Dresden 70 years on.

[APACHE]

Haven't read all the posts so don't know if this has been mention but having had the chance to talk to American vets of the bombing of Europe and Japan they had no doubt that it was a job that had to be done and there has been on regret shown by the American public over it. They to did their share of city bombing but were backed by their goverment. It should also be remembered that quite a few downed aircrew were lynched or killed by the German public when should have been treated as p.o.w.'s.

 

[jimbob5]

Haven't read all the posts so don't know if this has been mention but having had the chance to talk to American vets of the bombing of Europe and Japan they had no doubt that it was a job that had to be done and there has been on regret shown by the American public over it. They to did their share of city bombing but were backed by their goverment. It should also be remembered that quite a few downed aircrew were lynched or killed by the German public when should have been treated as p.o.w.'s.

It would not surprise me if some downed air crew were killed when they could have been taken as pow, but then how could their fellow airmen know?

 

[house your seagull]

Just had a look at civilian deaths in WW2.

UK 67k
Germany 1.1m
Russia 7-12m

 

[withdeanwombat]

Hindsight is marvelous.

Wish bookies would let us bet on last week's races at last week's odds.

 

[m20gull]

Just had a look at civilian deaths in WW2.

UK 67k
Germany 1.1m
Russia 7-12m

Of whom, 0.3m were killed by Germany.

 

[User removed 4]

 

[Seagull on the wing]

As one who lived through the Nazi bombing...why should we apologise...did the surving Germans apologise for the Blitz on London/Coventry/Liverpool...for the extermination camps...No.

 

[pauli cee]

Up until Dresden and then the Nagasaki/ Hiroshima bombings, was that the Allies had bombed mainly military targets.
To try to finish the war against an enemy who refused to give in, was that we broke our own 'rules' by deliberately killing millions of civilians. It was a dreadful thing to do, but it was for the 'greater good'.

Greater good Wow, I think you are more than just a dullard!!

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Dresden was payback for the Blitz.

 

[Seasidesage]

Shouldn't have invaded Poland then...War is horrible and the things that have been done to win wars since the dawn of time are horrible. Was Dresden necessary? No but that is with the benefit of hindsight. I see no reason for us to apologise for prosecuting a war we did not start with all our might.

 

[Eggmundo]

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 ?

The Purple Hearts that are given out now were originally manufactured in anticipation of the mass casualties an assault on the Japanese mainland would have caused. The surrender of Japan left the USA with hundreds of thousands of spare medals.

FACT

 

[m20gull]

Up until Dresden and then the Nagasaki/ Hiroshima bombings, was that the Allies had bombed mainly military targets.
To try to finish the war against an enemy who refused to give in, was that we broke our own 'rules' by deliberately killing millions of civilians. It was a dreadful thing to do, but it was for the 'greater good'.

Dresden was not the start. Nearly twice as many were killed in Hamburg and that was nearly two years earlier. And the nuclear attacks were a culmination of 10 months of air raids on Japan that had been substantially area fire-bombing.

 

[Since1982]

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

That's the one. All credit to five live for the way they let him roll with his story, crashed the news and described some graphic stuff that might have been cut short by another interviewer. Compelling.

 

[Perfidious Albion]

That's the one. All credit to five live for the way they let him roll with his story, crashed the news and described some graphic stuff that might have been cut short by another interviewer. Compelling.

I saw this guy ,name of "Victor", do a similar interview on BBC Breakfast T V . Thankfully they let him talk on as well. I was choked up . What he described was unimaginable horror . As he said "We were supposed to be the good guys, we thought we didn't do that" How can we recoil fro German atrocities when we were doing the same? Victor's contempt for The Allied Command was passionate . After hearing him speak, one could not help but agree with him - and I say that after reading and considering all the comments on this thread... IMHO his interview should be placed in the British Library for posterity and played to future generations.

The trouble is, mankind never learns ..........

 

[Lenny Rider]

But how close were Germany to getting to atomic weapons towards the end of the war?
70 years on it's okay for the do gooders to go on about barbaric actions but ultimately as has been said in previous posts it speeded up the end of the war, which potentially saved a large number of people on both sides from being killed.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

But how close were Germany to getting to atomic weapons towards the end of the war?

They weren't anywhere near to succeeding.

Most of the prominent scientists of the 30s were Jewish and had either fled the company or perished in the camps with their work derided and ignored because of their background. Those that remained were either ideological appointments which diluted academic standards further, made worse by call ups to the armed forces.