The Firebombing of Dresden: War Crime or Justified Military Necessity?

[@gailkarran3395]

I'm British. 54F. I grew up listening to the stories from my grandparents. While the horror of war is universal, affecting all. The reasons for this war, and the one before it, should never be forgotten. Be careful who you vote for.

[@herrheerhairheryeah2310]

Agree , but need to add , without the versailles treaty , all of those horrific things would never have happend . Never Again Brotherwars !

[@Britton_Thompson]

Dresden had strategic wartime value to justify bombing it, but Allied Air leaders Curtis LeMay and Arthur "Bomber" Harris rejected the idea of 'overkill' in a war. They encouraged excess.

[@chinosekai5969]

My great grandmother lived 20 minutes away from Dresden. Her Father fought in the first Worldwar and died in the second. She took care of me when I was a child and often told me about the traumas of war and the escape from the russians. Now I take care of her and only sometimes she still remembers the detais clearly. I hope the many hours of talking helped her ease her soul.

[@ginagruber1732]

The biggest issue is this was a war crime in a war full of war crimes. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, air raids in England, luxury liners being sunk by U-boats, Japanese massacres of Chinese citizens. It's hard to play a game of who was worse when it comes to the death of civilians.

[@andreasmuller4666]

With one tiny but oh so important difference, the allies were never tried for theirs.

[@iainmcintosh9068]

​@@andreasmuller4666 Spot on 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇩🇪❤

[@SmashBrosAssemble]

Germany & Japan incited the conflict, they were given every ample opportunity to surrender when they clearly lost the conflict but refused to.

[@CoopDawgSmoke]

​@andreasmuller4666 let's be honest hardly any Germans actually paid for ther crimes and no Japanese

[@andreasmuller4666]

@@SmashBrosAssemble a crime is a crime, no matter who commits it, there is no talking around that point.

[@sandhilltucker]

"War doesn't determine who's right, only who's left."

[@silencehill3355]

I am from Dresden, Germany actually and grew up with stories of the Dresden bombing. I grew up with the peoples anger and grief over what had happened. I grew up seeing the ruins of what had been. I grew up fearing war, which likely was also an intented effect. i was not told back then, why it might have happened. people did not speak about such things. I only learned the very basic facts. So quite a few things you mentioned were new to me and food for thought. Personally I feel unable to judge. I still feel too close to this, even though my grandparents were children when this happened. I cannot be neutral. And i think the same goes for everyone whose family survived a bombing. Be it here of in Britain or anywhere else.

[@kaltaron1284]

It's also worth noting that the Soviets loved to point at the bombing of Dresden as an imperialistic-capitalist war crime. But in the end it was with cooperation from the UK that we were able to restore one if the last well-known ruins. I much prefer the latter view.

[@ejtappan1802]

Thank you for this comment. You have given me some deep things to think about.

[@ben1895]

A balanced twist to this video would have been to have a similar quote from someone from Coventry describing a similar same experience.

[@Britton_Thompson]

I think it's important to keep in mind that WW2 was still the "Wild West" in the arena of aerial combat where anything could go. WW2 was the first time airplanes carried large bombs to drop on ground based targets. There were no rules in place at the time for air forces to adhere to the same way there were for ground and sea forces with treaties such as the Geneva Convention. As a result, generals urged aerial commanders to crank it up when bombing the enemy in an effort to save infantrymen since they could still get away with it with no ROEs in place for air forces. Obviously, WW1 was the first time airplanes were used as weapons of war, but they primarily only shot at each other in dogfights or were used for aerial reconnaissance of the enemy's position below. They weren't really used to bomb troops on the ground or munitions factories since the technology still hadn't advanced enough for planes to be used as "heavy bombers" just yet. Aerial bombing was still in it's nascent infancy stages during WW2. As a result, all of the leaders of the major belligerents' air forces poured it on when attacking the enemy because there was still the belief you could simply bomb the enemy into defeat if you bombed them heavily enough. All of them believed this- Goring, Harris, LeMay, Novikov, Yamamoto, etc. Combined with there being no Geneva Convention for air forces, everyone turned it up to 11 whenever they got the chance to do so.

[@kaltaron1284]

The Spanish Civil War was the first taste of what planes could do. The Allied strategic bombing was the next step. Funnily the Allies charged the Germans with crimes that became crimes after the war but omitted their own actions.

