Why did the USA and Britain destroy Dresden. Operation Firestorm

What do we know about the war in the West? And on the Pacific Ocean? Was there a war in Africa? Who bombed Australia? We are laymen in these matters. We know quite well about the ancient Romans. Egyptian pyramids We know it like the back of our hand. And here it’s as if a history textbook was torn in half. I became fixated on the Great Patriotic War. And World War II never happened. The Soviet ideological machine passed these events by. There are no books or films. Historians have not even written dissertations on these topics. We did not participate there, which means there is no need to talk about it. The states have lost memory of the Union's participation in the war. Well, in retaliation, we remain silent about any war other than our own, the Soviet-German one.

Erasing the blank spots in the history of World War II, we will talk about one of its stages - the blitz bombing of Great Britain.

The bombing of the Island was carried out by Germany from September 7, 1940 to May 10, 1941, as part of the Battle of Britain. Although the Blitz targeted many cities across the country, it began with the bombing of London and continued for 57 consecutive nights. By the end of May 1941, more than 43,000 civilians had died as a result of the bombing, half of them in London. Large quantity houses in London were destroyed or damaged. 1,400 thousand people lost their housing. The largest bombing of London occurred on September 7, when more than 300 bombers attacked the city in the evening and another 250 at night. Bombs large caliber caused significant damage to dams and other hydraulic structures, enclosing the Thames. More than a hundred significant damages were noted, threatening to flood low-lying parts of London. To prevent a disaster, city utilities carried out regular restoration work. To avoid panic among the population, the work was carried out in strict secrecy.

Despite the fact that the London authorities had been preparing air-raid shelters since 1938, there were still not enough of them, and most of them turned out to be simply “dummies”. About 180 thousand Londoners fled the bombings in the subway. And although the government initially did not welcome this decision, people simply bought tickets and waited out the raids there. Photos of cheerful people singing and dancing in the subway, which censorship allowed to be published, cannot tell about the stuffiness, rats and lice that one had to encounter there. And even metro stations were not guaranteed against a direct bomb hit, as happened at the Bank station, when more than a hundred people died. So most Londoners simply crawled under the covers at home and prayed.

On May 10, 1941, London suffered its last major air raid. 550 Luftwaffe bombers dropped about 100 thousand incendiary and hundreds of conventional bombs on the city within a few hours. More than 2 thousand fires broke out, 150 water mains and five docks were destroyed, 3 thousand people died. During this raid, the Parliament building was heavily damaged.

London was not the only city to suffer during the air raids. Other important military and industrial centers such as Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Clydebank, Coventry, Exeter, Greenock, Sheffield, Swansea, Liverpool, Hull, Manchester, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Nottingham, Brighton, Eastbourne, Sunderland, and Southampton survived heavy air raids and suffered large numbers of casualties.

The raids were carried out by forces of 100 to 150 medium bombers. In September 1940 alone, 7,320 tons of bombs were dropped on southern England, including 6,224 tons on London.

By the early summer of 1940, the British authorities decided to evacuate children from large cities as potential targets for bombing in countryside. In a year and a half, two million children were taken from the cities. Londoners' children were settled on estates, country houses, sanatoriums. Many of them remained away from London throughout the war.

The British Army is helping to clear the city.

Fighting a fire after an air raid. Manchester. 1940

Meanwhile, Stalin and Hitler were dividing Europe. The USSR and Germany put into practice the agreements of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Without a minute of failure, exactly according to schedule, dozens of trains with grain, metal, oil, gasoline, cotton, and so on, went into the millstones of the Nazis. It was from our metal that the bombs that fell on Britain were cast, it was our bread that was eaten German aces before flying to the island. This is our fuel that was poured into the tanks of Luftwaffe bombers. But we were silent about it then, and we remain silent today.

Of course, the British, together with their allies, took revenge on the Nazis, and very brutally. Carpet bombings of German cities still cause horror with their consequences. Our next article is about this.

Very soon we will again celebrate the most important holiday for our country - Victory Day. The “St. George Ribbon” campaign has already started, and on the day of the celebration we will see the Victory Parade and the traditional “Immortal Regiment” campaign will take place. How our city lived in these difficult days and what contribution the Gorky residents made to the Victory.

