August Schreitmüller's sculpture "Güte" ("Goodness") overlooks the destroyed city.[1] | The bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945, 12 weeks before the surrender of the Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) of Nazi Germany, remains one of the most controversial Allied actions of the Second World War. The raids saw 1,300 heavy bombers drop over 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices in four raids, destroying 13 square miles (34 km²) of the city, the baroque capital of the German state of Saxony, and causing a firestorm that consumed the city centre.[2] Estimates of civilian casualties vary greatly, but recent publications place the figure between 24,000 and 40,000.[3] RAF redirects here. ...
The United States Army Air Forces, or USAAF, was a part of the U.S. military during World War II. The direct precursor to the U.S. Air Force, the USAAF formally existed between 1941 and 1947. ...
is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...
The German Instrument of Surrender was the legal instrument by which the High Command of the German Armed Forces surrendered simultaneously to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and to the Soviet High command at the end of World War II in Europe. ...
The straight-armed Balkenkreuz, a stylized version of the Iron Cross, the emblem of the Wehrmacht. ...
Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...
Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
For other uses, see Baroque (disambiguation). ...
Location Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country NUTS Region DED Capital Dresden Minister-President Georg Milbradt (CDU) Governing parties CDU / SPD Votes in Bundesrat 4 (from 69) Basic statistics Area 18,416 km² (7,110 sq mi) Population 4,252,000 (11/2006)[1] - Density 231 /km...
This article does not cite its references or sources. ...
The Allies described the operation as the justified bombing of a military and industrial target, which was a major rail transportation and communication centre, housing 110 factories and 50,000 workers in support of the German war effort.[4] Against this, several researchers have argued that Dresden was a cultural landmark of little or no military significance, a "Florence on the Elbe," as it was known, and the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and not proportional for the commensurate military gains.[5][6] This article is about the city in Germany. ...
Florence (or Firenze, Florentia and Fiorenza) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany, and of the province of Florence. ...
This article is about a river in Central Europe. ...
Area bombardment is the policy of indiscriminate bombing of an enemys cities, for the purpose of destroying civilian morale. ...
Within law, the principle of proportionality is used to describe the idea that the punishment of a certain crime should be in proportion to the severity of the crime itself. ...
Military necessity along with distinction, and proportionality are three important principles of international humanitarian law governing the legal use of force in an armed conflict. ...
In the first few decades after the war, some death toll estimates were as high as 250,000. However, figures in the regions of hundreds of thousands are considered disproportionate.[7] Today's historians estimate a death toll of between 25,000 and 40,000, with an independent investigation commissioned by the city itself to be released some time in 2008.[8] Post-war discussion of the bombing includes debate by commentators and historians as to whether or not the bombing was justified, and whether or not its outcome constituted a war crime. Nonetheless, the raids continue to be included among the worst examples of civilian suffering caused by strategic bombing, and have become one of the moral causes célèbres of the Second World War.[9] Look up cause célèbre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Background
 A view from the town hall over the Altstadt (old town), 1910. The end of 1944 found the German military retreating on both fronts, but not yet defeated. In the east, the Soviets were pushing the Germans westward. On February 8, 1945, they crossed the Oder River, with positions just 70 km from Berlin.[10] As the eastern and western fronts were getting closer, the Western Allies started to consider how they might aid the Soviets with the use of the strategic bomber force. The plan was to bomb Berlin and several other eastern cities in conjunction with the Soviet advance, in order to cause confusion among German troops evacuating from the east and to hamper their reinforcement from the west. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3498x2562, 1758 KB) Description Modifications denoising and manual dust removal, contrast adjustment, cropped to standard aspect ratio, rescaled, sharpened, and converted to JPEG Other versions Image:Dresden Altstadt 1905. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (3498x2562, 1758 KB) Description Modifications denoising and manual dust removal, contrast adjustment, cropped to standard aspect ratio, rescaled, sharpened, and converted to JPEG Other versions Image:Dresden Altstadt 1905. ...
The Dresden Frauenkirche in October 2005, only two weeks prior to its reconsecration and opening to the public. ...
Katholische Hofkirche is a Roman Catholic Church, located in the Altstadt in the heart of Dresden, in east Germany. ...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 547 pixelsFull resolution (1617 × 1106 pixel, file size: 1. ...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 547 pixelsFull resolution (1617 × 1106 pixel, file size: 1. ...
Combatants Soviet Union,[1] Poland, Tannu Tuva (until 1944 incorporation with USSR), Mongolia Germany,[2] Italy (to 1943), Romania (to 1944), Finland (to 1944), Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Spain (to 1943, unofficial) Commanders Joseph Stalin, Aleksei Antonov, Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky, Ivan Bagramyan, Kirill Meretskov, Ivan Petrov, Alexander Rodimtsev, Konstantin Rokossovsky...
is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...
