The bombing of Dresden, Germany occurred during the Second World War between the 13th and 15th of February, 1949. The attack was done by Britain and the United States through the use of an aerial bombing. Within the four raids that the allies carried out, 3,900 tons of highly explosive bombs and incendiaries were dropped on the city by heavy bombers of the United States Army Air Forces and the British Royal Air Force. Dresden, Germany was the country’s seventh-largest city and the largest of the remaining un-bombed built areas. Since the bombing, there has been much debate over whether the bombing was a war crime. A war crime is defined as an act that involves a serious violation of established rules and laws of war, which results in individual
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It is speculated that approximately 22,000 to 25,000 people were killed throughout the bombings. Since 100,000 to 200,000 German civilian refugees had been fleeing the Red Army’s advancing forces and were in Dresden at the time of the bombing, the exact number of casualties is unknown (“Bombing of Dresden”). At the time, few public air raid shelters existed, and the largest one that did exist was located under the main railway system and full of refugees. Therefore, people were forced to take shelter in their cellars. A precaution towards air raids that Dresden had taken was replacing thick walls between cellars of buildings with thin separations that could be pushed over in case of emergency. The purpose behind this was to allow people to run into adjacent buildings if their cellar filled with smoke, however, as the city was filled with fire, those that ran from cellar to cellar ran into each other, and thousands of bodies were found at the end of each block of houses. An RAF assessment found that 56 percent of non-industrial buildings, not including residential buildings, and 23 percent of industrial buildings had been destroyed. The assessment also found that over 1,600 acres of the city’s downtown area was destroyed (“Bombing of Dresden in World War
It is speculated that approximately 22,000 to 25,000 people were killed throughout the bombings. Since 100,000 to 200,000 German civilian refugees had been fleeing the Red Army’s advancing forces and were in Dresden at the time of the bombing, the exact number of casualties is unknown (“Bombing of Dresden”). At the time, few public air raid shelters existed, and the largest one that did exist was located under the main railway system and full of refugees. Therefore, people were forced to take shelter in their cellars. A precaution towards air raids that Dresden had taken was replacing thick walls between cellars of buildings with thin separations that could be pushed over in case of emergency. The purpose behind this was to allow people to run into adjacent buildings if their cellar filled with smoke, however, as the city was filled with fire, those that ran from cellar to cellar ran into each other, and thousands of bodies were found at the end of each block of houses. An RAF assessment found that 56 percent of non-industrial buildings, not including residential buildings, and 23 percent of industrial buildings had been destroyed. The assessment also found that over 1,600 acres of the city’s downtown area was destroyed (“Bombing of Dresden in World War