[@angelogarcia2189]

"We cried tears of joy at the sight of the red glow in the sky. Dresden is burning; the Allies are not far away." - survivor of Theresienstadt Concentration Camp

[@buckynick]

Same fire storm happed to Hamburg. It still wears the scars to this day.

[@telfordguy34uk]

The reason we bombed Dresden was that the Soviets were preparing to enter Germany proper , and Stalin asked the Allies to destroy Dresden to clear it in preparation . We bombed it , and the Russians attacked . The fire storm was unfortunate , but war is hell .

[@ceebee491]

An,important moment in history to document. It highlights how, once a war starts..it's who survives rather than who wins. 🇧🇪🇬🇧 ❤

[@Bob-qk2zg]

I believe that Desden was firebombed to send a message to the Soviets. "We can do this to Germans and we can do this to you as well."

[@jockster247]

So was Hiroshima

[@mapratt]

The quote at the end... The bombing of Dresden was near the end of the war. Did it lead to a swifter end? What is the best way to end such a horrible conflict, one that has affected so many for so many years? What is the best thing to do when a nation tries to take over another with force? Will the artificial limits obeyed by one side but not the other lead to the "right" outcome? Yes, i understand history is written by the winners, but, objectively, should the Nazis have been stopped or not? Should the allies have kept losing their own civilians and civil infrastructure and prolonged the war a bit longer? Should Moscow live normally while Ukraine burns?

[@duncanglen3452]

You realise that nazi Germany could have fire bombed London and didn't?

[@kaltaron1284]

"Should the allies have kept losing their own civilians and civil infrastructure and prolonged the war a bit longer?" At that point allied civilians and infrastructure wasn't really at risk any more.

[@pgbrown12084]

Just one more example of how so many people died in such horrific means because of 2 or 3 peoples insane ideology and cult of personality.

[@johnconnor4136]

Just wanted to comment here to proudly share that I've been sober for 1,910 days.

[@R005t3r]

Curtis LeMay, WW2 American Air Force General, famously said: "If we lost the war, we'd all been prosecuted as war criminals" In regards to his Japanese bombing campaign.

[@caseyo6033]

The more one argues for "necessity" the further they get from morality.

[@mary-janejenkins9560]

My father born 1915 fought in WW2 said it was just a terrible waste of life that has solved nothing and to look at the world

[@asspirin108]

The bombing of Dresden was an atrocious act of cruelty. As was any other bombing during any other war in any other country. There is no wrong or right in these actions, just suffering and death. So instead of picking a side, we should look closely at every bomb dropped, every bullet shot and every grenade thrown in history and ask ourselves: What can we do to prevent this happening again? Yes I know, sometimes there are means to an end; a necessary evil so to speak. But we must not take these acts lightly.

[@edenrose1224]

I don't know if I will watch this. However, I looked it up and noticed that Dresden is close to the Czech Republic. I remember when i was younger, and had a crush on a young man at school from Chzechoslovakia. It might be interesting to hear more about what it is like to live there! And how you ended up moving there, in the first place.

[@geodkyt]

Dresden is a complex issue. Balanced right on the razor edge between "legitimate military necessity" (and thus "awful but lawful") and a terror attack against civilians rising to the level of deliberate atrocity. The importance of Dresden as a transportation hub argues for "necessity" (Inwould have to agree with the evaluation that the total manufacturing output of the city at that point was pretty irrelevant, strategically and tactically). I tend to fall money the side of "atrocity" myself, with the decision tipping factor being the deliberate choice of tactics and weapons to *maximize* civilian death and suffering (as part of an openly admitted general bombing strategy of horror and terror to "break the civilian will"... something of little military utility in an autocratic state run by a psychopathic dictator and his sycophants). The choice to drop HE generally on the city (including exclusovely residental areas) to break up gas lines so that the follow up incendiary strikes would maximize the fires and create an *intended* firestorm calculated to be intended enough to defeat bomb shelter protection was, in my mind, severely disproportionate to the military necessity of making Dresden useless as a transport hub and typing up German military resources. It didn't even have the fig leaf of the atomic bombings, with a *credible* belief that it might induce a general surrender quickly.

[@JacquesMartini]

The boming of Dresden was comparable to the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki, even though the cassualties where even much higher in japan. But they where a result of the war and should stand as an eternal warning to prevent war!