The Oder (known in Czech, Slovak and Polish as Odra) is a river in Central Europe. ...
This article is about the capital of Germany. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
A special British Joint Intelligence Subcommittee report titled German Strategy and Capacity to Resist, prepared for Churchill's eyes only, predicted that Germany might collapse as early as mid-April if the Soviets overran them at their 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.[11] Silesia (English pronunciation [], Czech: ; German: ; Latin: ; Polish: ; Silesian: Ślůnsk) is a historical region in central Europe, located along the upper and middle Oder River, upper Vistula River, and along the Sudetes, Carpathian (Silesian Beskids) mountain range. ...
Plans for a large and intense offensive targeting Berlin and the other eastern cities had been discussed under the code name Operation Thunderclap in the summer of 1944, but it had been shelved on August 16.[12] These were now re-examined, and the decision made to draw up a more limited operation.[13] is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
On January 26, Winston Churchill pressed the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair: "I asked [last night] whether Berlin, and no doubt other large cities in east Germany, should not now be considered especially attractive targets. ... Pray report to me tomorrow what is going to be done."[14] Sinclair approached Sir Norman Bottomley, the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, who asked Arthur "Bomber" Harris, Commander-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command and an ardent supporter of area bombing, to undertake attacks on Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz, "with the particular object of exploiting the confused conditions which are likely to exist in the above mentioned cities during the successful Russian advance."[14] On January 27 Sinclair replied to Churchill: is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Churchill redirects here. ...
Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso KT CMG PC (October 22, 1890 – June 15, 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair from 1912 until 1952, was a Scottish politician and leader of the British Liberal Party. ...
Air Chief Marshal Sir Norman Howard Bottomley KCB CIE DSO AFC (September 18, 1891 - August 13, 1970) was the Yorkshire-born successor to Arthur Bomber Harris as Commander-in-Chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command in 1945. ...
Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet (April 13, 1892 - April 5, 1984), commonly known as Bomber Harris, and often, in the RAF, as Butcher Harris, was commander of RAF Bomber Command and later a Marshal of the Royal Air Force during the latter half of World War II. In 1942...
Bomber Command badge RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ...
Area bombardment is the policy of indiscriminate bombing of an enemys cities, for the purpose of destroying civilian morale. ...
This article is about the capital of Germany. ...
Leipzig ( ; Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk from the Sorbian word for Tilia) is, with a population of over 506,000, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. ...
Chemnitz (Sorbian/Lusatian Kamjenica, 1953-1990 called Karl-Marx-Stadt; Czech: Saská Kamenice) is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. ...
is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
| “ | The Air Staff have now arranged that, subject to the overriding claims of attacks on enemy oil production and other approved target systems within the current directive, available effort should be directed against Berlin, Dresden, Chemnitz and Leipzig or against other cities where severe bombing would not only destroy communications vital to the evacuation from the east but would also hamper the movement of troops from the west.[15] | ” | During the Yalta Conference on February 4, the Deputy Chief of the Soviet General Staff, General Aleksei Antonov, raised the issue of hampering the reinforcement of German troops from the western front by paralysing the junctions of Berlin and Leipzig with aerial bombardment. In response, Sir Charles Portal, the Chief of the Air Staff, who was in Yalta, asked Norman Bottomley to send him a list of objectives to be discussed with the Soviets. Bottomley's list included oil plants, tank and aircraft factories, and the cities of Berlin and Dresden. In the discussions which followed, the Western Allies argued that, unless Dresden was bombed, the Germans would be able to route rail traffic through Dresden to compensate for any damage caused to Berlin and Leipzig. Antonov agreed that Dresden be added to his list of requests.[citation needed] The Big Three at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. ...
is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Russia-related stubs | People stubs | Military of the Soviet Union ...
Military and industrial profile Dresden was the seventh largest German city, and according to the RAF at the time, the largest unbombed built-up area left.[16] British historian Frederick Taylor writes that an official 1942 guide to the city described it as "one of the foremost industrial locations of the Reich," and in 1944, the German Army High Command's Weapons Office listed 127 medium-to-large factories and workshops that were supplying the army with material.[17] The Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) was Germanys Army High Command from 1936 to 1945. ...
The U.S. Air Force Historical Division wrote a report in response to the international concern about the bombing, which was classified until December 1978.[18] This said that there were 110 factories and 50,000 workers in the city supporting the German war effort at the time of the raid.[19] According to the report, there were aircraft components factories; a poison gas factory (Chemische Fabric Goye and Company); an anti-aircraft and field gun factory (Lehman); an optical goods factory (Zeiss Ikon AG); as well as factories producing electrical and X-ray apparatus (Koch and Sterzel AG); gears and differentials (Saxoniswerke); and electric gauges (Gebruder Bassler). It also said there were barracks, and hutted camps, and a munitions storage depot.[20] Early detection of chemical agents Sociopolitical climate of chemical warfare While the study of chemicals and their military uses was widespread in China, the use of toxic materials has historically been viewed with mixed emotions and some disdain in the West (especially when the enemy were doing it). ...
Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) is an investment banking and financial services firm. ...
Carl Zeiss in middle age. ...
At least some of the factories relied on forced labour, including Jews from concentration camps. Michal Salomonovic, a survivor of the Łódź ghetto and Auschwitz concentration camp, told Radio Praha that he volunteered for a work detail and was sent to an SS-run cigarette factory in Dresden that was actually manufacturing dum-dum bullets. After the bombing, the SS led him on a "death march" to the West, but he was able to escape.[21] It has been suggested that Internment be merged into this article or section. ...
The Åódź Ghetto (historically the Litzmannstadt Ghetto) was the second-largest ghetto (after the Warsaw Ghetto) established for Jews and Roma in Nazi-occupied Poland. ...
Auschwitz (Konzentrationslager Auschwitz) was the largest of the Nazi German concentration camps. ...
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Dachau concentration-camp inmates on a death march through a German village in April 1945. ...
The USAF report also states that two of Dresden's traffic routes were of military importance: north-south from Germany to Czechoslovakia, and east-west along the central European uplands.[22] The city was at the junction of the Berlin-Prague-Vienna railway line, as well as Munich-Breslau, and Hamburg-Leipzig.[22] Colonel Harold E. Cook, an American POW held in the Friedrichstadt marshaling yard the night before the attacks, later said that "I saw with my own eyes that Dresden was an armed camp: thousands of German troops, tanks and artillery and miles of freight cars loaded with supplies supporting and transporting German logistics towards the east to meet the Russians."[23] Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ...
An RAF memo issued to airmen on the night of the attack said:
| “ | Dresden, the seventh largest city in Germany and not much smaller than Manchester is also the largest unbombed builtup area the enemy has got. 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 ... and incidentally to show the Russians when they arrive what Bomber Command can do.[24] | ” | This article is about the City of Manchester in England. ...
Bomber Command badge RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ...
The attacks
In the air  A Lancaster dropping bundles of 4 lb (1.8 kg) stick incendiaries over Duisburg on October 14/15, 1944.  Seconds later, the same aircraft releases the main part of its load, a 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) HC "cookie" and 108 30 lb "J" incendiaries. The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). ...
Duisburg (IPA: ) is a German city in the western part of the Ruhr Area (Ruhrgebiet) in North Rhine-Westphalia. ...
A Lancaster drops bundles of incendiary bombs (left), incendiary bombs and a “cookie†(right) on Duisburg on 15 October 1944 Blockbuster or Cookie was the name given to several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF). ...
The night of February 13–14 The Dresden attack was to have begun with a USAAF Eighth Air Force bombing raid on February 13, 1945. The Eighth Air Force had already bombed the railway yards near the centre of the city twice in daytime raids: once on October 7, 1944 with 70 tons of high-explosive bombs killing more than 400,[25] then again with 133 bombers on January 16, 1945, dropping 279 tons of high-explosives and 41 tons of incendiaries.[4] The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was the aviation component of the United States Army primarily during World War II. The title of Army Air Forces succeeded the prior name of Army Air Corps in June 1941 during preparation for expected combat in what came to be known as...
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force (NAF) of the major command (MAJCOM) of Air Combat Command of the United States Air Force and it is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. ...
is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...
is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ...
is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...
hey hey you no i rock at soccer cuz no i made the school team!! yay me aka katelyn ♥ Incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are bombs designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as napalm, thermite, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus. ...
On February 13, 1945, bad weather over Europe prevented any USAAF operations, and it was left to RAF Bomber Command to carry out the first raid. It had been decided that the raid would be a so-called 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.[26] 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 Böhlen, 60 miles (97 km) from Dresden, while de Havilland Mosquito medium bomber attacked Magdeburg, Bonn, Misburg near Hannover, and Nuremberg.[27] is the 44th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...
Bomber Command badge RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ...
The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). ...
The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engine heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. ...
Böhlen is a German town, south of Leipzig. ...
The de Havilland Mosquito[1] was a British combat aircraft that excelled in a number of roles during the Second World War. ...
This article is about the German city. ...
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. ...
Map of Germany showing Hanover Hanover (in German: Hannover [haˈnoːfɐ]), on the river Leine, is the capital of the state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany. ...
Nürnberg redirects here. ...