The beginning of the war and the bombing of Gorky

Gorky residents learned about the start of the war on June 22, 1941, a few hours after the enemy invasion. First on the radio, then from the newspaper “Gorky Commune”. A rally of thousands took place on Sovetskaya Square (now the Square named after Minin and Pozharsky), at which the secretary of the Gorky Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ivan Mikhailovich Guryev, addressed the crowd. Crowded rallies and meetings swept across the region in waves. Mobilization was announced the next day, but only on the 22nd, the first day of the war, about 10 thousand people throughout the region, without waiting for summonses from the military registration and enlistment offices, applied to join the army.

Of course, we all know that the front line did not pass through the city and no military operations were carried out, but the city of Gorky deserves the title “city - hero of labor”, because Here, every second car, every third tank and every fourth artillery installation were created for the needs of the front.

Of course, we must not forget about the bombing of the main production facilities and industrial areas of the city by German aircraft. The main purpose of the bombings from the autumn of 1941 to the summer of 1943 was to destroy the industrial potential of the city; the Gorky Automobile Plant received the greatest damage. During the war, enemy bombers carried out 43 raids, 26 of them at night, during which 33,934 incendiary bombs and 1,631 high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city. Gorky's bombings were the largest attacks by Luftwaffe aircraft on the rear areas of the USSR during the war.

The city came to the attention of the Germans during the development of Operation Barbarossa to defeat the USSR. He was then one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of weapons to the Red Army. The complete capture of Gorky and its transfer under its control was planned by Nazi Germany in the second half of September 1941. First, the Nazis had to destroy the city's defense industry - the Gorky Automobile Plant, the Lenin Plant, as well as the Sokol, Krasnoye Sormovo and Engine of the Revolution plants. The Gorky Machine-Building Plant was planned to be converted to produce German military equipment.

On October 31, 1941, the automobile plant received an order from I.V. Stalin that it was necessary to sharply increase the production of T-60 light tanks and in the next 2-3 days bring it to 10 tanks per day. And just 5 days later, on the night of November 4-5, 1941, the first raid on the city by enemy aircraft was carried out. It involved groups of Heinkel-111 and Junkers-88 bombers, up to 150 aircraft in total. Of this number, 11 aircraft broke through to the city.

It was a chilly and cloudy November night. Spread out on the banks of the Oka River and immersed in darkness, Gorky lived everyday life rear city. Tens of thousands of residents slept in their unheated houses and barracks, while others toiled in the numerous cold workshops of military factories. Their gloomy gray buildings with boarded-up windows and plywood stood out vaguely against the background of the monotonous landscape. People were in alarm - the enemy was near Moscow.

Air bombing: how it happened

A German bomber was approaching Gorky from the southwest at a low altitude. The Heinkel crew was in tense anticipation. The navigator carefully peered into the clearly visible silhouette of Oka, anticipating that the outlines of the rear city hidden in the darkness were about to appear. The gloomy outlines of the chemical plants of Dzerzhinsk flashed on the left side. This meant that there were about 20 km left to the goal. And then, on the left bank, numerous spots of residential areas appeared, and then the dark bulk of an automobile plant with dozens of chimneys...

It was 01.40 on November 4 local time when three powerful explosions shook the GAZ. One bomb fell into engine shop No. 2 on the crankshaft line, the second exploded outside, another landmine hit the corner of the wheel shop located opposite, where the electrode section and the garage were located. Then the plant turned into a disturbed anthill. And above the engine shop, the flames flared up more and more, ominously illuminating the neighboring buildings. The authorities rushed to the phones in order to quickly report the bombing to the regional committee.

Meanwhile, a second bomber was approaching the city from the southwest; due to cloudy weather, it again went unnoticed by the VNOS posts. At 02.15, the Heinkel reached the target, which was already clearly marked by the bright flame of the fire. The German pilot was aiming for the new body building where the T-60 light tanks were assembled. When the dark gray bulk of the building appeared in the crosshairs, the navigator pressed the reset button and two 500-kg bombs rushed down with a howl. However, this time the calculation turned out to be incorrect. One bomb fell short, and the second fell over, already at the tram stop behind the plant. A powerful blast wave blew out the windows in the wheel shop, spare parts department, KEO and other buildings. The roar of the explosions was heard at a great distance, and many residents of the city, waking up, ran out into the street, where their eyes saw the bright glow of a fire at the automobile plant. It became clear to everyone that the war had truly come to Gorky.

