Why did Britain bomb Dresden in 1945?

Learning objective – to examine the reasons why Britain bombed Dresden in 1945. I can describe some of the reasons why Britain bombed Dresden using either sources or my own knowledge. Grade D I can explain why and how Britain bombed Dresden using both sources and my own knowledge. Grade B I can explain and analyse the reasons why Britain bombed Dresden using sources and my own knowledge. Grade A/A*

Source task – read the sources and complete the tasks on the worksheet. Every day that the war went on cost the lives of countless more….. so the numbers killed at Dresden, dreadful as they were, were nothing like so dreadful as the numbers Hitler was killing … A decisive blow was needed to end the war quickly. Many German towns were severely devastated by bombing, but the effect on the amount of weapons, tanks and fighter planes the Germans produced was small. The German people proved calmer and more determined than anticipated. If tonight our people were asked to cast their vote whether a convention should be entered into to stop bombing cities, the overwhelming majority would cry ‘No, we will mete out to them the measure, and more than the measure, they have metered out to us!’ The ultimate aim of an attack on a town is to break the morale of the population. To do this we must do two things – Firstly, make the town uninhabitable and secondly, we must make the people conscious of constant physical danger.

Plenary – defend your statement! Based on what you have learned about Dresden, which statement do you think is the most accurate? Write your selected statement down and underneath write three bullet points of evidence to justify your choice. Dresden was an acceptable target and bombing it was necessary to end the Second World War quickly. Harris was only doing his job and acting in Britain’s best interests. Dresden achieved little and the war would have ended in 1945 anyway. Harris was a war criminal guilty of killing innocent people.