The first of the British aircraft took off at around 17:20 hours CET for the 700-mile (1,100 km) journey.[28] This was a group of Lancasters from Bomber Command's 83 Squadron, No. 5 Group, acting as the Pathfinders or flare force, whose job it was to find Dresden and drop magnesium parachute flares to light up the area for the bombers. The next set of aircraft to leave England were the Mosquito marker planes — wooden planes known as the "Timber terrors" — who would identify the target areas and drop 1,000-pound target indicators (TIs), known to the Germans as "Christmas trees,"[29] which gave off a red glow for the bombers to aim at.[30] The attack was to be centered on the sports stadium, next to the city's medieval Altstadt (old town), with its congested, and highly combustible, timbered buildings.[31] Time zones of Europe: Light colours indicate countries that do not observe summer time Central European Time (CET) is one of the names of the time zone that is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. ...
The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). ...
No. ...
The Pathfinder squadrons of the Royal Air Force were elite squadrons of RAF Bomber Command during World War II. At the start of the war Bomber command made many daylight raids but the losses incurred due to lack of escorting fighters when operating over Europe led them to switch the...
General Name, symbol, number magnesium, Mg, 12 Chemical series alkaline earth metals Group, period, block 2, 3, s Appearance silvery white solid at room temp Standard atomic weight 24. ...
The de Havilland Mosquito[1] was a British combat aircraft that excelled in a number of roles during the Second World War. ...
 Mosquito marker planes, so-called "timber terrors," dropped the target indicators, which glowed red to guide the bombers. The main bomber force, called "Plate Rack", took off shortly after the Pathfinders. This was a group of 254 Lancasters carrying 500 tons of high explosives and 375 tons of incendiaries, or fire bombs. There were 200,000 incendiaries in all, with the high-explosive bombs ranging in weight from 500 pounds to 4,000 pounds — the so-called two-ton "cookies,"[31] also known as "blockbusters," because they had the power to destroy a city block. The high explosives were intended to rupture water mains, and blow off roofs, doors, and windows, creating an air flow that would feed the fires caused by the incendiaries that followed.[32][33][34] The de Havilland Mosquito[1] was a British combat aircraft that excelled in a number of roles during the Second World War. ...
hey hey you no i rock at soccer cuz no i made the school team!! yay me aka katelyn ♥ Incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are bombs designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as napalm, thermite, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus. ...
A Lancaster drops bundles of incendiary bombs (left), incendiary bombs and a “cookie†(right) on Duisburg on 15 October 1944 Blockbuster or Cookie was the name given to several of the largest conventional bombs used in World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF). ...
The Lancasters crossed into French airspace near the Somme, then into Germany just north of Cologne. At 22:00 hours, the force heading for Böhlen split away from Plate Rack, which turned south east toward the Elbe. By this time, 10 of the Lancasters were out of service, leaving 244 to continue to Dresden.[35] Airspace means the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a particular country on top of its territory and territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. ...
This article is about the French department. ...
Cologne (German: , IPA: ; local dialect: Kölle ) is Germanys fourth-largest city after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than...
 Dresden from the air during the night attack. The sirens started sounding in Dresden at 21:51 (CET)[36][37] Wing Commander Maurice Smith, flying in a Mosquito, gave the order to the Lancasters: "Controller to Plate Rack Force: Come in and bomb glow of red target indicators as planned. Bomb the glow of red TIs as planned.".[38] The first bombs were released at 22:14, the Lancasters flying in low at 8,000 feet,[39] with all but one Lancaster's bombs released within two minutes, and the last one releasing at 22:22. The fan-shaped area that was bombed was one-and-a-quarter miles long, and at its extreme about one-and-three-quarter miles wide.[40] Image File history File linksMetadata Dresden_Aerial_View_-_February_13_14_1945. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Dresden_Aerial_View_-_February_13_14_1945. ...
A Wing Commanders sleeve/shoulder insignia A Wing Commanders command flag Wing Commander is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. ...
The second attack, three hours later, was by Lancaster aircraft of 1, 3, 6 and 8 (Pathfinder Force) Groups, 8 Group being the Pathfinders. By now, the thousands of fires from the burning city could be seen more than 60 miles (97 km) away on the ground, and 500 miles (800 km) away in the air, with smoke rising to 15,000 feet.[41] The Pathfinders therefore decided to expand the target, dropping flares on either side of the firestorm, including the Hauptbahnhof, the main train station, and the Großer Garten, a large park, both of which had escaped damage during the first raid. The German sirens sounded again at 01:05, but as there was practically no electricity, these were small hand-held sirens that were heard within only a block.[35] Between 01:21 and 01:45, 529 Lancasters dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs. Number 1 Group of the Royal Air Force is one of the two groups in Strike Command. ...
Number 3 Group of the Royal Air Force is one of the three groups in RAF Strike Command. ...
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This is a list of Royal Air Force groups. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Grosser Garten (German spelling Großer Garten) is a large Baroque garden in Hanover, part of the heritage of the Kings of Hanover. ...
