The Gray Monk: Dresden remembered

February 14, 2005

Dresden remembered

The bombing of Dresden saw the destruction of a medieval city of historic importance, one which today would probably have been earmarked as a "World Heritage" site. The arguments about the rights and wrongs of the actual bombing are now the subject of entrenched revisionists on one hand, armchair generals who have never had to make tactical or strategic decisions on the information immediately available, and those who have read the diaries, memoranda, and intelligence reports and support the decision of the Allied Commanders.

Hindsight is wonderful; there is no one who has ever commanded anything who, in the light of subsequent information, information NOT available at the moment of decision, has not taken a decision which he or she would have done differently if the missing information had been known. That is what the revisionists, in their outright certainty of their moral superiority to everyone and anyone in a uniform, forget. It tends to be forgotten that Dresden had not been deliberately bombed previously, a decision taken at very high level because of its significance historically and the lack of any military activity or industry. That all changed in 1945 when the indications were strong that the city was about to become the alternate capital and that there was a strong military build up around it. That, and its apparent strategic position on the rail and road network was then still available to the retreating German Forces.

Dresden was Germany's Hiroshima; the only difference was the weapon. The high explosive and incendiary bombing was the same as that dropped earlier in the war on Coventry and had the same result. The medieval timber-framed buildings created a bonfire. More than 25,000 people died in the bombing and the firestorm which destroyed the city and its community. It also dispersed the military forces and scattered them, destroying the command chain and disrupting any attempt to regroup. A tragedy and a strategic victory, if a Pyhrric one.

The city has been rebuilt, ironically with the help of British artisans, artists, and craftsmen who have worked alongside their German counterparts to recreate what was destroyed. The symbolic Frauenkirsche is the last of the significant buildings to be restored and has drawn people from all the nations involved in the war to its restoration. Surely this must go some way toward the restoration of, and atonement for, the wrongs of both sides. One of the most significant pieces of this drawing together must surely be the recreation of the statue atop the great dome of the church - by the son of one of the RAF Bomber pilots.

We should remember the dead of Dresden, just as we should remember the dead of Coventry, London, Birmingham, Hamburg, Rotterdam, and all the other cities bombed by both sides. We should remember; we should also strive to ensure it never happens again, but we must never again allow dictators or tyrants to rise unchallenged and threaten our society. Only by remaining strong and determined to never allow the circumstances which led to this to arise again, can we truly give the honour due to our dead from this and every war.

Let us remember Dresden, but spare a thought for the men and women who defended our liberty then, those who defend it now, and ensure our political leaders know they cannot ignore or condone tyrany in any form. Pliny wrote:

"Si vis pacem, parabellum"

"Seek peace, but, be prepared for war"

Peace is the prize, but it can only be secured by remaining strong and determined to maintain it. Appeasement can never be a substitute for strength; John F Kennedy proved that in the Cuban crisis in 1963; we forget at our peril.

Posted by The Gray Monk at February 14, 2005 10:04 AM