At 16.40 another Heinkel appeared. The bomber was coming from a southern direction, from the direction of the village of Ankudinovka, and was flying low over the railway. The twin-engine colossus roared over the Myza station. Some residents even managed to see a huge bomb suspended under the fuselage. Suddenly emerging from behind the mountainous coast, the plane flew over the Oka River and dropped the “cargo” onto the “Engine of the Revolution” plant from a shallow dive. A powerful explosion occurred in the building of the enterprise's power station, which contained steam boilers, diesel, compressor and transformer substations. The workers who were in the neighboring workshops fell to the floor from the shock, then a real rain of glass fragments from the skylights fell on them from above.

Meanwhile, the bomber flew to the center of Gorky, inspecting the local sights. He made a “lap of honor” over the Kremlin and then disappeared. Unfortunately, on that day the Kremlin defense was not yet ready. An employee of the regional committee of the CPSU (b) Anna Aleksandrovna Korobova, after this, recalled: “During a break between meetings, we went outside and, to our horror, saw a black plane with a swastika circling over the Kremlin. At the same time, the pilot leaned out of the cockpit and even waved to us! After that, we returned to the building and were informed that the plant had just been bombed by them. Lenin, its director Kuzmin died..."

After the first bombing, urgent measures were taken to transfer additional personnel to the area of ​​the automobile plant. anti-aircraft guns and ammunition, communications and fire control systems were improved. The barrage pattern has been changed. In the areas of German aviation operations, two lines of screens were created at a distance of 2-3 and 6-7 kilometers from the automobile plant, and machine guns were installed on the roofs of the workshops to fire at low-flying aircraft. Subsequent raids took place in a more organized manner, on the approach to Gorky. A total of 14 aircraft were shot down, of which 8 were shot down by anti-aircraft batteries, 6 by fighters (according to other sources, 23 were shot down, about 210 were damaged).

The next massive raids took place in February 1942, as a result of these bombings, 20 people were killed and 48 were wounded, and the damage to industrial facilities was insignificant. Then the bombing raids took place in June. During that period, the Germans began to carry out raids on other cities in the Volga region. The air defense forces were then significantly strengthened. Gunboats of the Volga Flotilla were allocated for the defense of bridges, ships and piers. Since that time, barrage balloons began to be used.

Continued bombing of 1943 and restoration of the car plant

In June 1943, after a long lull, Gorky, especially the automobile plant, was subjected to a series of massive night raids by German aircraft. The raids were carried out in preparation for a major offensive operation in the summer-autumn of 1943, during which bombing attacks were carried out on the industrial centers of the Volga region - Yaroslavl, Gorky, Saratov.

Despite the active interest of the Abwehr (organ military intelligence and German counterintelligence - approx. edit.) in 1919-1944 to the Gorky defense industry, yet the German command did not have absolutely accurate information about our military factories. They considered GAZ to be the main plant of Soviet tank products, which produced 800 T-34 tanks weekly. That is why the task was set on the eve of the Battle of Kursk to wipe the car plant off the face of the earth. They bombed with German precision: in an organized manner, according to the same pattern, at the same time of day, along the same route. Every evening, residents of Gorky watched with fear as the clock hand approached midnight.

They arrived day after day in batches of 150-200 planes, starting from 00.00 until 3 am. They dropped flares by parachute and bombed them. It was as bright as day. The plant, workshops, and buildings were on fire. Bombs exploded here and there. The main cargo conveyor was completely destroyed.

But people, hungry, exhausted, poorly dressed, performed a miracle and restored everything within one month. Restoration work began already during the bombing and continued at an increasing pace. Construction and installation teams were involved from Moscow, the Urals, Siberia, Central Asia. The total number of employees reached 35 thousand. First of all, the wheel shop was launched. And the machines needed by the front began to roll off the assembly line again. The official date for the restoration of the Gorky Automobile Plant is considered to be October 28, 1943; on this day a report was sent to I.V. Stalin, which was signed by 27 thousand builders.

For the early liquidation of the consequences of enemy air raids, for the successful completion of the State Defense Committee's tasks to master the production of new types of combat vehicles and weapons, for the improvement of military equipment and the exemplary supply of military products to the front, the plant was awarded a second order on March 9, 1944 - the Order of the Red Banner. More than 500 workers, engineers, and technicians were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union.

In 1943, simultaneously with conducting offensive operations in the Mediterranean theater of operations, the Allies carried out aerial bombardments of Nazi Germany.

The directive of the Anglo-American Joint Chiefs of Staff dated January 21, 1943 indicated that the main objective of the air offensive was the progressively increasing destruction and disorganization of the military, industrial and economic system Germany and undermining the morale of the German people to such an extent that their ability to carry out armed resistance would sharply weaken (1096).

