Why is Dresden germany so beautiful. Despite the unnecessary bombing by the british...its been restored...I wa

Question

I was just there June 1- June 4 2008. The Gemaldegalerie.....Grunes Gewolbe ( Green Vault)......the amount of artwork and antiquities is amazing.....great art collection...both in size and breadth.....lovely city largely restored.....unfortunately they did not begin baking the beloved marzipan stollen yet.....not until October....

Answer 1

So you made a second trip did you?

The last time you asked a question about Dresden you said you were going during december 2007 school break? As I pointed out on that answer the City was bombed by both the British and the American Airforces in a justified attack on an enemies industrial centre.

Or do you just enjoy baiting people with your questions?

As it appears you did not read my justification of the bombing last time I will repeat it here.

Here we go again.

Some people in Dresden and elsewhere claim that the Bombing of Dresden by the RAF AND the USAAF is a war crime. In my opinion it was not

I am not in any way denying the fact that what happened in Dresden was horrific and appalling. I do deny that the men who undertook the mission have any crime to answer for.

The bombing of Dresden has been used since 1945 as a tool to beat the RAF about its conduct of "terror bombing" during WW2.

Dresden burned so heavily for several reasons.

It was a medieval city with many wooden buildings.

There had been a dry winter in the region which meant many buildings were tinderboxes.

The population were not used to air raids and did not therefore have the knowledge that you need to put incendiaries out quickly

The raid had little opposition because its Anti aircraft defence had been taken away by the Germans for use on the Eastern front. Therefore the bombers were able to put their loads in a concentrated space with little or no opposition.

Dresden was not "chosen for destruction". This was a raid on an industrial centre which went exactly right with horrifying consequences due to many circumstances some of which I have listed above.

Why did so many people die?

The 25000 people that died (absolute top number using all available, reliable sources) did so because of the reasons above and the fact that Dresden’s Air Raid Precautions were appallingly bad. There were few, if any, properly constructed public shelters despite money having been allocated for them which was spent by the local burghers on Air Raid shelters for their homes in the suburbs.

People therefore sheltered in basements of houses which, due to the firestorm above filled with noxious fumes and killed the occupants before the houses collapsed onto them and burned their corpses.

As to the claim that this was a War Crime. The Geneva convention signed by both Germany and Britain DID NOT prohibit the bombing of industrial centres located in residential areas. Many people have claimed in the last 62 years that Dresden was a quiet peaceable town going about its business and waiting for the war to end. Read the letter below which is taken from research by myself and many others for the truth about "quiet, peaceable, nothing to do with the war" Dresden.

I have copied my standard Dresden Defence Letter below for the reasons why the raid took place.

The bombing of Dresden by RAF Bomber Command AND the USAAF was NOT a mistake or a War Crime.

In early 1945 the war was far from over. The Allies were still camped outside the borders of Germany, V2 rockets were still falling. The Allies had just fought the battle of the Bulge where the supposedly defeated Germans suddenly punched a huge hole in the Allied lines, German Rocket and Jet aircraft were coming off the production lines and proceeding to rip the h**l out of the allied air fleets.

It was an operation undertaken due to many reasons.

1. A request from the Russians at the Yalta conference in February

1945. General Antonov "We want the Dresden railway junction bombed"

Meeting between the Chiefs of staff as reported by an interpreter.

2. It was a German base of operations against Marshall Koniev`s left flank as he advanced into Germany. (See above)

Captured German High Command documents from Berlin in 1945 state that "Dresden is to be fortified as a military strongpoint, to be held at all costs."

3. Munitions storage in the old Dresden Arsenal.

4. Troop reinforcement and transport centre shifting an average 28

troop trains through the marshalling yards every day.

5. Communications centre. Most of the telephone lines connecting

High Command to the Eastern front went through Dresden.

6. Quote from The Dresden Chamber of Commerce 1944. "The work rhythm of Dresden is determined by the needs of our army."

There were 127 factories in the Dresden Municipal area. The most

famous of these was Zeiss the celebrated camera and optics maker. In 1945 it was turning out Bomb aiming apparatus and Time fuses. (If you think the Dresden China Works making those lovely shepherdesses are more famous, they are actually made in Meisen 12Km down the River and always have been.)

A factory that previously made Typewriters and sewing machines was making Guns and ammunition

The Waffle and Marzipan machine manufacturer was producing

torpedoes for the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe.

The arts and crafts workshops in the old town were using their

woodworking skills to make the tail assemblies for V-1s.

Other factories were turning out such non warlike goods as

Searchlights, Aircraft components, Field Telephones and 2 way radios.

Yet another quote, "Anyone who knows Dresden only as a cultural

city would be very surprised to be made aware of the extensive and

versatile activity that make Dresden ONE OF THE FOREMOST INDUSTRIAL LOCATIONS OF THE REICH. (My Capitals)

Sir Arthur Harris? A Post war exponent of the bombing campaign?

Nope both wrong.

It comes from the Dresden City Council Yearbook of 1942.

Ray Wells

Answer 2

Many would say that London was just as nice - even nicer - before the unnecessary destruction, bombing and killing by the n***s during the Blitz....

And what about the seige of Stalingrad (considered by many to be the bloodiest battle in recorded history). and the Warsaw ghetto,  on and on, so many memories, but I digress.....

An eye for an eye and all that... eh, wot?

Answer 3

Dresden was where there was a large concentration of German war industries.  It was quite necessary, and effective.

Had they not obliterated Dresden, you could have gotten your stollen in London.  

Answer 4

I wonder if all those Jews killed in the prison camps thought the bombing were unnecessary?

Answer 5

Yes Bath is like that in the UK despite the unnecessary bombing by the Germans first!

But hey that's war we tend not to harp on about it.