British / American against Russia in 1945

[ArtieBob]

Being old enough to have been around at the end of WWII and with Father, Uncle, cousins, etc., in the military, I do not think that we in the USA feared USSR in 1945. In fact, the popular opinion in the USA was probably that we could have beaten anybody at that point (not that this was correct, but that is how we felt). As for the bombing of Dresden, based on how we felt about Germany and the Germans, the only reason not to bomb any German targets was to put our aircrews at any unnecessary risk at that late point of the war. Looking back with over 60 years of hindsight, things look somewhat different now. But when by 1945, we heard of millions and millions of non-combatant civilian casulties in the European war caused by Nazi germany (which all through the war appeared to have the support of the German civilian population), torture, slavery, looting, etc., there was not a great deal of sympathy for any Germans and the thousands of civilian bombing casulties were only payback for what the Nazi bombers had inflicted on civilianpopulations in other nations. As I say, this may not have been the proper attitude, but that is how I felt as a boy growing up in the USA during WWII.