Dresden 70 years on.

[Since1982]

Extraordinary interview this morning on Five Live with a British soldier who found himself in Dresden on that night. Well worth a listen. Was on just before 8.30 and was compelling listening.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Your point on the Americans not wanting to face as you say fanatical resistance is well known,just makes you wonder what were they Japanese government thinking ?

surrender seemed to be seen as a weekness from what I can take of the Japanese at that time
regards
DR

 

[Theatre of Trees]

If you ever get the chance to read the diaries of Victor Klemperer it is well worth the effort. Klemperer was a Jew who had converted to Protestantism back in 1912 had volunteered, fought and been decorated by the Germans during World War One then fell foul of the Aryan Laws of Nazi Germany after 1933. The Dresden bombing actually saved his life, he was one of the few Jews left in the city by 1945 and had been served his deportation notice the week before. When the bombs dropped that night he tore off his yellow star and him and his wife hid amongst the large numbers of refugees streaming out of the city.

He later returned to Dresden and ended up living under the East German regime until his death in 1960 at the age of 79.

 

[Machiavelli]

Extraordinary interview this morning on Five Live with a British soldier who found himself in Dresden on that night. Well worth a listen. Was on just before 8.30 and was compelling listening.

I agree.

ps apologies for my earlier characterisation of you a few months back -- you managed to expose me quite effectively.

 

[Since1982]

I agree.

ps apologies for my earlier characterisation of you a few months back -- you managed to expose me quite effectively.

Can't recall that but thanks anyway

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

One of the sad aspects of war; just seen the commemoration service on the BBC News and I can feel myself welling up. The good thing that has come from it is that Coventry and Dresden are now (I think) twin cities, the bells for the restoration of Dresden Cathedral were cast in Coventry. In fact, I would urge NSC'ers to visit Coventry Cathedral if you can - it's extremely moving, and has a frieze by Graham Sutherland, as does Chichester Cathedral. I just wish they had rebuilt Coventry as well as Dresden, which was restored in its old style. The centre of Coventry, the cathedral apart, is horrible.

 

[Winker]

There are no civilians in total war - the entire country is geared towards fighting, if not in actual combat, then working in the factories, keeping the transport running, filling the sandbags, passing the ammunition, comforting the troops etc etc etc....

There is also a theory that the bombing of Dresden was a show of force for the benefit of the Russians who were heading towards the city, i.e. if you advance past the agreed borders of your future european empire, then this is what you'll get.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Extraordinary interview this morning on Five Live with a British soldier who found himself in Dresden on that night. Well worth a listen. Was on just before 8.30 and was compelling listening.

He may well have been the same chap on BBC Breakfast Time this morning. Interview did not get off to the best star . As they asked him what went on he replied "I've already told you" then a awkward pause before "What do you want me to say?" But, from that car crash start he went on to give a compelling and harrowing account.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Do you mean this ? If so.Thank-you. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02jxnld

 

[jakarta]

Given the massive casualties that Bomber Command and the 8th Air Force suffered in the campaign that helped to defeat Fascism I am not too tearful about Dresden.

 

[moggy]

Goebbels wanted total war! He got it!
What about all the other German atrocities before we ruled the skies and were able to get planes into Germany bombing their cities, like they did ours?
What about all the shameful barbaric acts performed in Russia ?
Not to mention the heart breaking mindless attacks in Italy like marzabotto or the total wipe out of Oradour-sur-glane in France !
**** em!!!

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I suppose we will be made to apologize for Churchill's decision to sink the French navy? Again a necessary action however harrowing.

 

[User removed 4]

Nagasaki/Hiroshima
regards
DR

what the **** have 1970s wrestlers got to do with it ?

 

[cunning fergus]

Whatever the rights and wrongs, fact is Hamburg was a far worse raid and firestorm, as was the raids on Tokyo, where hundreds of thousands sought protection from incendiaries in their houses which were essentially giant dog baskets.

Harris may have been disowned by the establishment after the war but he was still overwhelmingly a hero to his surviving crews, many of whom I had the pleasure of meeting in the 80s through my boss who was an old Lancaster pilot.

Remorse, not a bit of it..........the Germans sowed the wind.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

My dad, Polish-born, was a navigator on bombers. If he was ever asked about Dresden, his answer was one word: Warsaw.

 

[Hampster Gull]

It happens. Sad for those involved but it is what it is

 

[essbee]

Seventy years on it is wrong of us to pass judgment. What the men on the front line and their wifes and children back home had to put up with is impossible for us to comprehend. The bombings of Dresden, Coventry, London, Plymouth and everywhere else were part of a world war.

It upsets me when interviews of the men in bomber command are shown and they get emotional. They have nothing to be ashamed of. They were a generation put in a scenrio that no man should have to be.

The Bombing of Dresden was absolutely NO war crime, just part of a war.

Absolutely this. It pisses me off that the BBC is covering this in so much detail. I didn;t see the same
f****** bbc down Cardiff or the east end or Coventry to commemorate that.

 

[jimbob5]

Thousands of innocent men, women, children and animals burned alive [TO DEATH!!!]. Thousands of buildings demolished. That was 70 years ago and remarkably survivors started to moved on within a few years after.
A couple or so of decades later Brighton lose to Crystal Palace an the early round of the FA cup. Nearly 40 years later a few physically fully grown men can't get over it and you get banned from their forum for light hearted banter because you upset their adolescent sensibilities even [and it seems very petty to say] you support the same team as they do.
Enjoy the game.

 

[The Upper Library]

I agree that it is wrong to condemn the airmen involved in these raids - those of us not alive at the time cannot comprehend the reality of that war. However I do get frustrated by the lack of acceptance that we (British) and the US have deliberately targeted civilians in an effort to win a war. History is written by the winners.......

 

[m20gull]

I agree that it is wrong to condemn the airmen involved in these raids - those of us not alive at the time cannot comprehend the reality of that war. However I do get frustrated by the lack of acceptance that we (British) and the US have deliberately targeted civilians in an effort to win a war. History is written by the winners.......

Does anyone not accept that cities were targeted? Of course they were. It was a widely held strategy as the heavier bombers became available between the wars, but it was not initially part of the Allied tactics. The adoption of area bombing was a function of the technology that was available. With smaller aircraft the losses were too high during precision raids so bigger targets were a natural choice as was the switch to night raids, where is is difficult to see what you are aiming at. Especially when people are doing their best to kill you. As the technology evolved precision raids became part of the strategy again.

The U.S. Bombing of Japanese cities was also deliberate. There the purpose was two-fold. Partly to try to force surrender, in order to save American lives that would be lost in invasion, and because the industrial production was perceived to be widely distributed in residential areas.

I wonder where you draw the line. If it is ok to kill someone who is shooting at you, what about the factory where the gun is made, or the factory where the shooter's boots are made? What about the miner who mines the steel, the farmer who farms the cows for the shoe leather? Why not bomb their houses?

It is only really Churchill's public change of heart that makes Dresden special. It is not. It was just one more target on Bomber Command's list. They had not been there before because it was a long way.

That all makes me sound heartless, but I'm not. I feel sad for all the loss on all sides, but I have no regret. I wasn't there.