Where were we? Oh yes, Dresden

As the bus trip moves into its final few days it becomes harder to keep up, both with the journal and the trip.

Date: 26th Jan

Dresdon, was not has hard as Auswitch, but that's more to do with how the place is portrayed today. What's left of the war is new buildings replacing those destroyed and many older buildings with blacken bricks, or white bricks - the white because they were replaced in the rebuild having been destroyed in the bombing.

Whilst the image today is a mixture of modern and classical, looking figuratively below the surface, the true horror becomes apparent. This city represents the most devestating single event of the war.

With the Soviets approaching from the East, and the Allied forces sweeping in from the West, the Germans had all but abandoned this beautiful city, known in its day as the Florence on the Elbe. The city had remained largely untouched in the war, it was at worst a war machinery factory, a staging area, a communications hub, or a hospital, depending on whom you believe. Eyewitnesses differ.

Having the Reich on the back foot, Churchhill wanted a decisive blow to seal the win. 

With the war approaching on both sides, and the Nazi propaganda having German civilians believing the Red Army as some barbaric race, the refugees poured into Dresden. An official population of some 642,000 was increased by an estimated refugee population of between 150,000 and 200,000. 

On the night of the 13th of February, the RAF launched the first of a series of raids targeting the central city. The initial attack started in the late evening targeting, the second to follow up 4 hours later in hopes of catching the firefighters and other rescuers. The central city was targeted rather than the outerlying industrial suburbs housing the German war manufacturing because it was felt it would be more devestating targeting the city.  

The bombers began dropping their payloads at around 2130hrs, the exact, or even estimated amount of explosives dropped is varied in its reporting but they did drop a mixture of high explosive bombs and incendiary bombs. It was the latter that caused the firestorm.

As the fire began to spread, it sucked in more air from outside the city fuelling it further, until it Kurt Vonneguts words, "turned the city into a single column of flame". The now self sustaining firestorm rapidly spread through the central city population reaching temperatures exceeding an estimated 1500°C and combined with the high explosives destroying or damaging a huge number of buildings. In the 4 days of bombings 24,800 out of 28,400 houses in the central city were destroyed. An area of 15 square kilometres totally levelled, 72 schools, and 22 hospitals. The majority of the industry and manufacturing plants in the outer suburbs were largely unaffected. 

The number of bombs dropped was estimated at 600,000. Almost one bomb for every man, woman, and child.

This wasn't a strategic surgical attack - it was a holocost. 25,000 civilians died in the attack. 

Current Date: 28th Jan, 0943h

War Crime Charges over Dresden: 0. 

History is written by the conquerors.