Before the bombing it was referred to as the Florence on the Elbe or the Jewel Box, for its climate and its architecture. By February , Dresden was only about km miles from the Eastern Front, where Nazi Germany was defending against the advancing armies of the Soviet Union in the final months of the war.
The city was a major industrial and transportation hub. Scores of factories provided munitions, aircraft parts and other supplies for the Nazi war effort. Troops, tanks and artillery travelled through Dresden by train and by road. Hundreds of thousands of German refugees fleeing the fighting had also arrived in the city. Air chiefs decided an attack on Dresden could help their Soviet allies - by stopping Nazi troop movements but also by disrupting the German evacuations from the east.
RAF bomber raids on German cities had increased in size and power after more than five years of war. Planes carried a mix of high explosive and incendiary bombs: the explosives would blast buildings apart, while the incendiaries would set the remains on fire, causing further destruction.
Previous attacks had annihilated entire German cities. The resulting assault and unusually dry and hot weather caused a firestorm - a blaze so great it creates its own weather system, sucking winds in to feed the flames - which destroyed almost the whole city. The attack on Dresden began on 13 February Close to RAF aircraft - led by pathfinders, who dropped flares marking out the bombing area centred on the Ostragehege sports stadium - flew to Dresden that night.
In the space of just 25 minutes, British planes dropped more than 1, tons of bombs. As was common practice during the war, US aircraft followed up the attack with day-time raids. More than USAAF bombers flew to Dresden over two days, aiming for the city's railway marshalling yards but in reality hitting a large area across the city.
On the ground, civilians cowered under the onslaught. Many had fled to shelters after air raid sirens warned of the incoming bombers. But the first wave of aircraft knocked out the electricity. Some came out of hiding just as the second wave arrived above the city.
Recently, neo-Nazis in Germany have talked of , to 1 million victims, calling the raid a "bombing Holocaust" and comparing it to Adolf Hitler's murder of 6 million Jews.
They accused Britain and the United States of committing mass murder. It was after the far-right NPD party won seats in Saxony's parliament in and gave greater voice to these claims that state officials decided a commission was needed to put the matter to rest. The research is to continue until Cowering in basements Nazi authorities had failed to provide adequate air raid shelters for Dresden. That left people cowering in basements where many were asphyxiated or buried by collapsing buildings.
Dresden was a magnificent city of three quarters of a million people, its population further swollen by hordes of anonymous refugees from the Eastern Front. Its historic heart was destroyed in one apocalyptic night by aircraft armed with more than 4, tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs. This devastated area amounted to around 13 square miles 34 square kilometers. This was a truly catastrophic event to which only very big numbers seemed able to do justice.
Now, more than 60 years later, it seems we must lower our estimates. A digital composite shows the ruins of the Frauenkirche church and the empty pedestal for a statue of Martin Luther in , as well as the reconstructed church and statue on January 22, The panorama, which is over 30m-high and has a m circumference, shows the city of Dresden after the bombings in February A general view of the degree panorama display depicting the city of Dresden in the aftermath of the Allied firebombing, pictured on January 23, in Dresden, Germany.
Visitors watch the 'Dresden ' degrees panorama from a platform on January 26, Landmarks in Dresden's historic city center, including Residenzschloss Dresden palace left , the Catholic Hofkirche church center-right and Semperoper opera house right, behind are seen from the air on February 11, in Dresden, Germany.
This photo was taken from a multirotor drone and with all necessary state, city and flight safety authority permissions. Nora Lang, 83, who survived the February 13, firebombing by Allied planes of the city of Dresden, holds a plate on which one of the painted roses turned black from the heat of the fire in a photo taken on February 10, in Dresden, Germany. Nora's father rushed items from their apartment to the cellar in between successive raids and the plate is one of the few items that survived.
Anita John, 82, who survived the February 13, firebombing by Allied planes of the city of Dresden, points to where she lived in a photograph showing her street before the raids in a photo taken on February 10, in Dresden, Germany. She says that when she and her parents went to the cellar to take shelter during the raids her mother lay over her to protect her, and that only she survived.
All 13 others, including her parents, suffocated. Anita says that when she emerged she did not know what had happened, and only realized her parents were dead when she found their bodies among so many others the next day, laid out in the street before the rubble of her former home. Aini Teufel, 81, who survived the February 13, firebombing by Allied planes of the city of Dresden, poses holding a molten remain of her elementary school and the original identification tag she had to wear at school in case she might die in an air-raid in a photograph taken February 10, in Dresden, Germany.
Aini's school was obliterated in the raid and she is certain she would be dead if the planes had attacked during the day when she was at school. Karl-Heinrich Fiebiger, 83, who survived the February 13, firebombing of Dresden, poses for a photo on February 10, in Dresden, Germany.
0コメント