The aviation task of primary importance and priority was to destroy and destroy all the most important shipyards where German submarines were built. Next, aircraft factories, means of transport, oil refineries and enterprises for the production of synthetic fuel and other “facilities of the enemy’s military industry” were subject to bombing.

Air strikes against Germany were planned to be carried out jointly by US and British aircraft. The American air force aimed at destroying individual important military and industrial facilities through targeted daytime bombing, while British aviation aimed at carrying out massive night raids using area bombing.

The implementation of these tasks was entrusted to the British Bomber Command (commander Air Chief Marshal A. Harris) and the American 8th Air Force (commander General A. Eaker). In April 1943, Bomber Command had 38 heavy and 14 medium bomber squadrons, for a total of 851 heavy and 237 medium bombers. As part of the 8th American air army there were 337 heavy bombers and 231 aircraft in tactical aviation formations.

Although the orders and directives for air strikes indicated military targets, in practice, according to A. Harris, who led the bombing of Germany, the main targets of the raids were cities and especially their central parts. “We always considered a destroyed enterprise in the city as additional luck” (1097). The Strategic Bombing Office report said: “City raids were considered to be a means of undermining the morale of German citizens. It was believed that if the morale of industrial workers could be influenced, if they could be diverted from their work in the factories and engaged in other activities, for example, caring for their families, repairing their damaged homes... then German war production would suffer” (1098). An example of the tactics chosen by the Allies is the massive British bomber raid on Wuppertal on the night of May 30, 1943, when about 90 percent of the built-up part of the city was destroyed (1099).

From 6 March to 29 June 1943, Bomber Command authorized 26 massive raids on Ruhr cities, during which the Allies dropped 34,705 tons of bombs for the loss of 628 aircraft. In addition, in March - April 1943, three massive raids were carried out on Berlin, four on Wilhelmshaven, two each on Hamburg, Nuremberg and Stuttgart, and one each on Bremen, Kiel, Stettin, Munich, Frankfurt am Main and Mannheim. On the night of May 17, 1943, British bombers destroyed the dams on the Mene, Eder and Zorpe rivers.

The actions of American aviation were limited. On April 4, the American 8th Air Force bombed Renault factories in Paris with 85 aircraft. On 5 April she raided Antwerp. On May 14, 126 American heavy bombers bombed Kiel.

In the spring of 1943, raids on Germany were carried out without fighter escort, since their range was insufficient. At the same time, the German Air Force received Focke-Wulf 190A aircraft with improved weapons, as well as a Messerschmitt 110 night fighter. Using improved radar sights, German fighters inflicted significant damage on Allied aircraft both day and night.

To reduce aircraft losses, the allied command revised the sequence of bombing targets. On May 18, 1943, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the "Plan for a Combined Bomber Offensive from the British Isles," codenamed "Pointblank." This plan formed the basis of the directive of June 10, 1943, according to which the main task air force was destruction German fighters and destruction of industrial enterprises associated with their production. “Until this is achieved,” the directive stated, “our bomber aviation will not be able to fulfill the tasks assigned to it” (1100). The main role in the implementation of the Point Blanc plan was assigned to the American 8th Air Force.

According to the plan, the combined bomber offensive consisted of four stages. At the first stage (it ended in July), the main objects were to be shipyards submarines. In the second (August - September) the main efforts were concentrated on the base areas of fighter aircraft and factories producing fighter aircraft. During this time, the number of heavy bombers was supposed to be increased to 1192. In the third (October - December) it was planned to continue the destruction of German fighter aircraft and other means of warfare. By January 1944 it was planned to have 1,746 heavy bombers. The tasks of the last stage (January - March 1944) were reduced mainly to ensuring preparations for the invasion of the Allied forces on the continent. By 31 March the number of heavy bombers was to increase to 2,702 (1,101).

In July 1943, British bomber aircraft carried out raids on Cologne, Aachen, Essen and Wilhelmshaven. A special place Among the bombings of German cities by Anglo-American aviation were the raids on Hamburg, carried out from July 25 to August 3, 1943. 3095 aircraft took part in these raids, of which 2630 reached the target and dropped 8621 tons of bombs on the city. Allied losses amounted to 87 bombers (1,102).

In August, Berlin, Mannheim, Nuremberg, as well as the Italian cities of Turin and Milan were bombed. On the night of August 18, about 600 aircraft dropped 1,937 tons of bombs on the experimental missile center at Peenemünde.

