The bombing of Dresden took place from February 13th to February 15th, 1945, during the final months of World War II when Allied forces flew over the area. Between these days, the Allied forces dropped over 3,900 tons of bombs and other devices. The bombing led to some controversy because the city of Dresden had not taken much part in the war effort and the war was ending. Throughout the war, Dresden had not suffered from any bombings. But by February 15th, the city suffered from about 4 different waves of attacks.
A British subcommittee (called German Strategy and Capacity to Resist) predicted that the Allied forces could take down the Axis forces and that Germany might surrender if they attacked the eastern part of Germany. By early 1945, the Allied forces planned to air raid Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz to "cause great confusion in civilian evacuation from the east and hamper movement of reinforcements from other fronts."
By 1945, Dresden was Germany's largest city that had been unbombed. According to the Allied forces, bombing the city was necessary because Dresden was an industrial city with over 100 factories that produced many goods to the war effort (such as the factory that my mother had worked at.) Allied forces also felt that it was necessary to bombed the city because there were many transportation routes that were of military importance and many refugees took refuge there.
On the night of February 13th, the USAAF Eighth Air Force was orignially to bomb the area but, due to bad weather, the RAF Bomber Command had to carry out the attack. To confuse German air defenses, the Bomber Command decided to bomb other nearby cities (Bonn, Magdeburg, Nuremburg, and Misburg.) A flight of Avro Lancasters from 83 Squadron, No. 5 Group acted as the path finders that would find the area, and to light it up, they dropped flares on it (we thought of them as Christmas Lights.) These pathfinders were followed by a group of De Havilland Mosquitoe Planes who dropped a 1000 lb target that set off a red glow for the main force to see where to bomb. The main force (Plate Rock) consisted of 254 Lancaster planes that carried a total of 200,000 incendiaries with 500 tons of high-explosive bombs. These bombs destroyed many roofs, doors, and windows that allow an air flow for the fire that had followed the raidings.
Three hours later, the Allied forces did a second attack with the Lancaster Aircraft. The pathfinders, (Group 8) decided to expand the target and dropped the bombs on both sides of the raging fire. Hauptbahnhof, the main train station, was hit during this second wave along with Grober Garten Park.
Between 12:21 and 12:45 AM, February 14th, the Lancasters dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs.
Midday February 14th, 431 bombers from the VIII Bomber Command bombed Dresden. Starting from 12:17 to 12:30, the 379th, 303rd, 92nd, 306th, 384th, and 457th bombardment groups bombed the area. But since it was cloudy over Dresden, most groups had to use the H2X radar technique to find the targets. Because of this, the bombs were more dispersed around the area than intended.
On February 15th, Between 12:00 and 12:10 PM, all of previous listed bombardment groups, targeted Dresden but had to use the same H2X technique and these bombing were also dispersed.
Germany's defense for Dresden was weak since most of their artilleries were either sent to fight the Soviet Union or were in bad condition.
By February 14th, the temperatures caused by the fire were over 2700 Degrees Fahrenheit.
Around 78,000 dwellings (12,000 buildings) had been destroyed. After the fire, the death count had been between 8,000 to 200,000. But later another study was conducted and it was found that it was more likely that the death count was between 35,000 to 135,000 (the count cannot be 100% precise because an unknown number of refugees had taken refuge there.) It was horrible. While I did not know all of these military facts at the time, I am able to tell you my experience.