[@Patricia-zq5ug]

I asked this very question of a lovable old fellow who had been a British airman in the war. He said, when you go into war, you have to go all in. He was married to a German woman who had been a young girl when the bombs started falling. Life, and war, is way complicated. Countries need to find a better way.

[@duncancurtis5108]

Dresden in particular rankled for decades afterwards for various reasons, culturally and morally as to why civilians themselves were targeted allegedly on purpose. Good to know the city's back from the bleak postwar image.

[@b1646717]

FAFO?

[@dennisstahlman135]

A sad event to be sure, we must take into consideration how many people were killed in London and other British cities???? How many people died in France. Yes it was a lot of people in one night. But I see nobody considering the brutality that Hitler inflicted. There were tragedies on both sides of the war.

[@PJWestfield]

So, you are advocating for retribution and revenge, as this is what this was.

[@Pavlos_Charalambous]

Childish way of thinking

[@mapratt]

I agree that, now that we have seen the results of modern weapons, trying to agree to limit their use to military targets is the wise goal. We might also argue that living together, working through differences, letting others be, is wise. Unfortunately, humanity does not appear to be ready to live that way.

[@douglasharbert3340]

As long as religion exists, so will war....

[@SeanBZA]

Do not forget the writer who survived it, Kurt Vonnegut, who incorporated that as part of his writing style.

[@nevermindmeijustinjectedaw9988]

i dont always like your videos, for a while you had some pretty delusional writers, but lately you've been hitting slam dunk after homerun after touchdown chapeau!

[@AnnaAnna-uc2ff]

Thank you.

[@petergreen3721]

Before I start watching. My grandfather developed the wade supercharger. My grandmother was in London, watching the airplanes takeoff. My grandfather was in Dresden in a prison camp. My grandfather could hear a supercharger winding he said to the prison guard those are wades. The guard wich had 1 arm said “the allied planes can not get passed our defenses.” as he said that two airplanes dropped over the mountain side, putting green flares on the left and right on the right. The guard asked what was going on. My granddad smiles and said 2 words,….Bombing Path…..” the man opened the gates to the prison camp and said “I will not be responsible for the deaths of pows “ god bless America and god save the queen my friends!

[@turdferguson6620]

Billy Pilgrim disapproves

[@good7saint]

Have you thought of making a video on the second battle of Copenhagen in 1807

[@nickd9757]

Without watching, it was not a war crime, the UK and us believed they had factories and armouries that were fueling the war, therefore we bombed, completely justified, they bombed many places in the UK, no one ever says its a war crime, ludicrous to even insinuate that

[@JacquesMartini]

In the city center? Cmon!

[@elricofmelnibone425]

Arthur “Unburnt German City? What a Pity!” Harris

[@theemissary1313]

He was a leader on the level of Field Marshal Hague - completely inflexible, unimaginative, and stubbornly ignorant.

[@herrheerhairheryeah2310]

Funny how you spell warcriminal .

[@mozart579]

What about Coventry, just as bad. That’s war

[@kaltaron1284]

Coventry is on a whole other level. A lower level. Germany dropped some hundred tons of bombs on the city over 3 years. Dresden got hit by a couple of thousands over a few days. Germany simply didn't have the amount of strategic bombers the Allies had.

[@Tab1300]

This was what influenced the Genova conversations, it wasn't a crime when it happened it was made one after.

[@andreasmuller4666]

Adendum to it at best. The conventions existed since the end of WW1.

[@Iskelderon]

@@andreasmuller4666 And most of the WW1 entries can be traced down to things the Canadians committed.

[@cmhoax6951]

While not in specific reference to this event, are we just going to ignore that Chuck Yaeger, who said that he was ordered to strafe cicilians?

[@Elecat1996]

Good point

[@bullron8784]

my granny was shot at by a british low-flying aircraft on her way to school. there was nothing important to the war nearby, no railroad line, no factories, just a farm.

[@cmhoax6951]

@@bullron8784That's what I mean. I find it highly unlikely that it happened everywhere else, but in this one specific instance didn't happen. I doubt it

[@owensks]

Yes civilians were killed (kinda the point, it was revenge for the blitz which did the same thing) but what was also destroyed was homes which slows down construction of other things, takes up services and goods needed to help the city which could have been used for Germans war effort, many industries were damaged or destroyed wasting and slowing down production. Some of the industrial buildings destroyed were; Aircraft components factories, a poison gas factory, anti-aircraft and field gun factory, optical goods factory and much more. The allied bombing campaign was useful is slowed down German production, wasted germanys limited resources and demoralized the German population.

