Euro Apocalypse Then: The Bombing of Europe by the Allies

[Rev.Cambeul]

The Bombing War in Europe 1939-1945: A Review
J. Stephenson - Times Higher Education (Britain)
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/the-bombing-war-europe-1939-1945-by-richard-overy/2007343.article

... One of Overy's major preoccupations is with the morality of bombing civilians. At the start of the war, all sides agreed that the intentional bombing of civilians was illegal and that bombing should be confined to military targets. But desperate straits on the Western Front in spring 1940 (rather than the German bombing of Rotterdam) led the British to abandon this policy in favour of bombing targets in Germany for a military purpose even where civilians would undoubtedly be in the firing line. Both Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee were strongly in favour of this approach. For Overy, one of the many myths of the Second World War was that the Germans were the first to bomb civilians: in his view, the British got their retaliation in first.


Apocalypse at Dresden
R. H. S. Crossman -- Esquire magazine
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/war/dresden1.html

The long suppressed story of the worst massacre in the history of the world [the Feb. 1945 destruction of Dresden] / If the British Commonwealth and the United States last a thousand years, men may say that this was their darkest hour. Were all the crimes against humanity committed during World War II the work of Hitler's underlings? That was certainly the impression created by the fact that only Germans were brought to trial at Nuremburg ... What is less widely recognized ... is that the Western democracies were responsible for the most senseless single act of mass murder committed in the whole course of World War II.

Pforzheim: The Dresden Nobody Knows About
Deutsche Welle (Germany)
http://www.dw.de/pforzheim-the-dresden-nobody-knows-about/a-18274739

... On February 23, 1945, [British] RAF aircraft dropped 1575 tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs on Pforzheim, setting off a firestorm that is widely seen as one of the most devastating in military history. According to official statistics, 17,600 people died, and tens of thousands of others were injured. The market square and old town area were destroyed and completely depopulated. In the entire city, over 80 percent of the architecture that existed in 1945 was defaced, making Pforzheim, proportionally speaking, the worst instance of destruction at the end of WWII. The Allied bombardments of Dresden and Hamburg have been well documented and remain in the public consciousness today, both in Germany and abroad. But Pforzheim doesn't.


Vivid Color Film of 1943 Firebombing of Hamburg - Feuerwehr Hamburg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKWyK9rtRtA

Remarkable color film, with graphic images -- made by firefighter Hans Brunswig -- of the devastating summer 1943 bombing of Hamburg. In this ferocious aerial attack, some 3,000 British and American aircraft dropped 9,000 tons of bombs, killing 42,600 civilians and wounding 37,000. Many were burned to death or killed by poisonous carbon monoxide gas. Only about half the dead bodies could be identified. This "firestorm" bombing -- the first ever-- incinerated eight square miles of the city with flames of up to 800 degrees Celsius fanned by winds of 150 mph.  More than 250,000 homes and houses were destroyed, as well as 24 hospitals, 277 schools and 58 churches. Runtime: 6:06 mins.


German Jet Fighter Startles US Bomber Crew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4EASQJ0vJk

Crew members of a US B-17 bomber during a raid over Germany in World War II are startled when they encounter a German jet fighter for the first time. The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the world's first operational turbojet fighter aircraft. It was deployed during the final months of the war in Europe, but too late and in numbers too small to significantly alter the outcome. Runtime: 1:23 mins.


German Jet Fighters in Combat Against American Bombers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aReAJ4t_ShU

Dramatic footage of German Me-262 jet fighters strike against American B-17 bombers over Germany during World War II. Runtime: 1:57 mins.