Reasons for the Allies Bombing of Dresden in the Second World War and Were They Justified in Destroying the City
Introduction
During wartime, countries often suffer great losses to areas of their country, their cities, their civilians, and their landmarks. In World War II, the city of Dresden, the capital city of the German state of Saxony was bombed over the span of three days in February of 1945 by the British Air Force. The death toll from this attack on the city is estimated to be between 22,700 and 25,000 people. Furthermore, approximately 1,600 acres of the city was destroyed. There is great debate over whether or not this bombing by the British Air Force was justified during the time of war. Many commentators argue that the collateral damage that the British Air Force inflicted on the citizens of the city of Dresden was not justified even during wartime. However, the United States has defended the bombing committed by the British as an act that was necessary to take out an industrial target, and those that lost their lives were in support of the German war effort and performed acts necessary to further this war effort of the Germans. Throughout this paper, I will discuss whether the bombing of the city of Dresden was justified and is an act that should be condoned during the time of war, or whether the bombing of the city of Dresden was an atrocity that was committed by the British Air Force that should never have taken place.
This paper will investigate the bombing of the city of Dresden. The death toll that occurred as a result of the bombing will be examined. Furthermore, the reasons that the act occurred as well as Britain’s defenses for the act will be discussed. In addition, the criticisms of the act will be expressed and alternative methods that Britain could have used will also be examined. The investigation will be conducted through an analysis of articles and accounts written about the bombing of the city of Dresden.
At the time of the bombing of the city of Dresden that occurred from February 13 through February 15 in 1945, towards the end of World War III, the city of Dresden was the seventh largest city in the country of Germany. The city was at that time highly industrialized when compared to other cities in the country of Germany. Dresden possessed an estimated 127 medium-to-large factories and warehouses. These factories and warehouses were uses to supply necessities for the war to the German troops. Because of the notion that the industries within the city of Dresden served to further the efforts of the war for Germany, this made the city a target for Allied forces, especially the forces of Great Britain. Therefore, several bombing attacks were planned upon the city in order to neutralize it as a threat. Evidence exists that shows that the United States military did little to oppose the bombing of areas of German that were highly populated with citizens on moral grounds. The bombings of the city of Dresden were carried out using heavy highly explosive bombs as well as incendiary devices that would ignite and feed fires so that areas hit would burn to the ground. This resulted in an exorbitant death toll and a great deal of devastation across the city.
The article “Undoing Trauma: Reconstructing the Church of Our Lady in Dresden” states that the bombing of the city of Dresden and its aftermath served as a symbol of devastation during wartime for years, especially to the country of Germany. “The destruction of Dresden by British and U.S. forces has long served as a dominant symbol in Germany and elsewhere for the devastating human, material, and cultural losses inflicted by the Allied “area bombing” of German cities. Several factors gave Dresden legendary status. The contrast between Dresden’s baroque splendor before the bombing and the wasteland it left behind is truly dramatic” (James, 2006). Furthermore, it is important to note that many people argue that the city of Dresden possessed no military significance for which it should have been subjected to such attacks by the British forces. Although the estimated death toll suggested by the Germans in the years immediately following the incident suggested that hundreds of thousands of people were killed by the attacks on Dresden by the British forces, today in both German and abroad agree that more upwards of 25,000 lives were probably lost because of these wartime incidents. The majority of people killed in these bombing were civilians, many of whom were refugees fleeing the war. These victims of war were often burned to death while hiding inside bomb shelters. The British Air Fore utilizes special incendiary devices to accomplish the damage that was inflicted upon the city.
Because of the incredible loss of life that occurred during the bombings that took place over a three day period in the city of Dresden, as well as the fact that most of the lives lost belonged to civilians, there are many who argue that the acts committed by the British forces in the bombing of the city of Dresden amounted to an atrocity of tremendous proportions. In fact, critics of the bombings argue that Hitler was not the only force of atrocity at work during World War II. Furthermore, these critics believe that these acts of atrocity in the killing of so many citizens of the city of Dresden were not justified no matter the circumstance.
The article “Apocalypse at Dresden” that appeared in the November 1963 issue of Esquire magazine argues that the bias nature of the courts of justice following World War II has led to a distorted view of who all of the forces committing war crimes were during World War II. “The devastation of Dresden in February, 1945, was one of those crimes against humanity whose authors would have arraigned at Nuremberg if that Court had not been perverted into the instrument of Allied justice” (Crossman, 1963). The Allied, the victors in the war, controlled the prosecutions for war crimes, it is argued. These courts did not function as unbiased arbiters of justice as they should have. Instead, the courts doled out justice for the Allies against their enemies and virtually disregarded the acts the Allied forces committed that should have been classified as war crimes. The author of the article argues that the devastation and death caused by the air raids of the city of Dresden surpassed the devastation that was caused by the Japanese air raids.
In the article “American Military Ethics in World War II: The Bombing of German Civilians’” the author points out that the military policy of the United States during the time of World War II was to abstain from the killing of civilians and to only strike military and industrial targets. This policy, the author goes on to say, differs not only from the policy of both Germany and Japan, but also Great Britain as well. These countries intentionally attacked areas that were populated with civilians. The United States military and air forces purported to abide by ethical codes that were opposed to using attacks on civilian areas to ‘break the spirit’ of the citizens of opposing force nations. However, the article point out that the United States did very little to dissuade attacks on civilians in the country of German that the United States military claims was against their moral code. In fact, the author argues that the United States military’s policy of refraining from the attack of the citizens of the country of their enemy may not have been derived from a sense of morality at all. The author claims that a sense of the effectiveness of such attacks led the United States to oppose these attacks. “The authors of official United States air warfare manuals were ambivalent about the strategy of attacking civilians. A 1935 Air Corps Tactical School manual declared, in a paraphrase of Douhet’s words, that the morale of an enemy’s populace was even more important that the spirit of its troops because military morale code could be revived after it was damaged, while a breakdown in civilian morale might decide the war” (Schaffer, 1980).The article goes on to state the prewar doctrine that the United States’ military believed in still felt that strikes against the enemy’s population was ineffective. Therefore, it was the effective of this type of warfare that was the reason that the United States was opposed to it instead of the nature of the killing of large numbers of civilians because they resided in an enemy country.
The article “British Bombing Strategy in World War II” argues that the bombing of Dresden displays how a country’s moral standards can be eroded during times of war. It states that Chamberlain made statements to the British Parliament before the war in which he declared the targeting of civilians or the intentional targeting of areas that were highly populated with civilians to be an international war crime. The British, under Churchill, quickly changed their policy when the city of London was struck by German forces in air attacks in 1940. The British responded by air attacks of their own against the city of Berlin. The article goes on to point out the difficulty of hitting specific targets such as airfields during air attacks on Germany also led Britain to change its policy to a policy that targeted the civilian population of Germany. The goal of the air attacks that Britain committed shifted from that of taking out military targets to destroying cities. This goal was accomplished through the use of incendiary bombs thatboth destroyed and burned areas of cities to the ground.
Works Cited
Crossman, R.H.S. “Apocalypse at Dresden.” Esquire. November 1963.
James, Jason. “Undoing Trauma: Reconstructing the Church of Our Lady in Dresden.” Ethos, (2006)Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 244-272.
Maier, Charles, S. “Targeting the City: Debates and Silence about the Aerial Bombing of World War II.” International Review of the Red Cross. Volume 87 Number 859 September 2005.
Schaffer, Ronald. “American Military Ethics in World War II: The Bombing of German Civilians.” The Journal of American History. Vol. 67 No. 2. September 1980.
Siebert, Detlef. “British Strategy in World war Two.” 17 February, 2011.
