the support of East Germans by blackign the name of the allies His propaganda, like that of Goebbles lives on in the minds of many fools.

[alanheath]

@eddie123e I think Goebbels gave it a go too - forgetting who started the whole thing with an unprovoked attack on the Polish town of Wieluń in the early hours of 1 September 1939. I suspect the 'clone' also has forgotten this.

[helenheather]

'All that Germany needed to do is laydown their weapons and stop, then it all would have been over.' this statement shows a total disregard for the fact that the german people [German Jews et al] were the first victims of a cruel dictatorship which refused to surrender. I certainly would not have been brave enough to stand up to the Gestapo. Unless one is a saint or true hero, most of us would be like George Orwell's character in room 101 and scream our betrayal ' Do it to Julia , not me!'

[alanheath]

@helenheather That is a very good point. But Hitler did have the power to stop the war. And he did not. He was OK of course - he never went near the front and was buried deep under Berlin in his bunker. The first time the front came near him, at Poltava, he scurried for his plane as fast as he could and the second time he took the cowards way out. The blame for the destruction of Germany lies squarely on this coward's shoulders.

[gre68]

In 1940 the Germans bombed my city of Rotterdam. After invading Poland 1939 the Germans came to Holland on behalf of their Blitzkrieg on Europe which just had started. To put pressure on us to surrender they said that they would bomb Rotterdam. After that threat the dutch government surrender but, and that is the official german reaction: "the plains were already in the air" they still bombed Rotterdam, after we surrendered. What happened in Dresden is terrible but do no ask: Why did it happen?

[alanheath]

@gre68 Excellent analysis. The Nazis, and Nazis alone, are responsible for what happened in Dresden.

[continentalmilitaria]

To the question if the bombing was necessary I would ask this.... Were the unprovoked attacks by the German military on innocent civilian people necessay? Germany started the war and cannot expect that nothing will happen to them in return. All that Germany needed to do is laydown their weapons and stop, then it all would have been over. If someone start a fight they cannot complain that they received an injury from the people they intended to harm.

[Batulao83]

It was perfectly restored. I like Dresden, nicer than Berlin. I appreciate how people in Europe tried to restore everything to its original state before Hitler destroyed everything.

[helenheather]

@eddie123e And another thing- I am I and I alone. My typing is crap at times, BUT my grammar shows my Brit creds compared to MrP et al [ no offence chaps] Wish I'd made up a cute name, but didn't know folk on these sites made things up. If you read my posts, they are consistently anti-no country or its people. This is not sad, but to be prejudiced against anyone due to race, religion, nation or indeed political history is sad indeed- that's what I'm trying to get across!

[helenheather]

@eddie123e sorry to disappoint but I am one of the very few feamles surfing YT. How sad that you come up with such a response. Your views on Germany are those held by many in GB who have listened to the tales from the older generation and the mainstream media. " I suggest you try reading stuff aftyer 1995, starting with 'Defying Hitler' by Sebastian Haffner and 'On the Natural History of Destruction ' by W.G. Sebald.

[helenheather]

@alanheath Agreed! Adolph had no love for the German folk in the end. Not sure he ever did , considering how he experimented on them first socially with certain 'clincs' for the disabled and infirm. How odd that somebody thinks I'm a bloke. True few women surf YT [ don't blame them] but it's not very amusing to be called a clone .

[eddie123e]

@alanheath In fact the Luftwaffe practiced city bombing when they attacked Guernica in 1937.. Many of the unfortunate Spaniards they killed there did not even know where Germany was. The Germans also practiced their genocide strategies when they tried to eliminate the Herroro and Nama peoples in SW Aftfica during their failed attempt to build a German empire in Africa. When we attacked Dresden V2 rockets were still falling indiscriminately on London.

[helenheather]

Such prejudices as are on this site feed hatred and extremism- fit right in with Nazi ideals , hail GB!

[continentalmilitaria]

Look those boys were taken away from their officers. When they were ordered to kill they did it. As I said before once they were totally defeated and !!!!! under the care of a decent nation like the UK they could be rehabilitated

[continentalmilitaria]

If they invaded your country, sent your relatives to concentration camps, cut your fathers head off like what happened to my former landlord, have them shoot at a teenage girl crossing a bridge over a stream (my wife's grandmother), confiscate a a large portion of your yearly harvest (my grand parents). The only reason my mother is not deaf in both ears is because the US arrived and had medicines. So plug your head out of your own hole and see it from the perspective we had to go through.