February 14–15 On the morning of 14 February, 431 bombers of the 1st Bombardment Division of the United States VIII Bomber Command were scheduled to bomb Dresden at around midday, and the 3rd Bombardment Division were to follow the 1st and bomb Chemnitz, while the 2nd Bombardment Division would bomb a synthetic oil plant in Magdeburg. The bomber groups would be protected by the 784 P-51 Mustangs of the Eighth Fighter Command which meant that there would be almost 2,100 aircraft of the United States Eighth Air Force over Saxony during 14 February.[42] is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Chemnitz (Sorbian/Lusatian Kamjenica, 1953-1990 called Karl-Marx-Stadt; Czech: Saská Kamenice) is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. ...
Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil Synthetic oil is oil consisting of chemical compounds which were not originally present in crude oil (petroleum) but were artificially made (synthesized) from other compounds. ...
This article is about the German city. ...
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range single-seat fighter aircraft that entered service with Allied air forces in the middle years of World War II. The P-51 became one of the conflicts most successful and recognizable aircraft. ...
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force (NAF) of the major command (MAJCOM) of Air Combat Command of the United States Air Force and it is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. ...
is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
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 to be the centre of the built up area in Dresden if the weather was clear. If clouds obscured Dresden then if it was clear over Chemnitz then Chemnitz was to be the target and if both were obscured then the centre of Dresden would be bombed using H2X radar.[43] The mix of bombs to be used on the Dresden raid was about 40% incendiaries, much closer to the RAF city busting mix than that usually used by the Americans in precision bombardments.[44] This was quite a common mix when the USAAF anticipated cloudy conditions over the target.[45] A classification yard or marshalling yard (including hump yards) is a railroad yard found at some freight train stations, used to separate railroad cars on to one of several tracks. ...
The H2X radar, nicknamed the Mickey set, provided a ground mapping capability for both navigation and in daylight when overcast (and at night) for the USAAF during World War II. The H2X system replaced the British H2S radar. ...
316 B-17 Flying Fortresses bombed Dresden, dropping 771 tons of bombs[46][47] The rest misidentified their targets. Sixty bombed Prague, dropping 153 tons of bombs on the Czech city while others bombed Brux and Pilsen.[47] The 379th bombardment group started to bomb Dresden at 12:17 aiming at marshalling yards in the Friedrichstadt district west of the city centre as the area was not obscured by smoke and cloud. The 303rd group arrived over Dresden 2 minutes after the 379th found that the their view was obscured by clouds so they bombed Dresden using H2X radar for target this location. The groups that followed the 303rd, (92nd, 306th, 379th, 384th and 457th) also found Dresden obscured by clouds and they too used H2X to locate the target. H2X aiming caused the groups to bomb inaccurately with a wide dispersal over the Dresden area. The last group to bomb Dresden was the 306th and they had finished by 12:30.[48] The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the US Army Air Corps (USAAC). ...
The Bombing of Prague occurred during the end of World War II (February 14, 1945) when the US Army Air Forces carried out an air raid over Prague. ...
Brux is a commune of the Vienne département, in France. ...
Plzeň (Czech name) or Pilsen (German equivalent, sometimes used in English) is a city in western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. ...
The H2X radar, nicknamed the Mickey set, provided a ground mapping capability for both navigation and in daylight when overcast (and at night) for the USAAF during World War II. The H2X system replaced the British H2S radar. ...
According to an RAF webpage on the history of RAF Bomber Command, "[p]art of the American Mustang-fighter escort was ordered to strafe traffic on the roads around Dresden to increase the chaos and disruption to the important transportation network in the region."[49]. Kurt Vonnegut, an American POW at Dresden, records an attack on his party of POWs by American fighters on 14 February in his work Slaughterhouse-Five.[50] Historian Gotz Berganger asserted in Dresden Im Luftkrieg (1977) that tales of civilians being strafed by the Mustangs were untrue. However, historian Alexander McKee interviewed some eyewitnesses (Gerhard Kuhnemund, Annemarie Waehmann etc.) in Dresden in the winter 1980-81 who told him strafing did occur.[51] These claims are dismissed by Fredrick Taylor and Helmut Schnatz in studies of the issue in their books.[52][53]Frederick Taylor, in Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945 (2004) alleges that there was a brief, but possibly intense, dogfight between American and German fighters, and some rounds may have been mistaken for strafing fire when they struck the ground.[54] Bomber Command badge RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ...
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ...
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Childrens Crusade: A Duty Dance With Death is a 1969 novel by best-selling author Kurt Vonnegut. ...
This article is about the aerial combat maneuver. ...
On February 15 the 1st Bombardment Division's primary target — the Böhlen synthetic oil plant near Leipzig — was obscured by cloud so the Division's groups diverted to their secondary target which was the city of Dresden. As Dresden was also obscured by clouds the groups targeted the city using H2X. The first group to arrive over the target was the 401th, but they missed the centre and bombed southeastern suburbs with bombs landing on the near by towns of Meissen and Pirna. The other groups all bombed between 12:00 and 12:10. They failed to hit the marshalling yards in the Friedrichstadt district and, as on the previous raid, their ordinance was scattered over a wide area.[55] is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Böhlen is a German town, south of Leipzig. ...
