The massive Allied air raid on the medieval German city of Dresden during February 13-14, 1945, was enormously destructive and highly controversial. Many historians and others have condemned it as an act of wanton and vengeful destruction, a mission with no true military purpose. Others have seen it as just another episode of the strategic bombing of Germany, a program intended to hasten the end of the war.

Capital of Saxony, Dresden was a city of beautiful medieval architecture. Its major industry was the creation of fine china, and it had little heavy industry, even during the war. Because it was considered of negligible strategic importance, it had been largely bypassed by Allied bombers, except for a minor U.S. raid in October 1944.

In January 1945, under the direction of British air marshal Arthur "Bomber" Harris, plans were drawn up for Operation Thunderclap to attack Berlin and other major population centers as the Soviet Red Army was closing in rapidly from the east. The idea was that the raids would make defense against the Soviet advance more difficult and that they would disrupt the flow of westward-bound refugees from that advance. It was particularly important, western Allied leaders felt, to make a demonstration of support for the Soviet effort. . .

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