It was 9:51, February 13th, 1945, I had just put Anneliese to sleep in Mama's room and was playing paper dolls with Henny when the sirens went off. Since Mama had just gotten her job at a new factory at night, I had not had to go through many drills with me being the one in charge. I quickly thought of what Mama would usually do when the sirens went off. They were loud and blaring and Anneliese opened the door from Mama's room and looked at me with her sleepy eyes. I told her that everything was going to be alright, that it was just a routine she needed to get used to. I told Henny to start turning off the lamps and blowing on the candles while I grabbed food and blankets and closed canisters filled with water and milk. I quickly put them in Papa's old suitcase that he would take to work and then I went into Mama's room and opened her jewelry box. I took out the last monthly pay that Heinz had ever sent us, (Mama refused to spend it) and stuffed the money into the inside pocket of my coat. I then put Henny and Anneliese's coats on them and tied their shoes. We then left the apartment room and went downstairs to the cellar (all residents of the building were to come down here whenever the sirens went off.) Mr. Gabler, the owner, hurried us inside. We went to the corner of the cellar and waited as others rushed inside. After a few minutes, we decided that everyone from the building was in the cellar. Mr. Gabler always kept a radio in the cellar so that we could hear we was going on. Within seconds we heard the reports that Allied bombers were headed our way. The adults and older children who could understand began to grow silent with fear, which only caused the young children to start to cry. Within minutes we heard the bombs. Suddenly the lights went out and we sat there in complete fear. A woman started to scream and panic began to rise all around the cellar, everyone began to move and we heard the radio fall to the ground. Now all there was nothing to hear but screaming. Suddenly the woman reached the door of the cellar and for a second we saw the red glow of fire from outside, the dust and smoke swarmed into the room and it was hard to breathe. Everyone was running to get out of the cellar. I picked up Anneliese and grabbed Henny's hand and made my way to the door. Once we got out, the street had fire trails everywhere and the houses were a mess. Everyone was flooding the streets screaming. Mothers were screaming for their children and the children were screaming for their mothers. Men were bent down in the street, praying. Anneliese began to cry and we all ran down what seemed like 10 streets to another apartment building. We all quickly went into the cellar which had not been filled with smoke. We sat down there and we all took off our coats and tried to cool down. I took the money out of the pocket and hid it in the suitcase. Many more crying people came flooding in. We waited there for the longest time and after awhile I had begun to fall asleep. I woke up to the sounds of more bombs. Soon, that cellar had been filled with smoke as well and we had to get out. The whole street was melting and I had to think quick so that our feet did not burn. I remembered that during the Berlin bombings, many people hid in hospital cellars. I began searching for the nearest hospital. I did not recognize the beautiful city anymore. The fire had rose and there were bodies piled on the streets. The three of us had to jump over many bodies while we ran, looking for the hospital. The three of us both saw many faint from the lack of oxygen. After searching for a good time, I stopped and took out the blankets from the suitcase. I dumped them into the water canisters and then told Henny and Anneliese to breathe through the blankets. I did the same. We then continued to search and then we finally found a hospital that nursed wounded German soldiers. We ran into the building and a nurse who had been running around pointed us towards the direction of the cellar. We ran there and found a somewhat dark room (there were candles on the sides.) We had to squeeze into the crowded cellar and then all we could do was wait. We were in that cellar for the next two days, praying that the next two raids would not reach this hospital. On February 16th, it turned out that we had been in one of the lucky hospitals.
On February 16th, it was declared "safe" to leave the cellar. We were out of food by this time and had no home to return to. The streets were filled with rubble and bodies that would remain there for some time. The Sophie-Church was missing one of its towers and the Meissen chime was no longer the beautiful building that it had once been. It would take days before the railways would be able to work again so, once I could find paper, I began writing a letter to Oma and Opa, saying that we would be heading over there as soon as possible. I placed it down at the almost destroyed post office and prayed that it would send.
By February 22nd, we were on the first train to Tubingen (using the money from Heinz) and our new lives would begin.
A British subcommittee (called German Strategy and Capacity to Resist) predicted that the Allied forces could take down the Axis forces and that Germany might surrender if they attacked the eastern part of Germany. By early 1945, the Allied forces planned to air raid Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz to "cause great confusion in civilian evacuation from the east and hamper movement of reinforcements from other fronts."
By 1945, Dresden was Germany's largest city that had been unbombed. According to the Allied forces, bombing the city was necessary because Dresden was an industrial city with over 100 factories that produced many goods to the war effort (such as the factory that my mother had worked at.) Allied forces also felt that it was necessary to bombed the city because there were many transportation routes that were of military importance and many refugees took refuge there.
On the night of February 13th, the USAAF Eighth Air Force was orignially to bomb the area but, due to bad weather, the RAF Bomber Command had to carry out the attack. To confuse German air defenses, the Bomber Command decided to bomb other nearby cities (Bonn, Magdeburg, Nuremburg, and Misburg.) A flight of Avro Lancasters from 83 Squadron, No. 5 Group acted as the path finders that would find the area, and to light it up, they dropped flares on it (we thought of them as Christmas Lights.) These pathfinders were followed by a group of De Havilland Mosquitoe Planes who dropped a 1000 lb target that set off a red glow for the main force to see where to bomb. The main force (Plate Rock) consisted of 254 Lancaster planes that carried a total of 200,000 incendiaries with 500 tons of high-explosive bombs. These bombs destroyed many roofs, doors, and windows that allow an air flow for the fire that had followed the raidings.
Three hours later, the Allied forces did a second attack with the Lancaster Aircraft. The pathfinders, (Group 8) decided to expand the target and dropped the bombs on both sides of the raging fire. Hauptbahnhof, the main train station, was hit during this second wave along with Grober Garten Park.
Between 12:21 and 12:45 AM, February 14th, the Lancasters dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs.
Midday February 14th, 431 bombers from the VIII Bomber Command bombed Dresden. Starting from 12:17 to 12:30, the 379th, 303rd, 92nd, 306th, 384th, and 457th bombardment groups bombed the area. But since it was cloudy over Dresden, most groups had to use the H2X radar technique to find the targets. Because of this, the bombs were more dispersed around the area than intended.
