Haqihana,
At that point, 10 weeks before VE day, hardly anybody was participating in the German war effort anymore because their ability to wage war was all but over except in certain select spots. But least of all Dresden, which was not strategically important at all. And the notion that the point of bombing Dresden was to take out a ball bearing plant makes little sense to me. To destroy one plant, you firebomb the entire city night and day targeting every square inch of the city ?? And, at that point in the war particularly, of what danger are ball bearings to the allies, when the Germans are no longer capable of manufacturing ships and planes and guns?
With all due respect to your uncle, I think he and my father (who fought in the Battle of the Bulge) would agree on at least one thing: soldiers heard or even were told all sorts of things; that certainly didn't mean they were true. And yes, my father told me that. And this, too: "There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Army's way."
WS |
