Originally Posted by Pali
A comparison with Trafalgar is not very precise one - can you imagine Navy shooting at passenger ship knowing that they are sinking mostly civilians?
Pali - such an action does indeed have a precedent. Also, kindly note the significant date when this civilian ship was sunk.
SS Athenia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Well, I was speaking about any ROYAL NAVY surface vessel - I would bet admiral Nelson wouldn't sink such a ship even if it would be a direct order.
But let's talk about Dresden bombing. Interesting thing is that both sides of conflict overrated the impact of such raids. Hitler thought that with the "Blitz" he would put inhabitants of London into panic who would flee from the city and put the production of London industry into halt. Also psychologists in England thought the same but nevertheless we know that opposite was true. Brave nation stood tall and it was impossible to break the will of Londoners.
But the same is valid to Germans. Inhabitants of bombed cities suffered the hell of bombing but their readiness to continue to live there and work never ceased. I've studied quite a lot about the subject and although German cities turned to rubble the industrial production under Albert Speer raised into the late 1944. The belief of Bomber command was simply wrong. It was unable to destroy German industry by bombing raids aimed at factories nor by killing workers and wiping out their homes. Though there were shortages (the most important effect impeding Nazi regime was lack of fuel after raids at Ploesti, Schwechat and Leuna) it is rather surprising to watch how Germany kept their production intact so long.
It must be very sobering for anybody involved to realise that bombing raids with intention to spread terror into civilian inhabitants missed the declared goal. In this respect it was unnecessary and sort of dark spot in the history of war.
However in all the fairness this raids helped to end the war in a way which was not considered in the beginning. Luftwaffe was desperate to stop allied heavy bombers and in attempt to do it they lost too many pilots and their fighter squadrons were bitterly decimated. Though they were able to build aircrafts to the very end there was lack of trained pilots and due the lack of fuel their training was more than insufficient.
Look at the German opposition in the air during the D-day and to the very end of war. Where were all the fighters gone? They were lost in an futile attempt to defend Reich and shoot down the bombers. Bomber Harris was wrong and his strategy to cut the industrial production and make workers flee from cities didn't work as expected. But the campaign knocked down Luftwaffe's resources up to the point when it became a marginal force. Another important issue was air defence (FLAK). Imagine the amount of resources needed to defend German cities...
It may be bitter to recognise that to attack civilians and cause so much suffering was merely ineffective. I feel the same, there were many countrymen of mine in RAF too.
I spoke to a friend of mine - German mountaineer I used to climb with near Dresden who was 12 years boy at the time of the raid and who spent the fateful night in a deep basement in the centre of the city. In about 1987 when I raised the topic he was unable to talk about it. Even if he tried. Then he started to speak about the moment when they finally could get out to the streets and he stopped to talk again. I looked into his face and saw something I didn't see ever and I didn't insist anymore. No, it is not the best thing for a bombing crew to think about this. Crew members were heroes who did their duty and died in attempt to win the war. I am not sure if I would use the same words for all the top rank commanders and politicians but this is completely different issue.
I am not trying to blame anybody nor I am liberal pacifist. I think it was a different world in 1940's. Also I am quite sure that an attempt to use the same strategy in a war today would end up in Hague.
World is not black or white. I am silently remembering young men who died when defending their country but allow me to give a long thought to people who died in Dresden that night. You may fight the worst evil but in doing so you better don't lose the values of being human.
And one final thought I seldom see in discussions like this. Some German units ended in Russian hands just due Dresden raid which paralysed the whole area and stopped the transports which headed to the west in order to end in American hands. I've read heartbreaking stories about desperate attempts of Germans to avoid Russian captivity. Why? Most of POWs went to gulags and majority of them died there and came back 8-10 years after the war. Read the story of Erich Hartmann and you will understand better. Add few thousands of dead German soldiers in Russian gulags to the victims of Dresden raid.