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Into the inferno: Families boiled alive as they hid in water tanks and fleeing survivors trapped in molten tarmac... 75 years on, the most horrifically vivid account you'll ever read of the Allied bombing of Dresden – by a British PoW who saw it all
UK Daily Mail ^ | February 12, 2020 | Victor Gregg and Risk Stroud

Posted on 02/13/2020 7:17:08 AM PST by C19fan

During the final months of World War II, from February 13 to 15, 1945, Allied forces bombed the ancient, cathedral city of Dresden, in eastern Germany.

The bombing was controversial because Dresden's contribution to the war effort was minimal compared with other German cities — though it was a key transport junction and used by German forces to defend the country against Soviet forces approaching from the east.

Before the huge air raid, it had not suffered a major Allied attack. By February 15, however, it was a smouldering ruin — 2,400 tons of high explosives and 1,500 tons of incendiary bombs were dropped on the city. An unknown number of civilians, somewhere between 35,000 and 135,000, were dead.

British rifleman Victor Gregg was one of hundreds of men being held as a PoW in the city by the Germans. On the 75th anniversary of the start of the bombing, this is his eyewitness account of the devastation he left behind.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: bombing; dresden; eussr; fakenews; germany; neonazipropaganda; raf; waaaaaaaaaahmbulance; war
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To: A Navy Vet
The point being that a country amoral enough to murder its own is amoral enough to murder others.

Those in the RAF and those in the USAAF who carried out this act are safe, both legally and politically; without a doubt, there are no war criminals on the winning side.

But let's at least be adults about it and stop pretending that targeting a population center was justified simply because it was the winning side that pulled it off.

141 posted on 02/13/2020 10:31:34 AM PST by Captain Walker
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To: C19fan

Well living in a city in wartime is not a good idea even today.

What are the most likely US Cities to be bombed in wartime?

Would losing a dozen cities change the political landscape?


142 posted on 02/13/2020 11:05:08 AM PST by Jumper
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To: PapaBear3625
"The US has not definitively won a war since then."

Not true. The US unequivocally won the second go round with Iraq. We marched right into Baghdad and killed Hussein's sons and eventually Saddam.

However, as usual we gave it back and have dealt with their tribal crap since. We should have claimed it as US territory such as: American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and assigned district native governors under the absolute authority of US government.

We also won the small Grenada war, which could be called a rescue mission by some.

143 posted on 02/13/2020 11:08:29 AM PST by A Navy Vet (I'm not Islamophobic - I'm Islamonauseous. Also LGBTQxyz nauseous.)
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To: Badboo

Have you heard the story about the crew that escaped from one of the Death March camps? Interesting story.
http://ww2podcast.com/ww2-podcast/lt-col-william-edwin-dyess/


144 posted on 02/13/2020 11:13:57 AM PST by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?)
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To: CodeToad

Spot-on.

If you don’t want your cities bombed and your people killed, don’t start a war.


145 posted on 02/13/2020 11:16:34 AM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: C19fan

Warsaw 1945

Goebbels wanted "Totaler Krieg", and he got it!

146 posted on 02/13/2020 11:17:32 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: NFHale

And don’t say “The ends don’t justify the means” if you are enjoying the fruit of the means.


147 posted on 02/13/2020 11:20:44 AM PST by AppyPappy (How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?)
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To: AppyPappy

My father - after being wounded twice over there - got to come home alive.

So I’m pretty sure he had zero problems with it... along with 95% of the GIs in the ETO who had German bullets zipping past their faces, or slamming into their bodies.


148 posted on 02/13/2020 11:23:08 AM PST by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

The Godless have an inflated view of mankind’s ability to be perfect.

They want to judge but cannot even discern.


149 posted on 02/13/2020 11:25:38 AM PST by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our only true hope.)
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To: PeterPrinciple
WWI was negotiated peace. From this lesson, WWII was unconditional surrender from the get go. The interim of peace is longer with unconditional surrender?

Precisely to avoid another reoccurence of the "stabbed in the back" conspiracy theories that brought Hitler to power in the first place.

