Dresden casualties and an Atom bomb target?

[edwest]

Well said Ruy. And with all due respect to appropriate caution, as indicated by ArtieBob, I think one problem of the internet is denouncing "myths" and unconventional statements. I am persuing several leads to information that I would not have if I had simply accepted them as myths. In the end, if there is nothing to find, I will find nothing. So far, I am finding good information to build on.


Regards,
Ed

[Jon]

What appears to have added to the high casualties is the fact that when the second wave arrived over the city the fires were so well alight, the master bomber made a decision then,to shift the bombing to an area not designated as the main target, this then hit areas people had ran too during the earlier bombing. Also Dresdens shelters were poor when compared to other often bombed German cities and the public looked to have stayed below ground and died from lack of oxygen rather than risk the HE above. One German soldier on leave describes how he and 5 others survived in the middle of the city by staying above ground behind a low garden wall out of the wind, beating each others clothes when they caught fire.
From an RAF point of view the raid was nothing special with Bomb loads or numbers of aircraft, it just all came together on that terrible night. The tales of fighters straffing civilians now look to be untrue, this has only been disproved by people being willing to discuss the Dresden raid.
And can i just say i agree with the last two posts ,we must be able to discuss these attacks no matter how bitter they taste in our mouths.

[RT]

So what is the origin of these numbers? Around 25.000 bodies and parts of bodies were found in Dresden after the raids. These were buried at different sites in Dresden and counted. After the war there existed a myth about the high temperatures in the town made people burning so complete with no traces. So the GDR added around 10.000 dead people couldnt be buried. This figure was also quite common in the west. But this is not right, so the real is 25.000+ but not over 30.000. ......

It seems that counting the deads in a totally ruined city, is something like impossible, in fact these figures hv to be read as at least 25.000 deads ,ok we found the bodies, now question is how many bodies were not found, not just the english but american too attacked Dresden the english twice,
concerning the inflated figures, its not a "nazi" particularity, at the end of the war 15+ millions died in the intern.camps, now figures hv by more than 10 fold reduced,
Futher as history is always nd maybe many more than in the past a political weapon, I don't know why we hv to believe more the todays " put on the market" figures than those of the past.

Concerning the "only" 30.000 deads, "only" is to report to 100.000/200.000
previous figure, for years in Germany, it was quite " de mauvais gout" or bad educated people that speak of these things, now we could speak openly because there is "only" 30.000 deads, in fact the worst thing is that the "nazi" exagerated the casualties, but 30.000 even not necessary to disturb the good people with so few, nd in fact if there is 30.000 people dead, as the previous "official" figure was 102.000, 72.000 people ar still alive...finally a good news

remi

[Ruy Horta]

The topic is now shifting and the thread has run its course.

I'm locking the topic, maybe next time we can keep it constructive and focused.