Bombing Of Dresden Essay

The technological developments that assisted bombing, the impact of bombing on the German economy, the impact of bombing on the German civilian morale and also the effects on the German war effort all help explain why the Allied strategic bombing of Germany during the Second World War was significant to quite a far extent. Each of the following paragraphs will analyse the impacts of the Allied strategic bombing on different aspects of Germany and also what factors assisted the Allied bombing campaign in creating a significant impact on Germany during the Second World War.

The main occurrence in the novel was the nonsensical bombing of the culturally enriched and beautiful city in Dresden, Germany. On February 13, 1945 amidst World War II this city was attack

War is the third topic that is heavily satirized in Slaughterhouse Five. First, Billy almost gets killed because he is time-traveling. Second of all, Vonnegut always says “so it goes” (12) whenever someone dies, so it sort of mocks death. Also, he is given a woman’s jacket when he becomes a POW and it mocks his position in the war also. On the nights of February 13-14 in 1944 the city of Dresden, Germany was subjected to one of the worst air attacks in the history of man. By the end of the bombing 135,000 to 250,000 people had been killed by the combined forces of the United States and the United Kingdom. Dresden was different then Berlin or many of the other military targets which were attacked during World War II because it was never fortified or used for strategic purposes and, therefore, was not considered a military target. At one point, Billy watches a war movie about WWII. He watches it regularly, showing how reality is.

The fatal atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the end of World War II are written down in history books today. This is because they had a drastic story behind them that changed the world and the lives of many civilians. The United States decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II had both positive and negative results.

When British and American forces raided the city with firebombs, Vonnegut and his fellow captives were saved due to their underground imprisonment. The bombing killed more than 135,000 people, most of whom were innocent civilians, more than the deaths of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. After the bombing, Vonnegut was given the morbid task of carrying the corpses from Air-Raid shelters, including women, children, and the elderly; dead from concussions, fire, or suffocation. In a letter to his father, Vonnegut described his job and the reaction of the locals, “Civilians cursed us and threw rocks as we carried bodies to huge pyres in the city,” (Boomhower). His distressing internment in Dresden not only furthered his anti-war sentiments, but also established a reoccurring theme in his books: the irrationality of government and the senselessness of war. Vonnegut saw the bombing of Dresden and the slaughter of innocents as wasteful and meaningless. He could not comprehend the purpose of destroying a “beautiful” and fully functional civilization (Wiswell 5). The annihilation of the city and lives of the innocent affirmed his views of war as a waste, and even lead to his feeling that, “civilization ended in World War I” (Vitale). This view indicated Vonnegut believed World War II was a meaningless act committed by the uncivilized.

During World War II the war in Europe ended after the unconditional German surrender at General Eisenhower's Headquarters in Reims, France, May 7, 1945. "After the unconditional German surrender in Europe the war shifted to Asia and the Pacific. As the war continued against Japan the Allied forces captured islands such as Iwo Jima and Okinaawa close to Japan brought the Japanese homeland within range of naval and air attacks." (Dannen) On August 6, 1945, the city of Hiroshima was the target of the first atomic bomb used against civil population in history. On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb over the city of Nagasaki. In total,

One potentially significant area of impact caused by strategic bombing was its effect on German moral. This is because it was expected to terrify and shock the German

The bombs were also a warning shot to the Nazis who, according to President Roosevelt, “have proclaimed, time and again, that all other races are their inferiors and therefore subject to their orders.” (Riggs 2) Thus, Germany’s defeat

Most anti-war books focus on crimes and suffering that are well known. They present us with narratives we are already familiar with, but may be more personal, realistic or shocking from one book to another. Vonnegut presents us with a story he himself says is forgotten, the firebombing of Dresden. The firebombing of Dresden killed more citizens than did either well-known atomic bomb dropped on Japan. In addition, the destruction of the city had no clear military purpose. When Vonnegut, who experienced the event himself, tried to contact government agencies for figures on its fatalities, the agencies couldn’t give him information; they told him it was, “top secret still” (11). This reveals that we know only a fraction of the horrors of war. Only the events that happen to become famous are known to us; the rest, just as bad, disappear into obscurity. The firebombing of Dresden makes us wonder how much more we don’t know. It isn’t the description of the firebombing of Dresden that makes Slaughterhouse Five the greatest anti-war book of all time, it is the suggestion that the firebombing of Dresden is only one crime among the

People have different views on the morality of this bombing. There are a few reasons the bombing can be considered ok and moral. Firstly this bombing can be viewed as payback for the London attack that the Nazis just did. Also the Nazi’s have been killing innocent Jews and other groups of people the entire war. Finally Dresden was being used as an industrial city. This would be a factor of why the bombing would be ok because the allies had to destroy the place where the Nazis built their weapons. The following reasons are why the bombing was wrong to do. Firstly the Nazi’s didn’t use Dresden as a key strategic city. For this reason, people asked why would the allies bomb a historic city and not a city that the Nazis used. Next the city couldn’t

The bombing of Dresden took place during the second world war between February 13 and 15, 1945. Prior to this time Germany had held a practice of bombing British cities to create chaos and to break the British Moral in hopes of forcing the British to surrender. This approach had not been successful up until this point. Both the allied and axis powers soon took up the bombing of industrial cities. The main goal of these bombings was for the most part to disrupt communication, and production of materials necessary for the war.

In the bombing of Dresden everybody dies, the city burns to the ground, yet Billy doesn’t care for in his mind which has been broken by war, life and death are irrelative therefore accepting what happened immediately: “Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals… Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead. So it goes,” (Vonnegut 90). Simile compares Dresden to the moon, for the moon is full of craters from millions of asteroids impacting the moon just like Dresden which is full of craters form the carpet bombing. This implies emptiness for nothing exist within a crater. Kurt Vonnegut expresses the theme of grief; one may experience a traumatic event and experience grief, probably in the manner of an initial shock from the trauma, causing

On September 5, 1944 Allied bombs began to fall from the sky onto the port town of Le Havre, France. The second most important port city in France, according to www.encyclopedia.com, was targeted by the Ally troops and bombed in order to keep the German Army from using the port city as a gateway to an invasion of Great Britain. Many civilians fled the town on foot after the Germans captured the town in 1940, but many others who remained in the town were injured or killed during the bombings. Nearly 5,000 civilians met their deaths during the attack deemed Operation Astonia, nearly 80,000 people lost their homes. (www.worldheritagesite.org) The bombings continued over five days and destroyed 12,500 buildings. Le Havre was only one of the 1,570 cities/towns that were bombed in France during World War II. (en.wikipedia.org)

Dresden is the second largest city located in Saxony, Germany. With a population of 530,754, it attracts a lot of tourism. Dresden is home to a fascinating history, interesting sites to see, as well as an engaging surrounding area. Learn about the bombing of Dresden and the rebuilding of the Krauenkirche, the major sites to see, and the surrounding area.

In August of 1945, both of the only two nuclear bombs ever used in warfare were dropped on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. These two bombs shaped much of the world today.