On February 15th, Between 12:00 and 12:10 PM, all of previous listed bombardment groups, targeted Dresden but had to use the same H2X technique and these bombing were also dispersed.
Germany's defense for Dresden was weak since most of their artilleries were either sent to fight the Soviet Union or were in bad condition.
By February 14th, the temperatures caused by the fire were over 2700 Degrees Fahrenheit.
Around 78,000 dwellings (12,000 buildings) had been destroyed. After the fire, the death count had been between 8,000 to 200,000. But later another study was conducted and it was found that it was more likely that the death count was between 35,000 to 135,000 (the count cannot be 100% precise because an unknown number of refugees had taken refuge there.) It was horrible. While I did not know all of these military facts at the time, I am able to tell you my experience.
It was 9:51, February 13th, 1945, I had just put Anneliese to sleep in Mama's room and was playing paper dolls with Henny when the sirens went off. Since Mama had just gotten her job at a new factory at night, I had not had to go through many drills with me being the one in charge. I quickly thought of what Mama would usually do when the sirens went off. They were loud and blaring and Anneliese opened the door from Mama's room and looked at me with her sleepy eyes. I told her that everything was going to be alright, that it was just a routine she needed to get used to. I told Henny to start turning off the lamps and blowing on the candles while I grabbed food and blankets and closed canisters filled with water and milk. I quickly put them in Papa's old suitcase that he would take to work and then I went into Mama's room and opened her jewelry box. I took out the last monthly pay that Heinz had ever sent us, (Mama refused to spend it) and stuffed the money into the inside pocket of my coat. I then put Henny and Anneliese's coats on them and tied their shoes. We then left the apartment room and went downstairs to the cellar (all residents of the building were to come down here whenever the sirens went off.) Mr. Gabler, the owner, hurried us inside. We went to the corner of the cellar and waited as others rushed inside. After a few minutes, we decided that everyone from the building was in the cellar. Mr. Gabler always kept a radio in the cellar so that we could hear we was going on. Within seconds we heard the reports that Allied bombers were headed our way. The adults and older children who could understand began to grow silent with fear, which only caused the young children to start to cry. Within minutes we heard the bombs. Suddenly the lights went out and we sat there in complete fear. A woman started to scream and panic began to rise all around the cellar, everyone began to move and we heard the radio fall to the ground. Now all there was nothing to hear but screaming. Suddenly the woman reached the door of the cellar and for a second we saw the red glow of fire from outside, the dust and smoke swarmed into the room and it was hard to breathe. Everyone was running to get out of the cellar. I picked up Anneliese and grabbed Henny's hand and made my way to the door. Once we got out, the street had fire trails everywhere and the houses were a mess. Everyone was flooding the streets screaming. Mothers were screaming for their children and the children were screaming for their mothers. Men were bent down in the street, praying. Anneliese began to cry and we all ran down what seemed like 10 streets to another apartment building. We all quickly went into the cellar which had not been filled with smoke. We sat down there and we all took off our coats and tried to cool down. I took the money out of the pocket and hid it in the suitcase. Many more crying people came flooding in. We waited there for the longest time and after awhile I had begun to fall asleep. I woke up to the sounds of more bombs. Soon, that cellar had been filled with smoke as well and we had to get out. The whole street was melting and I had to think quick so that our feet did not burn. I remembered that during the Berlin bombings, many people hid in hospital cellars. I began searching for the nearest hospital. I did not recognize the beautiful city anymore. The fire had rose and there were bodies piled on the streets. The three of us had to jump over many bodies while we ran, looking for the hospital. The three of us both saw many faint from the lack of oxygen. After searching for a good time, I stopped and took out the blankets from the suitcase. I dumped them into the water canisters and then told Henny and Anneliese to breathe through the blankets. I did the same. We then continued to search and then we finally found a hospital that nursed wounded German soldiers. We ran into the building and a nurse who had been running around pointed us towards the direction of the cellar. We ran there and found a somewhat dark room (there were candles on the sides.) We had to squeeze into the crowded cellar and then all we could do was wait. We were in that cellar for the next two days, praying that the next two raids would not reach this hospital. On February 16th, it turned out that we had been in one of the lucky hospitals.
On February 16th, it was declared "safe" to leave the cellar. We were out of food by this time and had no home to return to. The streets were filled with rubble and bodies that would remain there for some time. The Sophie-Church was missing one of its towers and the Meissen chime was no longer the beautiful building that it had once been. It would take days before the railways would be able to work again so, once I could find paper, I began writing a letter to Oma and Opa, saying that we would be heading over there as soon as possible. I placed it down at the almost destroyed post office and prayed that it would send.
By February 22nd, we were on the first train to Tubingen (using the money from Heinz) and our new lives would begin.