Yes, early attacks where aimed at industry and infrastructure. But later attacks were totally unneeded. How can you explain the attack on Hamburg in 1945? By no means there was much left that would have been worth bombing.
What exactly do you mean by “later” attacks? The war was very much still in effect by even early 1945. As for Hamburg, perhaps civilians were the target, I don’t know. You may be right. Perhaps the Allies wanted revenge for what happened to Britain during the Blitz, and in your opinion, they were wrong for doing so. However, an arguement can be made that these bombings broke the German peoples’ morale and spirit - shortening the war and bringing the war to the homefront (as was proven in Hamburg 1943).
In February of 1945, with the Russian army threatening the heart of Saxony, I was called upon to attack Dresden; this was considered a target of the first importance for the offensive on the Eastern front. Dresden had by this time become the main centre of communications for the defence of Germany on the southern half of the Eastern front and it was considered that a heavy air attack would disorganise these communications and also make Dresden useless as a controlling centre for the defence. It was also by far the largest city in Germany-the pre-war population was 630,000-which had been left intact; it had never before been bombed. As a large centre of war industry it was also of the highest importance.
So, i don’t go against your point in the way you say it here, but you did not relativate it before with the term “majority”, before that it sounded like all, and that is simply not true.
How many bombing missions did the USAF conduct during the war? Hundreds? Thousands? Probably even more. So a few missions turned sour, I would have expected that to happen, given the law of probability. However, for the most part, the bombers were sent against military targets.
The civilian deaths and the civil destruction were not only taken into account, but more or less embraced (with P-49s (AFAIR) strafing the ground of Dresden to “increase the chaos” in the late phase of the attacks).
I never read of P-49’s given orders to strafe the ground for the purpose “increasing chaos” so I will have to see more then you AFAIR on this. As for Dresden, consider what Air Marshall Arthur Harris had to say on this:
"In February of 1945, with the Russian army threatening the heart of Saxony, I was called upon to attack Dresden; this was considered a target of the first importance for the offensive on the Eastern front. Dresden had by this time become the main centre of communications for the defence of Germany on the southern half of the Eastern front and it was considered that a heavy air attack would disorganise these communications and also make Dresden useless as a controlling centre for the defence. It was also by far the largest city in Germany-the pre-war population was 630,000-which had been left intact; it had never before been bombed. As a large centre of war industry it was also of the highest importance. "
Why don’t you not just admit that your nation has commited war crimes, instead of fleeing from one weak excuse to the other?
(As Swinemuende can by no means explained by the above)
F_alk, could you just shut up for once? I’m serious, enough with the rhetoric. I never said my nation didn’t “commit war crimes” - not once anywhere in all my postings. Therefore, if you interpreted my postings as “weak excuses” it’s because THEY ARE - it was never my intent to say American never commited war crimes - it was never my goal in the first place. Jezzzz…