Since the autumn of 1943, aerial bombing began to be increasingly subordinated to the preparation of the Allied invasion of France. The “Air Offensive” section of the final report of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Quadrant Conference on August 24, 1943 stated: “Undermining and disorganization on an ever-increasing scale of the military-economic power of Germany, the destruction of the most important objects on the enemy’s communications and a significant reduction in the fighting forces of the German aviation by conducting a united air offensive from all convenient bases are a precondition for carrying out Operation Overlord (if the Russians alone do not achieve complete victory before the start of this operation). Therefore, due to the special strategic importance of the air offensive, it continues to need to be given the greatest attention" (1103).

During the last ten days of August, three raids were carried out on Berlin, resulting in heavy destruction in the areas of Siemens-Stadt, Mariendorf and Lichtenfelde. Having lost 125 aircraft during the raids, Bomber Command temporarily stopped raids on the Reich capital. In September it carried out two massive raids on Mannheim, and in October it carried out bombings of Hanover, Kassel and Düsseldorf.

In the fall of 1943, the American 8th Air Force attacked mainly cities located in the interior of Germany. At the same time she suffered great losses. For example, on October 14, 1943, 60 aircraft were lost during the bombing of Schweinfurt by 388 American heavy bombers. “The truth was,” stated American historians, “that the 8th Air Army lost air superiority over Germany for some time” (1104).

In mid-November, raids on Berlin resumed. On the night of November 19, 402 bombers dropped 1,593 tons of bombs on the city. Losses amounted to 9 aircraft (1105).

When conducting aerial bombings the allied command sought in various ways mislead the enemy as to the true targets of the attack. For example, the routes of bombers were chosen in such a way as to create the impression that they were flying in the direction of a specific object. But at the very last moment the planes suddenly changed course and headed towards their actual goal. Such a maneuver, carried out by aviation, often confused the operators of the control and guidance posts of German fighters.

Like 8th american army, and especially the British Bomber Command adhered to the plan for an air attack on Germany only in its general outline. Instead of raiding important military-industrial targets, British aviation concentrated its main efforts on bombing the largest cities in Germany (1106). Air Chief Marshal Harris stated on 7 December 1943 that "by the end of October 1943, 167,230 tons of bombs had been dropped on the 38 principal cities of Germany, and some 8,400 hectares of built-up area had been destroyed, representing 25 per cent of the total area of ​​cities attacked by air." (1107) . However, the destruction of housing estates did not and could not lead to a decrease in military output.

This conclusion was made by the English historian A. Verrier, who in the book “Bomber Offensive” writes: “We now know that German heavy industry and main production facilities did not suffer serious damage in 1943. Despite the devastation of the Ruhr, metallurgical and other enterprises continued to operate; there was no shortage of machinery; there was no acute shortage of raw materials" (1108). Another English historian A. Taylor supports his conclusion that the air attack on Germany did not live up to the hopes placed on it with specific data. “In 1942,” he writes, “the British dropped 48 thousand tons of bombs; the Germans produced 36,804 weapons (heavy guns, tanks and aircraft). In 1943, the British and Americans dropped 207,600 tons of bombs; the Germans released 71,693 weapons" (1109).

By the end of 1943, neither the British Bomber Command nor the command of the 8th American Air Force managed to fully accomplish the tasks provided for by the Point Blanc plan.

The offensive of the Anglo-American troops in Italy and the aerial bombing of Germany in 1943 did not lead to the results that the Allied command had hoped for. Churchill's assurances that significant Wehrmacht forces would be pinned down in Italy and this would provide significant assistance to the Soviet Army were not confirmed (1110). The Nazi command sent to Italy small quantity troops, and then mainly from France. In September, there were only 17.5 German divisions in Italy, while there were 221 divisions on the Soviet-German front. The diversion of allied forces for operations in Italy led to a prolongation of the war in Europe.

Counteroffensive at Kursk, and then a general strategic offensive Soviet Army deprived Hitler's command of the opportunity to change the course of events in Italy. Heroic struggle Soviet people greatly facilitated the Anglo-American troops' operations in Sicily and the Apennine Peninsula.

The armed forces of the United States and England operating in Europe contributed to the common cause of the struggle against the Hitler coalition. Italy's exit from the war weakened the forces of the fascist bloc.

