Bombing Of Dresden Essay

1074 words - 4 pages

Bombing of Dresden - BackgroundBy the beginning of 1945, German fortunes looked bleak. Though checked at the Battle of the Bulge in the west and with the Soviets pressing hard on the Eastern Front, the Third Reich continued to mount a stubborn defense. As the two fronts began to near, the Western Allies began to consider plans for using strategic bombing to assist the Soviet advance. In January 1945, the Royal Air Force began to consider plans for the widespread bombing of cities in eastern Germany. When consulted, the head of Bomber Command, Air Marshal Arthur "Bomber" Harris, recommended attacks against Leipzig, Dresden, and Chemnitz.Pressed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Chief of the Air Staff, Marshal Sir Charles Portal, agreed that cities should be bombed with the goal of disrupting German communications, transportation, and troop movements, but stipulated that these operations should be secondary to strategic attacks on factories, refineries, and shipyards. As a result of the discussions, Harris was ordered to prepare attacks on Leipzig, Dresden, and Chemnitz as soon as weather conditions allowed. With planning moving forward, further discussion of attacks in eastern Germany occurred at the Yalta Conference in early February.During talks in Yalta, the Deputy Chief of the Soviet General Staff, General Aleksei Antonov, inquired about the possibility of using bombing to hinder German troop movements through hubs in eastern Germany. Among the list of targets discussed by Portal and Antonov were Berlin and Dresden. In Britain, planning for the Dresden attack moved forward with the operation calling for daylight bombing by the US Eighth Air Force followed by night strikes by Bomber Command. Though much of Dresden's industry was in suburban areas, planners targeted the city center with the goal crippling its infrastructure and causing chaos.Why Dresden?The largest remaining not bombed city in the Third Reich, Dresden was Germany's seventh-largest city and a cultural center known as the "Florence on the Elbe." Though a center for the arts, it was also one of Germany's largest remaining industrial sites and contained over 100 factories of various sizes. Among these were facilities for producing poison gas, artillery, and aircraft components. In addition, it was a key rail hub with lines running north-south to Berlin, Prague, and Vienna as well as east-west Munich and Breslau (Wroclaw) and Leipzig and Hamburg.Dresden Attacked:The initial strikes against Dresden were to have been flown by the Eighth Air Force on February 13. These were called off due to poor weather and it was left to Bomber Command to open the campaign that night. To support the attack, Bomber Command dispatched several diversionary raids designed to confuse the German air defenses. These struck targets in Bonn, Magdeburg, Nuremburg, and Misburg. For Dresden, the attack was to come in two waves with the second three hours after the first. This approach was designed to catch...

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