Leipzig ( ; Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk from the Sorbian word for Tilia) is, with a population of over 506,000, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. ...
Old town of Meißen. ...
This term is ambiguous for Piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) Pirna is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany in the administrative district of the Sächsische Schweiz. ...
On the ground  Corpses in the central square after the attack. | “ | It is not possible to describe! Explosion after explosion. It was beyond belief, worse than the blackest nightmare. So many people were horribly burnt and injured. lt became more and more difficult to breathe. lt was dark and all of us tried to leave this cellar with inconceivable panic. Dead and dying people were trampled upon, luggage was left or snatched up out of our hands by rescuers. The basket with our twins covered with wet cloths was snatched up out of my mother's hands and we were pushed upstairs by the people behind us. We saw the burning street, the falling ruins and the terrible firestorm. My mother covered us with wet blankets and coats she found in a water tub. We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to the size of small children, pieces of arms and legs, dead people, whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro, burnt coaches filled with civilian refugees, dead rescuers and soldiers, many were calling and looking for their children and families, and fire everywhere, everywhere fire, and all the time the hot wind of the firestorm threw people back into the burning houses they were trying to escape from.
I cannot forget these terrible details. I can never forget them.
| ” | | —Lothar Metzger, survivor.[56] | The sirens had started sounding in Dresden at 21:51 (CET)[37] Frederick Taylor writes that the Germans could see that a large enemy bomber formation — or what they called "ein dicker Hund" (a fat dog) — was approaching somewhere in the east. At 21:39, the Reich Air Defense Leadership issued an enemy aircraft warning for Dresden, though at that point it was thought Leipzig might be the target. At 21:59, the Local Air Raid Leadership confirmed that the bombers were in the area of Dresden-Pirna.[57] Taylor writes the city was largely undefended; a night fighter force of ten Messerschmitts at Klotzsche airfield was scrambled, but it took them half an hour to get into an attack position. At 22:03, the Local Air Raid Leadership issued the first definitive warning: "Achtung! Achtung! Achtung! The lead aircraft of the major enemy bomber forces have changed course and are now approaching the city area."[58]
By early morning on February 14, Ash Wednesday, the center of the city, including its Altstadt, was engulfed in a firestorm, with temperatures peaking at over 1500 °C (2700 °F).[59] is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
In the Western Christian calendar, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. ...
This article does not cite its references or sources. ...
For other uses, see Celsius (disambiguation). ...
For other uses, see Fahrenheit (disambiguation). ...
 Over ninety percent of the city centre was destroyed. | “ | To my left I suddenly see a woman. I can see her to this day and shall never forget it. She carries a bundle in her arms. It is a baby. She runs, she falls, and the child flies in an arc into the fire. Suddenly, I saw people again, right in front of me. They scream and gesticulate with their hands, and then — to my utter horror and amazement — I see how one after the other they simply seem to let themselves drop to the ground. (Today I know that these unfortunate people were the victims of lack of oxygen). They fainted and then burnt to cinders. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Insane fear grips me and from then on I repeat one simple sentence to myself continuously: "I don't want to burn to death". I do not know how many people I fell over. I know only one thing: that I must not burn.
| ” | | —Margaret Freyer, survivor.[60] | There were very few public air raid shelters — the largest, underneath the main train station, was housing 6,000 refugees.[61] As a result, most people took shelter in their cellars, but one of the air raid precautions the city had taken was to remove the thick cellar walls between rows of buildings, and replace them with thin partitions that could be knocked through in an emergency. The idea was that, as one building collapsed or filled with smoke, those using the basement as a shelter could knock the walls down and run into adjoining buildings. With the city on fire everywhere, those fleeing from one burning cellar simply ran into another, with the result that thousands of bodies were found piled up in houses at the end of city blocks.[62]
A Dresden police report written shortly after the attacks reported that the old town and the inner eastern suburbs had been engulfed in a single fire that had destroyed almost 12,000 dwellings.[63] The same report said that the raids had destroyed 24 banks, 26 insurance buildings, 31 stores and retail houses, 640 shops, 64 warehouses, 2 market halls, 31 large hotels, 26 public houses, 63 administrative buildings, 3 theatres, 18 cinemas, 11 churches, 6 chapels; 5 other cultural buildings, 19 hospitals including auxiliary, overflow hospitals, and private clinics, 39 schools, 5 consulates, the zoo, the waterworks, the railways, 19 postal facilities; 4 tram facilities; and 19 ships and barges. The Wehrmacht's main command post in the Taschenberg Palais, 19 military hospitals and a number of less significant military facilities were also destroyed.[63] Almost 200 factories were damaged, 136 seriously damaged (including several of the Zeiss Ikon precision optical engineering works), 28 with medium to serious damage, and 35 with light damage.[64] This article refers to public transport vehicles running on rails. ...
