Bombing of Dresden in WWII Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

attack of Dresden in WWII - Essay ExampleIt overly, in the long run at least, exposed the fact that the consort forces culminated WWII using the very tactics that they had once condemned.An analysis of whether the bombing of Dresden was justified needs to start with an interrogative convict of whether the whole concept of ara bombing was justified. Area bombing was first suggested by Charles Portal, of the British halo Staff, in 1941. The destruction of whole cities was thought to be an effective manner of quickly breaking noncombatant morale. Among cities that had been attacked since 1942 included Bremen, Frankfurt and Cologne. One method to effectively destroy large cities was the dropping of bombs filled with extremely flammable materials such as magnesium, phosphorus and petroleum jelly - the so-called incendiary bomb. The area would arrest fire, hot air rose rapidly and colder air form outside created gale force winds that would literally shove off people into the fla mes.The justification for such tactics, both in general, and in particular with Dresden, was based upon a considerate of moral relativism in which a country involved in a Total War against an unmerciful enemy would adopt any tactics necessary in order to win. The same morality was involved in the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan with Atomic weapons. Within the general milieu of WWII the bombing of Dresden was no different from any of these other firebombing campaigns. The military justification for the bombing was formulated as early as January, 1945 in the following memoDresden, the seventh largest city in Germany and not a great deal smaller than Manchester, is also far the largest unbombed built-up the enemy has got. In the midst of winter with refugees pouring westwards and troops to be rested, roofs are at a premium. The intentions of the attack are to hit the enemy where he will feel it most, crapper an already partially collapsed front, to prevent the use of the city in the way of further advance, and incidentally to base the Russians when they arrive what Bomber Command can do.(Royal, 1945)A close reading of this memo is revealing. The opening sentence seems to be trying to provide a reason for the bombing through stressing the fact that Dresden is not much smaller than Manchester, and that it is one of the last German cities that had not been bombed. As a city it represents a get off that, the memo admits refugees are flocking towards as they fled the rapidly advancing Russians. The fact that soldiers may be going on that point too seems almost an laterthought. The triptych of reasons for the coming bombing seems almost light-hearted in the manner in which it moves from one indigence to another. The last one, that the bombing will show the Russians what the combined British and US air forces are resourceful of (as if they didnt already know) seems utterly callous, and makes Dresden merely a pawn in one of the precursors to th e coming Cold War. This memo seems to be searching for a motivation rather than providing a balanced analysis of whether Dresden should be bombed or not. As such, it would seem to suggest that the actual people who undertook the bombing, the RAF, had little justification themselves.In his autobiography, written after WWII was over, Arthur Harris provided both a specific and general explanation for the bomb