On this day, February 13, 1945, the Allies begin firebombing Dresden.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Today in 1945, the Allies begin firebombing Dresden. 25,000 civilians perish in the inferno. "The moment has come when the question of bombing German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror should be reviewed," an uneasy Churchill will later write

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Mon Feb 13, 2023: On February 13, 1945, the Allies begin firebombing Dresden.

Thu Feb 13, 2020: Dresden Bombing. 13-15 February 1945

Sun Feb 15, 2015: Dresden was a civilian town with no military significance. Why did we burn its people?

[Omnipresent]

1. About 78,000 people died in hiroshima.

It’s not like the allies dropped an atom bomb on white people.

[NNadir]

2. They didn't have an atom bomb to drop on Dresden or any other city with "White People."

Otherwise, if they had one, they would have dropped an atom bomb on a German city.

It was, in fact, the idea that motivated many of the scientists working on the project who were, in fact, German Jews, and had a full measure of the nature of the Nazis.

Some, but certainly not all of the scientists involved in the development of atomic weapons had strong reservations about dropping it on Japan. After the weapon was fully developed however, decisions were out of their hands.

On balance, as tragic as the bombings were, after a long lifetime of personal internal debate, I have grudgingly accepted dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, which was never a subject of debate in military or in the Truman Administration in any case, did save lives.

In the Second World War, far more deaths were related to fossil fuel powered weapons of mass destruction than atomic weapons. That has held true right up to the present day.

[NNadir]

3. Kurt Vonnegut, in an interview I watched on line recently, said that there was only one person who benefitted...

...from the bombing of Dresden. He said it was him, since Slaughterhouse Five made him famous and rich.

The rest of humanity lost.

War is always atrocity ratcheting, and it that which makes war always be a crime against humanity.

[Charging Triceratops]

4. And if Hitler had the same chance ...

that would have been Detroit or Pittsburgh or Atlanta or Chicago. Remember that.