Carl Zeiss The Carl Zeiss AG is a German manufacturer of optical systems, industrial measurements and medical devices, located in Oberkochen with important subsidiaries in Aalen and Jena. ...
An RAF assessment showed that 23 percent of the industrial buildings, and 56 percent of the non-industrial buildings, not counting residential buildings, had been seriously damaged. Around 78,000 dwellings had been completely destroyed; 27,700 were uninhabitable; and 64,500 damaged, but readily repairable.[4]
Casualties  A pyre of bodies in the aftermath. The tonnage of bombs dropped on Dresden was actually lower than in many other areas,[65] but ideal weather conditions for a firestorm, the wooden-framed buildings, the "breakthroughs" linking the cellars of contiguous buildings, and the city's lack of preparation[29] conspired to make the attack particularly devastating. For these reasons, the loss of life in Dresden was considerably higher than in many other bombing raids. One contributing factor to the large loss of life in Dresden was the lack of preparation for the effects of air-raids by Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann, as the city did not expect to be bombed.[66] For example when Braunschweig was bombed on nights of October 14 and 15, 1944, hochbunkers and well trained fire fighters saved 23,000 people from death in a firestorm. An Ubud cremation ceremony in 2005. ...
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP (more commonly known as the Nazi Party) or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau. ...
The Bombing of Braunschweig (or Brunswick) in World War II on 15 October 1944 by the Royal Air Forces No. ...
is the 287th day of the year (288th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Bombing of Braunschweig (or Brunswick) in World War II on 15 October 1944 by the Royal Air Forces No. ...
Exact figures are difficult to ascertain. Estimates are complicated by the fact that the city and surrounding suburbs, which had a population of 642,000 in 1939,[67] was crowded at the time of the bombing with up to 200,000 refugees,[68] and thousands of wounded soldiers. Earlier reputable estimates of casualties varied from 25,000 to more than 60,000, but historians now view around 25,000–35,000 as the likely range[69][70] with Dresden historian Friedrich Reichert pointing toward the lower end of it.[71] It would appear from such estimates that the casualties suffered in the Dresden bombings were similar to those suffered in other German cities subject to firebombing during area bombardment.[4][72] Aerial area bombardment is the policy of indiscriminate bombing of an enemys cities, for the purpose of destroying the enemys means of producing military materiel, communications, government centres and civilian morale. ...
According to official German report Tagesbefehl (Order of the Day) no. 47 ("TB47") issued on 22 March the number of dead recovered by that date was 20,204, including 6,865 who were cremated on the Altmarkt, and the total number of deaths was expected to be about 25,000[73][74][75] Another report on 3 April put the number of corpses recovered at 22,096.[73] The municipal cemetery office recorded 21,271 victims of the raids were buried in the city cemeteries, of which 17,295 were placed in the Heidefriedhof cemetery (a total that included the ashes of those cremated at the Altmarkt). These numbers were probably supplemented by a number of additional private burials in other places.[73] A further 1,858 bodies of victims were found during the rebuilding of Dresden between the end of the war and 1966.[76] Since 1989 despite the extensive excavation for new buildings no war-related bodies have been found.[76] The number of people registered with the authorities as missing was 35,000; around 10,000 of those were later found to be alive.[70] is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 93rd day of the year (94th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Wartime political responses
German Development of a German political response to the raid took several turns. Initially, some of the leadership, especially Robert Ley and Joseph Goebbels, wanted to use it as a pretext for abandonment of the Geneva Conventions on the Western Front. In the end, the only political action the German government took was to exploit it for propaganda purposes.[77] Dr Robert Ley Dr. Robert Ley (15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945), Nazi German politician, was head of the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. ...
Paul Joseph Goebbels (German pronunciation: IPA: ; English generally IPA: ) (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945. ...
Original document. ...
Combatants United Kingdom United States Poland France Canada Free France Netherlands Belgium Germany Italy Commanders Winston Churchill, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Harold Alexander, Bertram Ramsay, Bernard Montgomery, Lord Gort, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Franklin Roosevelt,, George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Jacob Devers, Władysław Anders, Władysław Sikorski, Stanis...
On February 16, the Propaganda Ministry issued a press release that stated that Dresden had no war industries; it was a city of culture.[78] Image File history File links Goebbels. ...
Image File history File links Goebbels. ...
