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What would you like to know about this photograph?. Should Dresden have been bombed?. By the end of today’s lesson you should be able to…. Pre-war Dresden was known as ‘Florence on the Elbe’ because of its great beauty, reputation for culture and or the number of art treasures in the city.
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What would you like to know about this photograph?
Pre-war Dresden was known as ‘Florence on the Elbe’ because of its great beauty, reputation for culture and or the number of art treasures in the city.
At 10p.m. On Tuesday 13 February 1945 almost 800 RAF bombers headed towards the city
Each Lancaster Bomber carried 1.5 tonnes of high explosive bombs and 2.25 tonnes of incendiaries
These bombs could cause a deadly ‘firestorm’ with temperatures of over 1000˚C. These firestorms would suck the oxygen from the air at ground level and any civilians who survived the fire would die of suffocation.
We do not know exactly how many people died in the bombing raid. Estimates range from 25,000 to 100,000 men, women, and children.
Should Dresden have been bombed? In History you need to learn to write balanced answers. These are answers to a question which look at BOTH sides of the argument. This sheet is designed to help you to answer the question above. On the other hand Dresden should not have been bombed because.... On the one hand Dresden should have been bombed because.... Now for YOUR opinion. On balance I think Dresden should/should not have been bombed because.....
‘If tonight our people were asked to cast their vote whether a convention should be entered into to stop the bombing of cities, the overwhelming majority would cry, ‘No, we will mete out to them the measure, and more than the measure, that they have meeted out to us’.’ Winston Churchill 14th July 1941 ‘The ultimate aim of an attack on a town area is to break the morale (confidence and determination to continue the war) of the population. To ensure this we must achieve two things: first we must make the town physically uninhabitable and second we must make the people conscious of constant personal danger. The immediate aim therefore is to produce i) Destruction ii) Fear of death. Paper distributed by British Air Staff on 23 September 1941