The Ethics Of Bombing Dresden

By Lt Col Raymond H. Wilcox

This study describes the events, doctrine, and technical developments of World War II (WWII) that led to the destruction by area bombing of the city of Dresden and the deaths of 135,000 of its citizens. Prior to our entry into WWII our bombing strategy was to employ large numbers of high altitude bombers with heavy defensive firepower, flying in formation, using precision daylight bombardment. This ethical bombing technique was observed early on in WWII, but at some point the ethic changed. Why? Was it a change in the ethics of the commander or country, or was it due to a technological push through the development of on-board radar? This analysis will show that although no specific order or directive specified the destruction of Dresden, those in charge had tacitly endorsed it. History shows us that because of this change, the face of war in Europe also changed. To this day, the firestorm of Dresden remains one of the deadliest and ethically most problematic raids of WWII.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lucknow Books
• Release date: Aug 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781782897521

Lt Col Raymond H. Wilcox

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Text originally published in 1998 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

The Ethics of Bombing Dresden

by

Lt Col Raymond H. Wilcox

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

ABSTRACT 5

PREFACE 6

BACKGROUND 7

Just War Theory 7

The War 7

THE INTERWAR YEARS 9

BOMBING TECHNIQUES 10

The RAF Approach 10

The USAAF Approach 10

CONFERENCES 12

Arcadia 12

Casablanca 12

Yalta 12

THE GENERALS 14

Carl A. (Tooey) Spaatz 14

Henry Hap Arnold 14

Ira Eaker 15

ADVANCES IN BOMBING TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGY 17

HAMBURG RAID 19

DRESDEN FIRESTORM 21

CONCLUSIONS 24

APPENDIX 25

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 27

BIBLIOGRAPHY 28

ABSTRACT

This study describes the events, doctrine, and technical developments of World War II (WWII) that led to the destruction by area bombing of the city of Dresden and the deaths of 135,000 of its citizens. Prior to our entry into WWII our bombing strategy was to employ large numbers of high altitude bombers with heavy defensive firepower, flying in formation, using precision daylight bombardment. This ethical bombing technique was observed early on in WWII, but at some point the ethic changed. Why? Was it a change in the