[@caseyo6033]

AKA, you have no problem with non-combatants, women, children, and the elderly dying in greater numbers than those in the military. Gotcha. Any beef with 9/11 then? Was that also "useful"?

[@AmandaHunter777]

@@caseyo6033for the people who orchestrated it, they thought so. And yes. It caused awareness of a problem that should have been addressed after the attack on the USS Cole

[@Andrew_Young]

The feeble justifications for targeting civilians only ever attempt to prove that these murders provided some benefit to the war effort when what they actually have to do is contrast the benefit to the war effort of blowing up a residential area to hitting a real military target. You don't need to be an expert to conclude that as long as there was a single military base left in Germany it would be better to hit that than blow up a residential area. And that's just looking at the situation through a military lens where the only thing that matters is its affect on the enemies military capacity and not even trying to weigh the lives of these children, old people etc. to whatever military benefit their deaths brought.

[@mattb.4723]

So, there are two different takes one can glimpse from your comment. 1. You know and understand absolutely nothing about conflict, socilogy and world war 2. 2. You know very well but are a nazi in disguise.

[@roelofschuldink4177]

History is written by the winner.

[@turdferguson9356]

no one in Dresden wept for my great uncle when their soldiers killed him

[@hostedbysimples5416]

oh my god..........

[@markalexander774]

This old stupid debate again. Was it necessary? No. The Soviets could have gone through the city door to door and taken it the old fashioned way, killing and raping hundreds of thousands at the minimum. Was it the method that saved the most lives and brought the war to a much switfer end? Yes. Dresden could have ended like Budapest or Berlin, but it was saved from that by the West bombing it instead. Dresden wasn't even the worst bombed city in Germany. So why so we talk about it like it was? Two reasons: Reason 1: It was the only heavily bombed city by the West in what became East Germany, and during the Cold War, the Soviets and East Germans used it as propaganda against us, while West Germany was not trying to propagandize the bombing of cities like Hamburg against the US and Britain, as we were allies. Reason 2: Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. A novel that the author wrote that included details of what he endured as an American POW who was imprisoned in Dresden during the bombing. What he doesn't take into consideration is that he would 100% be dead if the Soviets had to siege Dresden like they did with Berlin and Budapest, and many other cities with much higher fatality rates than Dresden. This is the same debate as the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Had we not done it, and instead opted to land troops and take Honshu the way we had taken Germany, 100 times as many Japanese and Americans would have died. Nobody in Japan would have complained about it, because there would have been nobody left in Japan to complain about it.

[@Iskelderon]

The Soviet monsters did that to the civilians anyway, so that excuse is pretty much moot to begin with.

[@kaltaron1284]

There was no need to bomb or invade Japan. The country was starving and looking for a way out. The USA just didn't realize it and the Soviets were playing their own game so using the bombs looked like an overall great idea. I don't think the bombing of Dresden hastened the end of the war. But your other points are valid.

[@flufffycow]

It's up for the winner's to decide if something is a war crime.

[@dgeos4740]

"War crime" is redundant.

[@stevenmclucas1894]

David Irving sounds like a complete W⚓️.

[@herrheerhairheryeah2310]

And Victor Gregg ?

[@Wisconsin_Local_139_Crane_Guy]

This is dark.

[@RounderRounder]

Is it fuck a war crime.

[@duncanglen3452]

Really? Burning thousands of civilians to death ?

[@camerongooch9606]

War is cruel, destructive and terrible, and civillians will always be caught in the crossfire, so stop complaining when they do.

[@MarXeenan]

Bit edgy are we?

[@RobertBernard-s8m]

The raid was retribution for the bombing of London two wrongs don't make a right.

[@jiggsborah7041]

The British bombed Germany first.....

[@garethnichols3555]

or was used to change Hitlers main bombing targets and save the airfields for the battle of Britain. There is some speculation that this change of target is what saved British airfields.

[@kaltaron1284]

@@jiggsborah7041 First attack by the Germans: 16 October 1939. First attack by the British: 19-20 March 1940. Am I missing something?

[@Pavlos_Charalambous]

That's the definition of bad military decision making

[@theemissary1313]

When irving says the lack of military targets in the city led to the placement of an administrative centre. That makes it a military target.

[@Tab1300]

That logic is what causes hospitals to be bombed

[@diekssus7194]

Dresden? why not Hannover? its the same situation just twice as bad.

