The Fire

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

*Another question is the timing of the bombings.*

Yes. The peak of the bombing campaign was not during those months and 
years when Churchill had no other choice, but in the last three months 
of the war, when there was no military value in most of the destruction. 
If you only take the losses of German civilians between January and May 
1945, 135,000 German civilians were killed which means on average 1,200 
a day and most of these killings had nothing to do with the progress of 
war and wearing down the German army. So the alternative to Dresden and 
its approximately 50,000 deaths is no Dresden. Because the destruction 
of Dresden had no impact on the outcome of the war.

*So why did they bomb cities so late in the war, if there was no 
military purpose? *

They had the planes, they had the pilots… Those German cities which till 
then weren't destroyed were the possibility to practice this new method 
of warfare. The cities of military value – for instance in the Ruhr 
Valley or the ports in the north, like Hamburg, like Lübeck – were all 
bombarded more than 100 times; Cologne on the Rhine – 200 times. So 
cities like Würzburg, one of the treasure houses of baroque art in 
Germany, were all that was left at the end of the war.

- See more at: 
http://www.exberliner.com/features/people/terror-from-the-sky/#sthash.GEshG1US.dpuf

    “Incineration forced the body to make expressive gestures that the
    beholder tried to decipher.

    ‘A young woman was lying there like a sculpture that didn’t come out
    very good. The legs were charred high-heeled boots were stretched
    out high backwards; the arms raised as if in defense. The face was
    still preserved in outlines; the mouth with brownish rows of teeth
    wide open, so that you could not tell if the face was laughing or
    screaming.’

    The laughing was not funny and the scream was not painful. This
    creature was an expression not of feelings, but of its creator. It
    was a sculpture of the fire war.”

    http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-fire/9780231133807
    http://www.exberliner.com/features/people/terror-from-the-sky/

    *Another question is the timing of the bombings.*

    Yes. The peak of the bombing campaign was not during those months
    and years when Churchill had no other choice, but in the last three
    months of the war, when there was no military value in most of the
    destruction. If you only take the losses of German civilians between
    January and May 1945, 135,000 German civilians were killed which
    means on average 1,200 a day and most of these killings had nothing
    to do with the progress of war and wearing down the German army. So
    the alternative to Dresden and its approximately 50,000 deaths is no
    Dresden. Because the destruction of Dresden had no impact on the
    outcome of the war.

    *So why did they bomb cities so late in the war, if there was no
    military purpose? *

    They had the planes, they had the pilots… Those German cities which
    till then weren't destroyed were the possibility to practice this
    new method of warfare. The cities of military value – for instance
    in the Ruhr Valley or the ports in the north, like Hamburg, like
    Lübeck – were all bombarded more than 100 times; Cologne on the
    Rhine – 200 times. So cities like Würzburg, one of the treasure
    houses of baroque art in Germany, were all that was left at the end
    of the war.

    - See more at:
    http://www.exberliner.com/features/people/terror-from-the-sky/#sthash.GEshG1US.dpuf


    *Another question is the timing of the bombings.*

    Yes. The peak of the bombing campaign was not during those months
    and years when Churchill had no other choice, but in the last three
    months of the war, when there was no military value in most of the
    destruction. If you only take the losses of German civilians between
    January and May 1945, 135,000 German civilians were killed which
    means on average 1,200 a day and most of these killings had nothing
    to do with the progress of war and wearing down the German army. So
    the alternative to Dresden and its approximately 50,000 deaths is no
    Dresden. Because the destruction of Dresden had no impact on the
    outcome of the war.

    *So why did they bomb cities so late in the war, if there was no
    military purpose? *

    They had the planes, they had the pilots… Those German cities which
    till then weren't destroyed were the possibility to practice this
    new method of warfare. The cities of military value – for instance
    in the Ruhr Valley or the ports in the north, like Hamburg, like
    Lübeck – were all bombarded more than 100 times; Cologne on the
    Rhine – 200 times. So cities like Würzburg, one of the treasure
    houses of baroque art in Germany, were all that was left at the end
    of the war.

    - See more at:
    http://www.exberliner.com/features/people/terror-from-the-sky/#sthash.GEshG1US.dpuf

    *Another question is the timing of the bombings.*

    Yes. The peak of the bombing campaign was not during those months
    and years when Churchill had no other choice, but in the last three
    months of the war, when there was no military value in most of the
    destruction. If you only take the losses of German civilians between
    January and May 1945, 135,000 German civilians were killed which
    means on average 1,200 a day and most of these killings had nothing
    to do with the progress of war and wearing down the German army. So
    the alternative to Dresden and its approximately 50,000 deaths is no
    Dresden. Because the destruction of Dresden had no impact on the
    outcome of the war.

    *So why did they bomb cities so late in the war, if there was no
    military purpose? *

    They had the planes, they had the pilots… Those German cities which
    till then weren't destroyed were the possibility to practice this
    new method of warfare. The cities of military value – for instance
    in the Ruhr Valley or the ports in the north, like Hamburg, like
    Lübeck – were all bombarded more than 100 times; Cologne on the
    Rhine – 200 times. So cities like Würzburg, one of the treasure
    houses of baroque art in Germany, were all that was left at the end
    of the war.

    - See more at:
    http://www.exberliner.com/features/people/terror-from-the-sky/#sthash.GEshG1US.dpuf


    *Another question is the timing of the bombings.*

    Yes. The peak of the bombing campaign was not during those months
    and years when Churchill had no other choice, but in the last three
    months of the war, when there was no military value in most of the
    destruction. If you only take the losses of German civilians between
    January and May 1945, 135,000 German civilians were killed which
    means on average 1,200 a day and most of these killings had nothing
    to do with the progress of war and wearing down the German army. So
    the alternative to Dresden and its approximately 50,000 deaths is no
    Dresden. Because the destruction of Dresden had no impact on the
    outcome of the war.

    *So why did they bomb cities so late in the war, if there was no
    military purpose? *

    They had the planes, they had the pilots… Those German cities which
    till then weren't destroyed were the possibility to practice this
    new method of warfare. The cities of military value – for instance
    in the Ruhr Valley or the ports in the north, like Hamburg, like
    Lübeck – were all bombarded more than 100 times; Cologne on the
    Rhine – 200 times. So cities like Würzburg, one of the treasure
    houses of baroque art in Germany, were all that was left at the end
    of the war.

    - See more at:
    http://www.exberliner.com/features/people/terror-from-the-sky/#sthash.GEshG1US.dpuf


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