Dresden 70 years on.

A

APACHE

LONGTIME DIEHARD

Feb 18, 2011

758

THE PROMISED LAND-SUSSEX

• Feb 14, 2015

• #41

Haven't read all the posts so don't know if this has been mention but having had the chance to talk to American vets of the bombing of Europe and Japan they had no doubt that it was a job that had to be done and there has been on regret shown by the American public over it. They to did their share of city bombing but were backed by their goverment. It should also be remembered that quite a few downed aircrew were lynched or killed by the German public when should have been treated as p.o.w.'s.

 

J

jimbob5

Banned

Sep 18, 2014

2,697

• Feb 14, 2015

• #42

APACHE said:

Haven't read all the posts so don't know if this has been mention but having had the chance to talk to American vets of the bombing of Europe and Japan they had no doubt that it was a job that had to be done and there has been on regret shown by the American public over it. They to did their share of city bombing but were backed by their goverment. It should also be remembered that quite a few downed aircrew were lynched or killed by the German public when should have been treated as p.o.w.'s.

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It would not surprise me if some downed air crew were killed when they could have been taken as pow, but then how could their fellow airmen know?

 

house your seagull

Train à Grande Vitesse

Jul 7, 2004

2,693

Manchester

• Feb 14, 2015

• #43

Just had a look at civilian deaths in WW2.

UK 67k
Germany 1.1m
Russia 7-12m

 

withdeanwombat

Well-known member

Feb 17, 2005

8,696

Somersetshire

• Feb 14, 2015

• #44

Hindsight is marvelous.

Wish bookies would let us bet on last week's races at last week's odds.

 

M

m20gull

Well-known member

Jun 10, 2004

3,420

Land of the Chavs

• Feb 14, 2015

• #45

house your seagull said:

Just had a look at civilian deaths in WW2.

UK 67k
Germany 1.1m
Russia 7-12m

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Of whom, 0.3m were killed by Germany.

 

User removed 4

New member

May 9, 2008

13,331

Haywards Heath

• Feb 14, 2015

• #46

 

Seagull on the wing

New member

Sep 22, 2010

7,458

Hailsham

• Feb 14, 2015

• #47

As one who lived through the Nazi bombing...why should we apologise...did the surving Germans apologise for the Blitz on London/Coventry/Liverpool...for the extermination camps...No.

 

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pauli cee

New member

Jan 21, 2009

2,366

worthing

• Feb 14, 2015

• #48

Thunder Bolt said:

Up until Dresden and then the Nagasaki/ Hiroshima bombings, was that the Allies had bombed mainly military targets.
To try to finish the war against an enemy who refused to give in, was that we broke our own 'rules' by deliberately killing millions of civilians. It was a dreadful thing to do, but it was for the 'greater good'.

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Greater good Wow, I think you are more than just a dullard!!

 

seagullsovergrimsby

#cpfctinpotclub

Aug 21, 2005

43,690

Crap Town

• Feb 14, 2015

• #49

Dresden was payback for the Blitz.

 

S

Seasidesage

New member

May 19, 2009

4,467

Brighton, United Kingdom

• Feb 14, 2015

• #50

Shouldn't have invaded Poland then...War is horrible and the things that have been done to win wars since the dawn of time are horrible. Was Dresden necessary? No but that is with the benefit of hindsight. I see no reason for us to apologise for prosecuting a war we did not start with all our might.

 

Eggmundo

U & I R listening to KAOS

Jul 8, 2003

3,466

• Feb 14, 2015

• #51

Leekbrookgull said:

Your point on the Americans not wanting to face as you say fanatical resistance is well known,just makes you wonder what were they Japanese government thinking ?

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The Purple Hearts that are given out now were originally manufactured in anticipation of the mass casualties an assault on the Japanese mainland would have caused. The surrender of Japan left the USA with hundreds of thousands of spare medals.

FACT

 

M

m20gull

Well-known member

Jun 10, 2004

3,420

Land of the Chavs

• Feb 14, 2015

• #52

Thunder Bolt said:

Up until Dresden and then the Nagasaki/ Hiroshima bombings, was that the Allies had bombed mainly military targets.
To try to finish the war against an enemy who refused to give in, was that we broke our own 'rules' by deliberately killing millions of civilians. It was a dreadful thing to do, but it was for the 'greater good'.

Click to expand...

Dresden was not the start. Nearly twice as many were killed in Hamburg and that was nearly two years earlier. And the nuclear attacks were a culmination of 10 months of air raids on Japan that had been substantially area fire-bombing.

 

S

Since1982

Well-known member

Sep 30, 2006

1,489

Burgess Hill

• Feb 14, 2015

• #53

Leekbrookgull said:

Do you mean this ? If so.Thank-you. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02jxnld

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That's the one. All credit to five live for the way they let him roll with his story, crashed the news and described some graphic stuff that might have been cut short by another interviewer. Compelling.

 

Perfidious Albion

Well-known member

Oct 25, 2011

6,023

At the end of my tether

• Feb 15, 2015

• #54

Since1982 said:

That's the one. All credit to five live for the way they let him roll with his story, crashed the news and described some graphic stuff that might have been cut short by another interviewer. Compelling.

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I saw this guy ,name of "Victor", do a similar interview on BBC Breakfast T V . Thankfully they let him talk on as well. I was choked up . What he described was unimaginable horror . As he said "We were supposed to be the good guys, we thought we didn't do that" How can we recoil fro German atrocities when we were doing the same? Victor's contempt for The Allied Command was passionate . After hearing him speak, one could not help but agree with him - and I say that after reading and considering all the comments on this thread... IMHO his interview should be placed in the British Library for posterity and played to future generations.

The trouble is, mankind never learns ..........

 

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Lenny Rider

Well-known member

Sep 15, 2010

5,427

• Feb 15, 2015

• #55

But how close were Germany to getting to atomic weapons towards the end of the war?
70 years on it's okay for the do gooders to go on about barbaric actions but ultimately as has been said in previous posts it speeded up the end of the war, which potentially saved a large number of people on both sides from being killed.

 

Theatre of Trees

Well-known member

Jul 5, 2003

7,718

TQ2905

• Feb 15, 2015

• #56

Lenny Rider said:

But how close were Germany to getting to atomic weapons towards the end of the war?

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They weren't anywhere near to succeeding.

Most of the prominent scientists of the 30s were Jewish and had either fled the company or perished in the camps with their work derided and ignored because of their background. Those that remained were either ideological appointments which diluted academic standards further, made worse by call ups to the armed forces.