Tonnage of bombs dropped in attacks on Dresden during WWII 1944-1945

The Allied bombing of Dresden in February 1945 was one of the war's largest aerial raids and became one of the most controversial Allied attacks of the Second World War.

The Bombing of Dresden

Dresden was Germany's seventh-largest city at the time, and was a relatively important transport hub for the German war effort, but its location in the east meant it remained relatively untouched by Allied bombing attacks until the war's final stages. A series of attacks starting on the night of February 13 by the RAF and USAAF not only bombed the transport hub at the marshalling yards in the heart of the city, but also destroyed huge swathes of residential areas, in an attack that used an uncharacteristically high ratio of incendiary bombs for an industrial target. In addition to the explosive blasts, the incendiary bombs burned many victims (vaporizing some), while resulting firestorms created inhospitable conditions across the city, preventing escape and causing thousands to suffocate. Cloud coverage and smoke from the first attacks obscured targets in later attacks, contributing to an even wider dispersal of bombs, and the destruction was compounded on the third day when attacks intended for Leipzig were redirected to Dresden due to poor visibility. Almost four kilotons of bombs were dropped on Dresden in less than 48 hours.

Aftermath

The death toll at the scene was thought to be around 20,000 at the time - a figure that post-war investigations largely corroborate. However, under Joseph Goebbels' instructions, German propaganda immediately began circulating a figure of more than 200,000 fatalities to put international pressure on Allied military command. The move was effective as it turned public opinion in Allied countries against such raids, and caused several politicians and high-ranking military figures to question the necessity or ethics of conducting such deadly raids when German defeat seemed so inevitable. In March and April, Winston Churchill issued separate memos that future raids were to be conducted with more consideration for civilian casualties, and Germany officially surrendered on May 8. 1945. Post-war analysis has found that the attack followed many of the same procedures as other aerial attacks on Germany, and other German cities suffered relatively higher casualties and destruction levels, however the motivation and methods of the Dresden bombing remains a point of contention among historians to this day.