Transcript The Bombing of Dresden - Pasadena City College

The Bombing
of Dresden
The Tralfamadorian Version of The Bombing of
Dresden
In Words
Firebombs
The Cost
Firebombing
The Attacks
References
The Before
The Firebombs
Dresden
- Thin skinned, non-stabilized and lightweight container filled with fuel gel
Filler caps that prevent things from going
in the chamber during transport
The caps are later replaced with
igniters
The fuel gel is typically
napalm, or a
magnesium
concentrate that is a
thickened fuel and
gelling solution. It is a
stringy and sticky
mixture that adheres
to surfaces it lands on.
When released from
aircraft, the arming wires
are pulled from the
fuzes.
Once the bomb impacts
the target/ground, the
container will rupture
spilling gel everywhere,
as the fuzes detonate,
and sets of the igniters,
which in turn ignites the
gel
The Art of Firebombing
1st Wave: Aircraft bombers drop
high explosives on the targets to
blow off the roofs of buildings,
exposing the timbers within, and
to also rupture water supplies
2nd Wave: Dropping of
incendiary (fire) bombs on
targets to start a conflagration
Small pause in the attacks as
firefighters try to stop the fires
Followed by further incendiary
bombs, and high explosives to
hamper the efforts of fire fighters
until a self-sustaining fire storm is
created
Dresden
As the area burns, the extremely hot air from the fire rises rapidly to
the top, while cold air rushes in at the bottom to fill in the vacuum,
sucking people into the fire. Thus, creating a self-sustaining firestorm.
Under the extreme heat, many victims are cremated, or melted to the
pavement. Some die of smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide
poisoning and suffocation.
Operation Thunderclap
Dresden
In 1944, the Allies drew up a plan to bomb Berlin and other German cities
to aid the Soviet advance in the east called “Operation Thunderclap.”
Even though this operation was reconsidered, it was, in 1945, brought up
again.
The Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) determined that the Germans
could reinforce the eastern front with 500 000 men from other fronts.
Therefore, at the Yalta Conference on February 4th, 1945, the Allies
determined that there was a need to hamper the movement of troops by
paralyzing junctions in German cities with aerial bombardment.
Dresden was one of the targeted cities for this objective.
“You needn’t worry about bombs,
by the way. Dresden is an open
city. It is undefended, and contains
no war industries or troop
concentrations of any importance.”
(p.146)
Target: Dresden
Feb 13, 1945: around 10pm – 1st Raid
RAF commanded 796 Avro Lancasters
unloaded 1478 tons of explosives and
1182 tons of incendiary bombs
Emergency units and fire fighters
clogged the streets, believing the raid
was over.
Feb 14, 1945: 1:22am – 2nd Raid
529 Lancasters dropped 1800 tons of
bombs
Feb 14, 1945: 12:17 – 12:30pm
311 American B-17s dropped 771 tons
of bombs
Feb 15, 1945: USAAF dropped 466
tons of bombs
TOTAL: Over 4000 tons of bombs
Dresden
The Cost
Dresden
• Of 28 410 houses in the inner city, 24 866
were destroyed
• Of 222 000 apartments, 75 000 were
completely destroyed, and 11 000 were
severely damaged
• The targeted main railway station was
destroyed, but was working after a few days
• The estimated deaths are from 35 000
people to 135 000 people
• Officials could not bury the dead fast
enough to prevent the outbreak of
disease, so they had to pile bodies into
pyres, which were burned
“But then the bodies rotted and
liquefied, and the stink was like roses
and mustard gas.” (p.214)
Bombing of Dresden: In Words…
We saw terrible things: cremated
adults shrunk to the size of small
children, pieces of arms and legs,
dead people, whole families burnt
to death, burning people ran to
and fro, burnt coaches filled with
civilian refugees, dead rescuers
and soldiers, many were calling
and looking for their children and
families, and fire everywhere,
everywhere fire, and all the time
the hot wind of the firestorm threw
people back into the burning
houses they were trying to escape
from.
~Lothar Metzger
Berlin, May 1999
Dresden
Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but
minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else
in the neighborhood was dead. So it goes.
~Billy Pilgrim (p.178)
"Most of those who remained below ground were to die painlessly, their bodies first
brilliantly tinted bright orange and blue, and then, as the heat grew intense, either totally
incinerated or melted into a thick liquid sometimes three or four feet deep."
~R.H.S. Crossman
References
http://militaryhistory.about.com/cs/worldwar2/a/dresdenfirestor_2.htm
http://www.rense.com/general19/flame.htm
http://timewitnesses.org/english/~lothar.html
http://www.ordnance.org/firebomb.htm
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWdresden.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II
Many images taken from Google Images