Loyalist
10-26-2009, 01:41 AM
To the RAF aircrews, the sight of the eastern German city ablaze looked like a terrifying vision of hell. As the vast stream of 796 four-engined Lancaster heavy bombers swept over Dresden on that night of February 14, 1945, almost 2,000 tons of explosives and incendiaries were dropped onto the inferno.
One Lancaster pilot recorded in his diary: 'The glow could be seen 50 miles away. The target area was almost like day. Down below, the town was a mass of flames, a pool of fire. It was awe-inspiring.'
The scenes in Dresden were Biblical in the scale of devastation. The merging of the fires sucked oxygen from the air and created a ferocious, howling tornado. Trees were pulled from their roots, buildings destroyed and people flung through the air like ragdolls.
Soaring temperatures turned the asphalt streets into a deadly, molten quagmire. Thousands suffocated or burned to death in the cellars of their homes. As the blaze intensified, huge crowds made for the city's reservoir and dived into the water.
But the sheer numbers, combined with the roaring heat and the lack of oxygen, made the place unbearable. People desperately tried to clamber out, yet the smooth cement edges made it impossible. Far from being a refuge, the reservoir turned into a sweltering graveyard.
The raid on Dresden is one of the most notorious episodes of Britain's war effort, a symbol of the ruthlessness of the RAF's strategic bombing offensive.
It has been estimated that around 25,000 people were killed that night - compare that to the 568 deaths in the assault on Coventry by the Luftwaffe in November 1940, by far the worst individual raid that any British city endured during the Blitz.
Yet, for all its infamy, the attack on Dresden was by no means the most savage of the RAF's bombing campaign. In July 1943, a series of raids on Hamburg killed at least 45,000 people in a gigantic firestorm.
Little more than a week after Dresden, 362 Lancasters dropped 1,551 tons of bombs on the small town of Pforzheim in 22 minutes. The central area became a blazing crematorium, with the death toll reaching 17,600, a quarter of the population.
In total, at least 600,000 civilians are thought to have lost their lives in the RAF's remorseless pounding of German cities. Because of the epic slaughter, the campaign has always provoked controversy. (Continues)
Source (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1216788/Did-Lancaster-bombers-killed-600-000-German-cities-deliberately-target-civilians-A-new-book-says-YES-.html)
One Lancaster pilot recorded in his diary: 'The glow could be seen 50 miles away. The target area was almost like day. Down below, the town was a mass of flames, a pool of fire. It was awe-inspiring.'
The scenes in Dresden were Biblical in the scale of devastation. The merging of the fires sucked oxygen from the air and created a ferocious, howling tornado. Trees were pulled from their roots, buildings destroyed and people flung through the air like ragdolls.
Soaring temperatures turned the asphalt streets into a deadly, molten quagmire. Thousands suffocated or burned to death in the cellars of their homes. As the blaze intensified, huge crowds made for the city's reservoir and dived into the water.
But the sheer numbers, combined with the roaring heat and the lack of oxygen, made the place unbearable. People desperately tried to clamber out, yet the smooth cement edges made it impossible. Far from being a refuge, the reservoir turned into a sweltering graveyard.
The raid on Dresden is one of the most notorious episodes of Britain's war effort, a symbol of the ruthlessness of the RAF's strategic bombing offensive.
It has been estimated that around 25,000 people were killed that night - compare that to the 568 deaths in the assault on Coventry by the Luftwaffe in November 1940, by far the worst individual raid that any British city endured during the Blitz.
Yet, for all its infamy, the attack on Dresden was by no means the most savage of the RAF's bombing campaign. In July 1943, a series of raids on Hamburg killed at least 45,000 people in a gigantic firestorm.
Little more than a week after Dresden, 362 Lancasters dropped 1,551 tons of bombs on the small town of Pforzheim in 22 minutes. The central area became a blazing crematorium, with the death toll reaching 17,600, a quarter of the population.
In total, at least 600,000 civilians are thought to have lost their lives in the RAF's remorseless pounding of German cities. Because of the epic slaughter, the campaign has always provoked controversy. (Continues)
Source (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1216788/Did-Lancaster-bombers-killed-600-000-German-cities-deliberately-target-civilians-A-new-book-says-YES-.html)