Dresden: Firebombing of a City In the last year of World War 2, Britain sent 300 bombers to attack the crowded German city of Dresden. This attack was not the precision bombing of specific military targets. It was deliberate bombing of a whole area. The bombs destroyed city buildings and started tremendous fires. The allies approached the heart of Germany, with Russian troops not far from the city in the East. (Churchill and FDR were concerned about Stalin’s intentions after the war) The allies had air superiority over Europe, even though the Nazis still controlled the ground The date was February 13, 1945.

On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the "Florence of the Elbe" to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000 people. More than 3,400 tons of explosives were dropped on the city by 800 American and British aircraft. The firestorm created by the two days of bombing set the city burning for many more days, littering the streets with charred corpses. Eight square miles of the city was ruined, and the total body count was between 35,000 and 135,000 (an approximation is all that was possible given that the city was filled with many refugees from farther east).

Some historians have argued that this attack was not justifiable on military grounds, that it was nothing more than a slaughter of civilians. But others say it helped to shorten the war in Europe. Ultimate responsibility for this attack lay with the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, though he did not have knowledge of every bombing run. Still, many say he would permit the bombing to either help the Russians, intimidate them, or avenge the Blitz.

You decide: Was the bombing of Dresden by the Allies a justifiable act during wartime?

The Yalta Conference

The YALTA Conference “Yalta” was a major World War II conference of the three major Allied leaders: President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union They met at Yalta (Crimea) in Feb, 1945, to plan the final defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany.

It was agreed that Eastern Europe would have temporary governments (run by the Soviets) until free elections could be held there. As a matter of fact, Stalin never fulfilled his promise of free elections, and Eastern Europe was under Russian rule from 1945 on. The Yalta Conference was criticized for FDR and Churchill’s “softness” toward Stalin. Reasons: they thought Soviet military assistance might be needed in Pacific War neither nation had an appetite for further war Conference was scheduled to prepare the United Nations charter (plan)