150 posted on 02/13/2020 11:28:09 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Williams

Your referring to Bomber Harris.

Yeah, he wasn’t a fan of London being bombed every night. The Germans brought Dresden on itself. When the Russians invaded Germany, they raped everyone they could.

None of this, of course, against the backdrop of slaughtering all of those Jews. I couldn’t stand that Vonnegut novel.

It was through a roughing penalty flag on the guy who hit the guy back who started it.


151 posted on 02/13/2020 11:30:01 AM PST by RinaseaofDs
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To: RFEngineer

They didn’t have to move to East Germany. They were stuck behind the iron curtain after the war and managed to get out. And my father immigrated, served in the US Army, and raised a couple of military Officers.

And Dresden shouldn’t have been firebombed. It was unnecessary and done out of vengeance and didn’t shorten the war by one day.

The Allies weren’t perfect.


152 posted on 02/13/2020 11:34:54 AM PST by bigdaddy45
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To: Captain Walker
"The point being that a country amoral enough to murder its own is amoral enough to murder others."

Why do you continue to compare abortion to killing world conquering tyrannical regimes in the defense of survival and liberty? BTW, abortion is not "amoral", it is immoral. Check Websters.

"Those in the RAF and those in the USAAF who carried out this act are safe, both legally and politically; without a doubt, there are no war criminals on the winning side."

Not true. My own WWII combat Father told me of soldiers executing POW guards of the death camps. Ever here of Mai Lai in VN? Both were wrong.

"But let's at least be adults about it and stop pretending that targeting a population center was justified simply because it was the winning side that pulled it off."

Okay, let's be adults. I spent 11 yrs in the Navy with Soviet subs up my ass just itching to put me at the bottom of the sea, and for no reason other than they were just power-mad imperialists. So who are you that I should explain the difference between the immoral act of abortion and the righteous act of defending the fucking planet, including collateral damage if need be? Go away.

153 posted on 02/13/2020 11:37:07 AM PST by A Navy Vet (I'm not Islamophobic - I'm Islamonauseous. Also LGBTQxyz nauseous.)
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To: bigdaddy45

“The Allies weren’t perfect”

Unfortunately I feel the need to point out to you that neither were the Nazi’s and neither were those that helped them prosecute the war.

The US took your family in. Gave them an opportunity for a good life.

Far better one than the Nazis made possible for those they conquered.

I shed no tears for Dresden or any other damage inflicted by the allies on our enemies.

Shame on you for ignoring the post-war grace shed upon your family by America and claiming grievance for perceived wrongs at the hands of those fighting evil.


154 posted on 02/13/2020 11:49:50 AM PST by RFEngineer
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To: C19fan

Dunno where I read it, but aircrews that had to bail out near the city were thrown into the fires by vengeful Germans. I doubt that as the heat was too intense, but who knows?

There’s a paperback titled “Defeat in the East” by a German officer who was there. Lots of horrific stories of what the German civilians went through trying to get West. Many got to Dresden and thanked God they were finally safe - and then the bombers came.


155 posted on 02/13/2020 12:04:54 PM PST by Oatka
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To: RFEngineer

I hope I can sleep tonight as I absorb your shame. I will stop here since I long ago determined that arguing with the ignorant over the internet is a total waste of time.


156 posted on 02/13/2020 12:05:03 PM PST by bigdaddy45
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To: Oatka

“Defeat in the East”

written by Paul Carell???


157 posted on 02/13/2020 12:07:20 PM PST by Reily
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To: MrEdd

The objective of war is to kill people and break their things.


158 posted on 02/13/2020 12:08:14 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

” Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?””

-Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it......Good and hard!


159 posted on 02/13/2020 12:10:32 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: All

If you are interested in long march in the use of strategic bombers and the upping of the ante, I highly recommend Dan Carlin’s long podcast on Hardcore History. He rightly called it “Logical Insanity”.


160 posted on 02/13/2020 12:10:37 PM PST by C19fan
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