Search results
Up to 25,000 people were killed. [1] [2] [a] Three more USAAF air raids followed, two occurring on 2 March aimed at the city's railway marshalling yard and one smaller raid on 17 April aimed at industrial areas. Postwar discussions about whether the attacks were justified made the event a moral cause célèbre of the war. [6] .
May 8, 2024 · It is thought that some 25,000–35,000 civilians died in Dresden in the air attacks, though some estimates are as high as 250,000, given the influx of undocumented refugees that had fled to Dresden from the Eastern Front. Most of the victims were women, children, and the elderly.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Dresden Bombing: A Barrage of Explosives and Incendiaries
- Controversy in Counting The Dead
- Dresden Was Known as The 'german Florence' on The Elbe
In the time that Vonnegut and others hid underground, the British Bomber Command’s Blind Illuminatoraircraft had rained explosives and incendiaries over the city. Then, “visual marker” aircraft swooped low to drop thousands of flares and fire-target markers. The main attack formation followed: over 500 heavy “Lancaster” bombers loaded with explosiv...
Initial—and partisan—estimates of the number of dead seemed to suggest that the Dresden Bombing was uniquely cruel. David Irving would claim in his 1963 book, The Destruction of Dresden, that the bombing was “the biggest single massacre in European history.” His estimate of 150,000 to 200,000 dead was long accepted without dispute. But his assertio...
Observers noted early on that the bombing of Dresden not only meant the death of civilians but the destruction of a center of European culture and Baroque splendor. Since the rule of August the Strong (1670-1733), the “German Florence” on the Elbe, was home to famous collections of art, porcelain, prints, scientific instruments and jewelry. Many Ge...
Apr 4, 2024 · How many people died in the bombing of Dresden? Around 30,000 civilians died in the bombing of Dresden by the RAF and USAAF in February/March 1945. Some historians consider a much higher figure, but the presence of a large number of refugees in the city makes it difficult to reach an accurate death toll.
- Mark Cartwright
Though local officials said about 25,000 people had died - a figure historians agree with now - the Nazis claimed 200,000 civilians were killed.
Around 250 tons (9,000 bombs) had been dropped, killing 1,413 people and injuring 3,500 more. Many people over 35 remembered the bombing and were afraid of more. From 1916 to 1918, German raids had diminished against countermeasures which demonstrated defence against night air raids was possible.
Tens of thousands of civilians had been killed in these operations. The air offensive against Dresden and other Saxon cities would be a joint operation, though, between the RAF and the United States Eighth Air Force. Due to uncooperative weather, the Americans could not bomb Dresden during daylight hours on February 13.