[@Khanjikai]

If I am starving and I steal food, I am still a thief. Necessity does not mitigate criminality. War crime.

[@blackwatertv7018]

If you’re stealing food for your starving family you’re only a “thief” to people with power and influence. To normal people, you’re a person who was forced to do something “bad” the crime isn’t you stealing food. It’s that you where so hungry in the first place and you where forced to steal.

[@margaretthatcher6828]

@@blackwatertv7018 Well said.

[@kaltaron1284]

@@blackwatertv7018 What about other alternatives like begging? Justifiable and understandable theft is still theft.

[@DmT922ha]

War Crime

[@owensks]

No.

[@sortasapien]

No such thing

[@D34THC10CK]

There were valid military targets in Dresden, and mass aerial bombardment of cities was the standard strategic bombing strategy amongst all combatants in the war, Axis included (literally the first thing the Germans did in Warsaw). Strategic bombing was the de facto aerial strategy in WW2 in all theaters, Dresden was not special in that regard. The only people still complaining about the bombing of Dresden in 2024, are people that are still falling for German propaganda from WW2, or outright Nazi sympathizers trying to create a false moral-equivalence for German war crimes. Never forget that Dresden wouldn't have been bombed if Germany never started WW2. Germany, Dresden included, was simply reaping what they sowed.

[@samaeltheundying]

Based

[@stevenharrison151]

It´s a war crime.

[@brianwilson3458]

Overkill is underrated.

[@joellelinden7079]

Depends on point of view. Miltary necessity to break the will of the adversary, war crimes from the german point of view. As always winner takes it all so no war crimes. This also counts for women being raped by allied soldiers, especially russians, but others too

[@InquisitorXarius]

The Japanese throughout the entirety of the Second World War make the Russians in Berlin look like Saints

[@BlackNewty]

What a surprise! It’s a whataboutism! That’s record breaking time! Your quiver must be really low!

[@shawnjohnson9763]

The Germans were even worse in Poland and the Soviet Union.

[@godassasin8097]

​@@InquisitorXarius the other side being worst (which they were ) doesn't not make it a war crime

[@letalissonus]

There is no point of view about war crimes, there is only historic context. Part of that context is that this was simply not yet covered by the Geneva Conventions, which changed in 1949 - every type of war crime had a legally viable precedent before being defined as such.

[@AlpineCorpus]

Definitely going to have some revisionist worms in your comments unfortunately, Simon.

[@ShirleyTimple]

Ok, stormtrooper

[@caseyo6033]

In what form? Doing something like writing a convention that many countries signed onto and follow to this day? We know that we should never look at the past and ask "can we do better"? No, we know that "real patriots" justify anything.

[@jeffree9015]

That's why the allies signed the Geneva convention afterwards.

[@Adiscretefirm]

They were signed before WW2

[@sortasapien]

Geneva suggestions. Nobody actually follows them.

[@LavitosExodius]

They existed and were signed before however since it had industry supporting the war effort it was a legitimate target. Whether that makes it ok or not is a separate argument.

[@sortasapien]

@LavitosExodius Everything is an acceptable target in war

[@alwaysmoody800]

This video is very good ... but I miss your sarcastic sense of humor on BRAIN BLAZE . Best wishes from Florida

[@Turkey1876]

War Crime.

[@sortasapien]

No such thing

[@gingercat777]

@@Turkey1876 Bullocks!

[@kaltaron1284]

@@sortasapien Of course there's such a thing.

[@sortasapien]

@kaltaron1284 Says who? Who's morality are we using? The Bible says murder your enemies children. The Quran says grape them. So, who gets to decide?

[@jacklucas5908]

We didn't start the war. Justified.

[@bish189]

This is such a braindead take, genuinely don't think you're able to express empathy. DId the civil population of Germany start the war THEMSELVES? Also by doing this, how are you any better than the Nazis who started the war?

[@CoochSmooch]

@@bish189 They supported the war with their subservience and taxes

[@CarolTurner-l1r]

Your videos always leave a mark in my heart and mind. Thank you for your creativity and passion!🦞🔥🎣

[@KillTeamHungary]

Too bad he is citing "Hope not Hate" and such far left woke nonsense organizations.

[@margaretthatcher6828]

Simon only telling half the story...

