The aerial bombing of Dresden was carried out on the German city of the same name between 13 and 15 February 1945 by the air forces of the United Kingdom and the United States. The attack had various purposes, the main of which was to weaken the enemy’s morale and induce them to surrender. The effects of the bombing were frightening: the center of Dresden (which after the end of the conflict would become a city in eastern Germany) was almost completely razed to the ground; between 25 and 40 thousand people were killed. The attack, although not the most destructive of the Second World War, raised moral scruples among large sectors of public opinion even in the victorious countries. For the military leaders of the Allies, however, the attack was a legitimate act of war.
Why Dresden was bombed: the aerial weapon in World War II
To understand the reasons for the bombing of Dresden, it must be remembered that the use of large-scale aerial weapons constituted the most important innovation of the Second World War compared to previous conflicts. Aviation, which had existed for several decades, had reached such a level of development that it could carry the war far from the front line and cause damage and casualties throughout the enemy’s territory.
All belligerent countries made use of aerial weapons, carrying out both tactical bombings, i.e. in support of military actions, and strategic bombings, i.e. not directly connected to ongoing operations but aimed at destroying the enemy’s war potential. Strategic bombings include, for example, attacks on industries and those aimed at weakening the enemy’s morale (il moral bombing).
The intensity of the bombing carried out by each country depended exclusively on the capabilities of their air force: no one limited the air attacks for moral reasons.
Among the places hit most violently during the war were the English towns attacked by the Germans – such as Coventry, partially destroyed by a bombing in 1940 – and numerous German, Italian and Japanese cities, hit by the Allies. The bombings of Hamburg in 1943 and Tokyo in 1945 were among the most notorious and destructive, without, of course, the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The planning and attack on Dresden: who decided it
The decision to attack Dresden was taken by the Allied command in February 1945, when victory was already looming. Germany was in fact held in a vice: it was attacked from the west by the USA and UK, who had landed in Normandy the previous June, and from the east by the Soviets, who had repelled the German attack which had begun in 1941 and undertook a powerful counter-offensive.
Until 1945, Dresden – a city of art with an important historic center of medieval origin – had not been outside the bomber range for long. The decision to bomb it was taken out of fear that, faced with the Soviet advance, the German command would move troops to the Western Front, making operations on that front more difficult. Furthermore, the Anglo-American command was intent on creating confusion for the enemy and, above all, weakening their morale. Even the USSR, at the Yalta conference on 4 February, put pressure to strike the enemy’s lines of communication.
The bombing and the firestorm
The bombing took place over three days, from 13 to 15 February 1945, and was conducted by both the British Royal Air Force and the US Air Force. The operations began on the night between 13 and 14 February, when approximately 800 British bombers dropped 1500 tons of explosive bombs and 1200 tons of incendiary bombs. The attack caused a huge fire, from which, due to the movement of air caused by the explosions, a “firestorm” arose: fiery winds blew across the city, lifting people and things.
The city was attacked again the next day by American B-17 bombers, which dropped another 1250 tons of bombs, and on the morning of February 15th again by the Americans. The attacks developed in successive waves, organized in such a way as to hinder the work of firefighters and rescue teams. The flames went out only after a week.
The consequences and the number of victims
The effects of the raids were frightening. The city had approximately 222,000 apartments, of which 75,000 were destroyed, 11,000 were severely damaged, 7,000 were damaged and 81,000 were more lightly affected. Numerous factories, churches and other buildings were also destroyed. The city center was practically razed to the ground. However, the exact number of victims is not known: for years it has been speculated that there could be hundreds of thousands, but the most reliable estimates claim that they were between 25,000 and 40,000.
Was the bombing of Dresden a war crime or a legitimate military operation?
The bombing of Dresden is the air raid of World War II that provoked the most moral discussions and scruples. The attack was not the most destructive bombing. Other raids, such as the one on Tokyo in March 1945, caused many more victims; the quantity of bombs dropped on other German cities, primarily Berlin, was much higher. Almost no one, however, questioned the legitimacy of the attacks.
Instead, for some sectors of public opinion the bombing of Dresden was a war crime, because there were no “direct” military objectives in the city, such as war industries, and because it was carried out for “terrorist” purposes, that is, to terrorize the population and thus induce them to surrender. Furthermore, the attack was carried out when Germany was in fact already defeated and its surrender was only a matter of time. Finally, Dresden had an extraordinary importance on a cultural level. Those who say the attack was a crime include the German writer Gunther Grass and British historians such as Antony Beevor and Basil Liddell Hart.
Those who, on the contrary, believe that the bombing was a legitimate act of war point out, first of all, that at the time there were no international treaties limiting air raids (only the conventions on the protection of civilians in times of war were in force). Furthermore, those who consider the attack legitimate highlight how Dresden was not a defenseless city, because inside there were barracks and military installations, and how the Germans had in turn carried out “terrorist” bombings on the United Kingdom, which had not reached the intensity of the Allied ones only because the German air force did not have the capabilities. Moreover, since 1944 Germany had been hitting the United Kingdom with V2 rockets, which had no military function, but only “terrorist”. Finally – and this is the most important motivation of those who believe the attack on Dresden was right – the bombings made it possible to accelerate Germany’s defeat and, therefore, to shorten the war, reducing the number of total victims and limiting the crimes of Nazism (think of the Holocaust, which would have continued if Germany had not been defeated). This thesis is supported by the Allied military leaders, including the head of the British bomber command, Arthur Harris.
What is certain is that the population of Dresden was a victim of the events, but the main responsibility for the destruction of the city, like many other European centers, falls on Nazism, which had wanted the war thinking it could impose its hegemony on Europe: without the delusions of power of Hitler and his supporters, Dresden would not have been destroyed.
