Re: The basis of the coercion and Hard Sell
your data is incorrect. The total death toll for the Dresden raid - according to the city of Dresden - was 25,000 which is far less than the death toll at Hiroshima.
That doesn't make it "better" of course.
I read two or three books on the subject in the 1960's. Figures of 150,000 to 250,000 were consistently given by these authors.
I just checked Wikepedia and they have the following article:
Second World War
Dresden, 1945—over ninety percent of the city centre was destroyed.Dresden in the 20th century was a leading European centre of art, classical music, culture and science until its complete destruction on 13 February 1945. Being the capital of the German state of Saxony, Dresden had not only garrisons but a whole military borough, the Albertstadt. This military complex, named after Saxon King Albert, was never targeted in the bombing of Dresden.
During the final months of World War II, Dresden became a safe haven to some 600,000 refugees, including women, children, and wounded soldiers, with a total population of 1.2 million. Dresden was attacked seven times between 1944 and 1945, and was occupied by the Red Army after German capitulation.
The bombing of Dresden by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force between 13 February and 15 February 1945 remains one of the more controversial Allied actions of the Western European theatre of war.
The inner city of Dresden was largely destroyed by 722 RAF and 527 USAAF bombers that dropped 2431.0 tons of high explosive bombs, and 1475.9 tons of incendiaries.[12]The high explosive bombs damaged buildings and exposed their wooden structure, while the incendiaries ignited it. However, some[who?] perceive the actions of the RAF in particular to be as a direct retaliation for the destruction brought upon the ancient city of Coventry, whose medieval center was destroyed in earlier raids by the Luftwaffe. The bombing raid destroyed the 500 year-old Cathedral, along with almost all of the ancient centre of the city.[13] in three waves of attacks. Early reports estimated 150,000 to 250,000 deaths. The German Dresden Historians' Commission, in an official 2010 report published after five years of research, concluded there were up to 25,000 civilian casualties,[14] while right-wing groups claim that up to 500,000 people died.[citation needed]
The inhabited city centre was almost wiped out, while larger residential, industrial and military sites on the outskirts were relatively unscathed. Some of the Allies described the operation as the justified bombing of a military and industrial target.[15] A report from the British Bomber Command stated the military target was the railway marshalling yard Dresden-Friedrichstadt, which housed 4,000 trucks, at most, per 24 hours. Prime Minister Winston Churchill tried to distance himself from the attack, even though he was heavily involved with the organization and planning of the raid. Several researchers have argued that the February attacks were disproportionate. Mostly women and children died.[16] American novelist Kurt Vonnegut witnessed the raid as a POW; his novel Slaughterhouse-Five is based on that experience. In remembrance of the victims, the anniversaries of the bombing of Dresden are marked with peace demonstrations, devotions and marches.[17][18]
[edit] Post-war period
The estimates were from 150,000 to 250,000 all the way up to last year. In 2010, a report conducted by The German Dresden Historical Assn came up with only 25,000 deaths. If you read the Wikepia article and look at the parts which I have underlined, you will see that the figure of 25,000 is bogus.
First of all, Dresden was an old city and the buildings were largely built from wood. There were 3 waves of bombers from February 13 - 15, 1945 dropping THOUSANDS of TONS of high explosive bombs and incendiaries. Incendiaries are designed to ignite fires. Three waves of bombers with 500 to 700 bombers in each wave dropped these explosives on an undefended city. No German guns or aircraft challenged the bombers.
What happened to Dresden was that everything began burning and the burning spread into one large fire throughout the city center, called a fire storm. The fire storm sucked up all the oxygen so that those who went into bomb shelters or underground subways all died from a lack of oxygen to breathe.
Many of the studies done and the books written in the 50's and 60's were compiled by those who had lived through the bombing on the German side and those who had particpated in the bombing on the English side. By the time the study was taken up between 2005-2010, the city had been completely rebuilt and most of the people who were alive at the time and were old enough to remember the bombing were dead.
The population of Dresden had swollen to 1,200,000 by February, 1945. According to the 2010 figures, 1,175,000 survived the bombing! Just think about it, that is really a ridiculous claim. 3 raids were carrie out on a completely undefended city by 500 to 700 bombers on each raid in a very old city where most of the building were built with wood. Thousand of tons of incendiaries were used and the center of the city went up in one big fire storm. This 2010 report then says that 1,175,000 out of 1,200,000 people emerged alive.
European cities are more condensed and centralized than cities in the Western United States. This was even more true in 1945 than today. Not many individuals owned a family automobile in Germany in the 30's and 40's. Transportation was by streetcars and subways. This article is trying to created an image where Dresden was something like Los Angeles, where the people drive on freeways many miles to get to their homes in the distant suburbs. This is completely bogus. Dresden in the 40's was probably built something like Boston in the 40's or even Boston of today. Most of the people live in the Central City and take subways, buses or street cars just a few miles to the outlying residential areas. There is no way 1,175,000 out of 1,200,000 people could have survived 3 huge raids on Dresden where the entire central city was burning as one giant firestorm!
I don't know why the Historical Assn published such a low result in their survey, maybe they are trying to be kind to Brittain and the US who are now their allies.. Maybe they are just trying to be politically correct. Who knows & who cares?
Lakey