Paul Joseph Goebbels (German pronunciation: IPA: ; English generally IPA: ) (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945. ...
is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
On February 25, a new leaflet with photographs of two burned children was released under the title "Dresden — Massacre of Refugees," stating that 200,000 had died. Since no official estimate had been developed, the numbers were speculative, but newspapers such as the Stockholm Svenska Morgonbladet used phrases such as "privately from Berlin," to explain where they had obtained the figures.[79] Frederick Taylor states that "there is good reason to believe that later in March copies of — or extracts from — [an official police report] were leaked to the neutral press by Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry ... doctored with an extra zero to make [the total dead from the raid] 202,040."[80]On March 4, Das Reich, a weekly newspaper founded by Goebbels, published a lengthy article emphasizing the suffering and destruction of a cultural icon, without mentioning any damage the attacks had caused to the German war effort.[74][81] is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
For other uses, see Stockholm (disambiguation). ...
is the 63rd day of the year (64th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
German word translated as The Empire. Used in conjunction with the Nazi Party belief that they were the Third Reich ...
Taylor writes that this propaganda was effective, as it not only influenced attitudes in neutral countries at the time, but also reached the British House of Commons when Richard Stokes, a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) opposed to area bombing, quoted information from the German Press Agency (controlled by the Propaganda Ministry). It was Stokes' questions in the House of Commons that were in large part responsible for the shift in the UK against this type of raid. Taylor suggests that, although the destruction of Dresden would have affected people's support for the Allies regardless of German propaganda, at least some of the outrage did depend on Goebbel's massaging of the casualty figures.[82] Type Lower House Speaker Michael Martin, (Non-affiliated) since October 23, 2000 Leader Harriet Harman, (Labour) since June 28, 2007 Shadow Leader Theresa May, (Conservative) since May 5, 2005 Members 659 Political groups Labour Party Conservative Party Liberal Democrats Scottish National Party Plaid Cymru Democratic Unionist Party Sinn Féin...
Richard Rapier Stokes ( 1897– 1957) was a British Labour Party politician who served briefly as Lord Privy Seal in 1951. ...
The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. ...
A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ...
British The destruction of the city provoked unease in intellectual circles in Britain. According to Max Hastings, by February 1945, attacks upon German cities had become largely irrelevant to the outcome of the war and the name of Dresden resonated with cultured people all over Europe — "the home of so much charm and beauty, a refuge for Trollope’s heroines, a landmark of the Grand Tour." He writes that the bombing was the first time the public in Allied countries seriously questioned the military actions used to defeat the Nazis.[84] Churchill redirects here. ...
The Bombing of Coventry was a massive raid launched by the Luftwaffe which saw Britains major armaments production centre decimated. ...
Sir Max Hastings (born December 28, 1945) is a British journalist, editor, historian and author. ...
Anthony Trollope (April 24, 1815 – December 6, 1882) became one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. ...
For other uses, see Grand Tour (disambiguation). ...
The unease was made worse by an Associated Press story that the Allies had resorted to terror bombing. At a press briefing held by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force two days after the raids, British Air Commodore Colin McKay Grierson told journalists: The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ...
Badge of SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (abbreviated as SHAEF, pronounced shÄf), was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. General Dwight Eisenhower was in command of SHAEF throughout its existence. ...
{{}}Air Commodore Colin McKay Grierson, CBE, (born May 29, 1975) He joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as an Aircraft Apprentice in 1921. ...
First of all they [Dresden and similar towns] are the centres to which evacuees are being moved. They are centres of communications through which traffic is moving across to the Russian Front, and from the Western Front to the East, and they are sufficiently close to the Russian Front for the Russians to continue the successful prosecution of their battle. I think these three reasons probably cover the bombing.[85] One of the journalists asked whether the principal aim of bombing of Dresden would be to cause confusion among the refugees or to blast communications carrying military supplies. Grierson answered that the primary aim was communications to prevent them moving military supplies, and to stop movement in all directions if possible. He then added in an offhand remark that the raid also helped destroying "what is left of German morale." Howard Cowan, an Associated Press war correspondent, subsequently filed a story saying that the Allies had resorted to terror bombing. There were follow-up newspaper editorials on the issue and a long time opponent of strategic bombing, Richard Stokes MP, asked questions in the House of Commons on March 6.[86][87] A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ...
is the 65th day of the year (66th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Churchill subsequently distanced himself from the bombing.[83][88][89] On March 28, in a memo sent by telegram to General Ismay for the British Chiefs of Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff, he wrote: is the 87th day of the year (88th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
General Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay of Wormington (June 21, 1887 - 1965) was a British soldier and diplomat. ...
It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed. Otherwise we shall come into control of an utterly ruined land… The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing. I am of the opinion that military objectives must henceforward be more strictly studied in our own interests than that of the enemy.
The Foreign Secretary has spoken to me on this subject, and I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives such as oil and communications behind the immediate battle-zone, rather than on mere acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive.[90][91] |