[@florianbrundl3867]

How could it be a war crime when the allies did it they were all perfect knights in shining armor 😂😂😂

[@gingercat777]

Justified

[@InquisitorXarius]

Given Dresden’s contribution to the war effort and the civilian participation in Nazi Germany’s practice of Slavery it was arguably Justified with good reason.

[@tribblefluffer]

These people were living in what they thought was relative safety, partying it up thinking that the historical value of their city would save them while their own country was destroying and stealing countless lives and historical objects in other places. What were they expecting to happen?

[@craigmoffitt2374]

You mean that firebombing a city full of refugees during a war that only had weeks remaining while ignoring military targets only minutes away was justified?

[@SmashBrosAssemble]

Agreed. The Third Reich was the enemy, they Needed to be stopped by any means.

[@szenzo]

@@tribblefluffer Germans are God's Chosen People have divine permission to do such things.

[@szenzo]

War crimes. They are still supporting such atrocities.

[@elricofmelnibone425]

Womp womp, the Nazis had it coming.

[@sortasapien]

Yep. Because war crimes don't exist

[@TerracottaPie1987]

Chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad

[@msredfox]

This was a war crime, while the nazis did commit truly awful atrocities against humanity, it still doesnt necessitate the wanton murder of countless civilians, war has a tendency to reveal the true, ugly side of humanity.

[@gingercat777]

@@msredfox They bombed London first....a city of what ya call it?.... Citizens!

[@Jen39x]

I visited Dresden as part of a tour in the mid 90’s. No where else in Germany or the Netherlands could you imagine that WWII was as terrible as it was. We didn’t visit concentration camps as this was a Christian History tour. The only reason Dresden bus tour was included was we stayed close by. The tour included spending some time walking around the main section with the museums and cathedral. I found it curious and one of more vivid memories of that tour was that every stone from the cathedral had been left lying and not moved. The official explanation was that it was thought it would make reconstruction of the cathedral easier and I believe they used computer modeling and completed. But this is actually very odd behavior for German’s who are the original neatniks of the world to leave a mess lying for 50 years. It spoke to me of anger and trauma that was carried by those people. I knew a lot of details such as how the fire draft pulled in people to their deaths but finding goo in bomb shelters was a detail that made me understand the trauma part at a new level. Yes I do feel the Dresden fire storm if the commanders could have foreseen how truly devastating the resulting fire storm was going to be that the bombing was undoubtedly a war crime and as large of stain on the Allies as the atomic bombs.

[@mattb.4723]

Japan killed 10 million chinese civilians, about 4 civilians for each military. It lost 3 million people in total, less than a million civilians. Germany killed arround 35 million people, about 3 civillians murders per military one. Lost 8 million people, more than 6 millions of those military. To try and compare, you are either profoundly ignorant, or completly evil. From the fact that you went with a christian group to check out a bombing that killed 25k people and did not go to a concentration camp, i will guess you are both.

[@kaltaron1284]

You are probably speaking about the Frauenkirche. It was left as a ruin both as a memorial and because other restoration projects were given priority like the Semperoper, Kreuzkirche and palace. Luckily after the reunification the restoration project finally happened. The Allied commanders knew exactly how devastating the fire storm would be. They had developed the concept and already tried it out on other cities.

[@teferiuwuraveler1407]

History is written by the Victors 🤷‍♂️

[@duncanglen3452]

Definitely a war crime

[@Adiscretefirm]

There is a huge gap between the false binary in the title. Strategically useful? Yes, but you could argue the Soviets were going to win even if the Reich had been able to ship supplies and reinforcements going through the trainyards there. But how many more Red Army troops and Soviet civilians would have died? Shouldn't the citizens and troops of the aggressor nation bear that cost? Dresden deaths were exaggerated and used as nazi propaganda then and now and frankly all the hand wringing smells like tacit support. They started a war, it's their job to stop the bombers or surrender if they can't defend themselves anymore, they CHOSE to keep fighting, keep going to the Zeiss plant in Dresden making tank sights and sniper scopes, keep supporting the Austrian corporal

[@InquisitorXarius]

The objective answer to the question of the title is that its complicated. Personally I lean towards it being both a military and moral necessity. I believe this as given the complicity of the civilian populace in not only propping up Nazis Germany’s war effort but their participation in Nazis Germany’s usage of Slavery the events of Dresden is in my opinion justifiable in the latter context and justified in the former context. Also I would strongly advise against deleting this comment

[@blarfroer8066]

Mate, most channels don't delete comments. It's just yt's auto filter.

