60th anniversary of Dresden fire bombing.

[SN30952]

It is now the 60th anniversary of the terror bombing and burning of the non-military cultural center of Dresden, Germany. Somewhere between 35,000 and 135,000 civilians were killed in the Feb. 13-14, 1945 attack.
Portal and Harris argued that the main objectives of night-time blanket bombing of urban areas was to undermine the morale of the civilian german population and attacks were launched on Hamburg, Nuremberg, Cologne, Dresden and other German cities. This air campaign killed an estimated 600,000 civilians and destroyed or seriously damaged some six million homes.
It was a highly dangerous strategy and during the war Bomber Command had 57,143 men killed.
Winston Churchill valued Portal advice but in March, 1945**, he gave instructions to bring an end to area bombing. As he explained: "It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, should be reviewed. Otherwise we shall come into control of an utterly ruined land."

During three waves of attacks, over 1,300 British and U.S. bombers dropped more than 3,300 tons of bombs on Dresden. More than 1/3 of the british bombs were incendiaries: During the evening of the February 13, 796 Avro Lancasters and 9 De Havilland Mosquitoes were dispatched in two separate raids and dropped 1,478 tons of high explosive and 1,182 tons of incendiary bombs in the early hours of February 14. Later on 14th during daylight hours 311 American B-17s dropped 771 tons of bombs on Dresden
The incendiaries dropped on the old city center started a firestorm--a huge blaze that sucked the oxygen from the air. Temperatures soared as high as 1000 // 1,800 degrees Celsius // Fahrenheit. This had not been seen before in Europe.
U.S. bombing started a firestorm in Tokyo* and the atomic bombs in Hiroshima (August 6th) and Nagasaki (11:02 a. m. on 9 August 1945) also set off firestorms.
334 B-29s raided Tokyo on the night of March 9-10, dropping around 1,700 tons of bombs. Around 41km² of the city were destroyed and over 100,000 people are estimated to have died in that fire storm.
Fire-bombings killed more civilians in total than the atomic bombings.

*The first fire bomb raid was on Kobe on February 3, 1945.
**The US Air Force did not stop this practice. Napalm and fire bombings had been used later.
Bombing of Dresden

Want to learn more? Search for : Operation Thunderclap or Dresden (fire) bombing. Also: In Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). (Kurt Vonnegut, Junior (born November 11, 1922) is an American novelist, made prisoner of war ( as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge) and kept near Dresden in that period.) The book which would make him a millionaire. A movie with the same title was made in 1972. The film was directed by George Roy Hill and starred Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, and Valerie Perrine.

[SN30952]

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is Billy Pilgrim, the man 'unstuck in time'. He wrote: "That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book." - Vonnegut 1969 p.125, 148). Almost 25 years after the bombing he wrote the novel. The movie followed 3years after.
Here is a version of the movie's poster in Dutch and French language, that made a big impression on me then. Noticed that this poster has nothing to do with the american poster in the toplink? Remember also one of the first Vietnam war movies in The Green Berets (John Wayne, Ray Kellogg, Mervyn LeRoy, David Janssen, Jim Hutton, Aldo Ray, Raymond St. Jacques, Bruce Cabot, Jack Soo, George Takei) was in 1968.
My first journey to SE Asia (Thailand, Laos, Hong Kong) was in that period, the war is still on.

Slaughterhouse-Five, like Vonnegut's previous books, manages to tell us that war is bad for us and that it would be better for us to love one another.

I remembered this: Male characters in the book are often engaging in fights and wars, and females try to prevent them from it. (All my live, later I'd prefered working with women - Did Vonnegut had such an influence on me? Remember I had an african lady made the first female station manager later?)

The NY Ttimes wrote:
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE OR THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., an indescribable writer whose seven previous books are like nothing else on earth, was accorded the dubious pleasure of witnessing a 20th-century apocalypse. During World War II, at the age of 23, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned beneath the city of Dresden, ''the Florence of the Elbe.'' He was there on Feb. 13, 1945, when the Allies firebombed Dresden in a massive air attack that killed 130,000 people and destroyed a landmark of no military significance. Next to being born, getting married and having children, it is probably the most important thing that ever happened to him.....

For the Dutch readers:
Vonnegut's boeken waren niet onbesproken: lees Verboden Boeken

[sn26567]

I was in Dresden for one week last September. The reconstruction of this Florence of the North has been magnificent.

It was also funny to see the remainders of the Soviet propaganda in some of the rebuilt museums (the Anglo-American coalition that destroyed the city, the Soviet Liberation army that repelled the nazis, the united farmers and workers that rebuilt the city, etc.).

[Comet]

My comments on this - what about Coventry, Sheffield, London, Liverpool and all the other places bombed by the Germans, where many civilians were killed? There is all this talk about how bad it was for Dresden to be bombed, but apparently the place had factories producing military equipment, and as I have said, the many civilians in the UK and other countries who were killed by the Luftwaffe in their bombing raids have been largely forgotten in the rush to condemn the bombing of Dresden. If the bombing of one place is to be condemned, then we should also condemn the bombing of other places.

(PS My Grandfather was an RAF war veteren).

[Ozzie1969]

My comments on this - what about Coventry, Sheffield, London, Liverpool and all the other places bombed by the Germans, where many civilians were killed? There is all this talk about how bad it was for Dresden to be bombed, but apparently the place had factories producing military equipment, and as I have said, the many civilians in the UK and other countries who were killed by the Luftwaffe in their bombing raids have been largely forgotten in the rush to condemn the bombing of Dresden. If the bombing of one place is to be condemned, then we should also condemn the bombing of other places.

(PS My Grandfather was an RAF war veteren).

Nobody as far as I know is ignoring the horrible plight of Coventry, London or any other British city during the war. Representatives of Coventry donated a crucifix to the rebuilt church in Dresden as a token of reconciliation. A far better and nobler thing to do than the flagwaving and name-calling we usually get between old enemies. Let's hope that nobody in Europe ever feels compelled to start a third world war.

[blackhawk]

Did Nostradamus Predict World War III?

From brick to marble, the walls will be converted,
Seven and fifty peaceful years:
Joy to mankind, the aqueduct renewed,
Health, abundant fruits, joy and honey-making times.

Of beyond the Black Sea and of the great Tartary,
A king comes who will see Gaul,
Piercing across Alania and Armenia,
And within Byzantium hw will leave his bloody rod.

For seven days the great star will burn,
The cloud shall make two suns to appear:
The big mastiff will howl all night
When the great pontiff changes country.

When those of the arctic pole are united together,
In the East great dread and fear:
Newly elected, supporting the great trembling,
Rhodes, Byzantium with Barbarian blood stained.

http://paranormal.about.com/library/wee ... 50602a.htm

[SN30952]

Let's hope that nobody in Europe ever feels compelled to start a third world war.

Not in Europe, and nowhere else.... But that's Uthopia. alas.