[@BlackNewty]

Your screen name kinda gives the game away. But that’s what happens when you stump jump trying to keep things pure.

[@InquisitorXarius]

@@blarfroer8066I know, I am not a fan of that either. My previous version of this comment was up for a whole minute before it was deleted. It was basically the same except I didn’t specify which version of Germant it was in the original comment.

[@InquisitorXarius]

@@BlackNewtyWhat are you talking about?

[@ShirleyTimple]

​@@InquisitorXariusthey're saying your choices in naming support your decision to murder a whole city

[@stevesproul1627]

As soon as you quote "hate not hope" as a source you lose all credibility!

[@fantasywarhammer]

War crime

[@sortasapien]

No such thing

[@meldamo]

I'm not a fan of the music and increasingly dramatic voice-over. Big fan but not watching or rewatching as much as I used to.

[@F-Man]

Some of the greatest Catholic music ever created comes from Dresden - clearly divinely inspired. Any accident that Dresden was targeted?

[@All-Outta-Bubblegum]

God isn't real mate

[@johnevans9751]

Early WW2: Rotterdam. Early WW1: Leuven Belgium without the 'benefit' of air power.

[@Talisguy]

I believe in the idea of necessary evils, but I think one should be incredibly careful about applying this label to the actions of a state or other extremely powerful entity. People are _very_ good at justifying their evils as necessary, particularly when the people making the decisions aren't the ones who have to personally carry those decisions out. The government should have very limited room to call a military action a "necessary evil."

[@JPKgold]

Difficult topic, Im happy the Nazis were stopped as fast as they were but I don't think the "what about x english city" argument many are pulling in the comments here is valid considering we are talking about a civilian death toll of 70k to 350-500k between the two countries.

[@JacquesMartini]

Uhhhh, VERY hot topic!!!! Iam german, I live in Dresden (not born here, but moved here 25 years ago)! I met an 80+ years old man by conicidence, who said there WHERE strafing operations!!! The 250k cassaulty number was the official number 40 years long in east germany. the 25k number was just found around 15 years ago by a histoical comittee. Political correct number? I don't know!

[@kaltaron1284]

The 250k number was given by the Nazis and kept by the Soviets to make the West look bad. It's probably a lot less but also likely to be more 25k. But honestly the exact number doesn't really matter. Strafings sound unlikely as that's nothing the bombers would do and the fighter escort would have little reason to go low to the ground. It's not impossible that it happened but I don't think it would have part of the general strategy.

[@sortasapien]

They fooled around. I'm glad they found out. Reminder to Germany to this day that fooling around has consequences

[@dannnyc93]

Reminder to everyone. Germany isn’t the only country who has fucked around with fascism and found out, at least they have done better than others in confronting their own history.

[@DmT922ha]

Go ahead and delete all the comments you want, facts don't change...

[@Pepsi_Addicted]

first

[@jkamin88]

back then that was unfortunately a way try to end war by destroying morale by attacking the Civilians.

[@ShirleyTimple]

"Back then"

[@Elecat1996]

"Back then"

[@kerrydevlin]

It's even worse that the allies are doing it agan right now. No lessons learned..

[@paultapner2769]

where?

[@JacquesMartini]

You debunked lies? No, you presented other oppinions at best! The truth is VERY difficult to access!

[@SONofTHC]

I'm I the only one that has noticed alot of his channels videos have been putting out alot of stuff. That has no direct link to what is going on in the middle east ( mainly israel and Palestine ) but is giving you and education on all the rhetoric and an propaganda being used by the so called only democracy in the middle east. Because I have been watching them and my mind goes to how it applys to that situation!

[@ShirleyTimple]

You can't even comment on the Brits without it being removed... that's a guilty conscience for an act of unmitigated evil

[@harryprobert6571]

After Coventry, not many in Britain have a guilty conscience over this. I sure don’t.

[@Kevin-tk7vk]

Look at the Brits now. Rupert and Mohammed will ensure they don't end up speaking German. God save the queen!

[@Skippy2013]

I’m sure the Nazis would’ve felt just as guilty had the battle of Britain gone their way 👍🏼

[@SonyaLeens-d5u]

Watching your channel is like an inspiring adventure that never ends. Continue to amaze us with your talent!🎀🛩🚤

[@SmashBrosAssemble]

Justified

[@jeffgerndt2813]

War crime