During the landing of troops in Sicily and in the Salerno region, as well as subsequent actions in Italy, the Anglo-American armies gained experience in preparing and conducting landing operations and offensives from captured bridgeheads. The number of units that received combat-hardening in the battles has increased. The command and personnel gained more confidence in the success of the armed struggle against the Wehrmacht.

The total air raids of World War II convincingly showed the uncompromising means of the participants in the conflict. Massive bombing attacks on cities destroyed communications and factories, leading to the death of thousands of innocent people.

Stalingrad

The bombing of Stalingrad began on August 23, 1942. Up to a thousand Luftwaffe aircraft took part in it, which made from one and a half to two thousand combat sorties. By the time the air raids began, more than 100 thousand people had been evacuated from the city, but most of the residents were unable to evacuate.

As a result of the bombing, according to rough estimates, more than 40 thousand people, mostly civilians, were killed. First there was a bombing high explosive shells, then with incendiary bombs, which created the effect of a fiery tornado that destroyed all living things. Despite significant damage and huge number casualties, many historians believe that the Germans did not achieve their initial goals. Historian Alexey Isaev commented on the Stalingrad bombing: “Everything did not go according to plan. The bombing was not followed by the planned development of events - encirclement Soviet troops west of Stalingrad and occupation of the city. As a result, the bombing looked like this terrorist act, although if everything had developed according to the written plan, it would have seemed logical."

It must be said that the “world community” responded to the bombing of Stalingrad. Residents of Coventry, which was destroyed by the Germans in the autumn of 1940, showed special participation. The women of this city sent a message of support to the women of Stalingrad, in which they wrote: “From a city torn to shreds by the main enemy of world civilization, our hearts reach out to you, those who are dying and suffering much more than we do.”

In England, the “Committee of Anglo-Soviet Unity” was created, which organized various events and collected money to send to the USSR. In 1944, Coventry and Stalingrad became sister cities.

Coventry

The bombing of the English city of Coventry is still one of the most discussed events of the Second World War. There is a point of view, expressed, including by the British writer Robert Harris in the book "Enigma", that Churchill knew about the planned bombing of Coventry, but did not strengthen air defense because he feared that the Germans would understand that their codes had been cracked.

However, today we can already say that Churchill really knew about the planned operation, but did not know that the target would be the city of Coventry. The British government knew on November 11, 1940 that the Germans were planning a major operation called Moonlight Sonata, which would be launched on the next full moon, which was November 15. The British did not know about the Germans’ goal. Even if the targets were known, they would hardly be able to take proper action. In addition, the government relied on electronic countermeasures (Cold Water) for air defense, which, as we know, did not work.

The bombing of Coventry began on 14 November 1940. Up to 437 aircraft took part in the air raid; the bombing lasted more than 11 hours, during which 56 tons of incendiary bombs, 394 tons of high-explosive bombs and 127 parachute mines were dropped on the city. In total, more than 1,200 people died in Coventry. The city's water and gas supplies were virtually cut off, and railway and 12 aircraft factories, which affected the UK’s defense capability in the most negative way - aircraft production productivity decreased by 20%.

It was the bombing of Coventry that ushered in a new era of all-out air raids, which would later be called "carpet bombing", and also served as the reason for the retaliatory bombing of German cities at the end of the war.

The Germans did not leave Coventry after the first raid. In the summer of 1941, they carried out new bombings of the city. In total, the Germans bombed Coventry 41 times. The last bombing took place in August 1942.

Hamburg

For the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition, Hamburg was a strategic object; oil refineries and military-industrial plants were located there; Hamburg was the largest port and transport hub. On 27 May 1943, RAF Commander Arthur Harris signed Bomber Command Order No. 173 about the operation code-named "Gomorrah". This name was not chosen by chance; it referred to the biblical text “And the Lord rained brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.” During the bombing of Hamburg, British aircraft first used a new means of jamming German radars, called Window: strips of aluminum foil were dropped from aircraft.

Thanks to Window, the Allied forces managed to reduce the number of losses as much as possible; British aviation lost only 12 aircraft. Air raids on Hamburg continued from July 25 to August 3, 1943, and about a million residents were forced to leave the city. The number of victims varies according to various sources, but is at least 45,000 inhabitants. Largest number there were casualties on July 29. Because of climatic conditions and massive bombing, fire tornadoes formed in the city, literally sucking people into the fire, asphalt burned, walls melted, houses burned like candles. For three more days after the end of the air raids, it was impossible to carry out rescue and restoration work. People waited for the debris that had turned to coals to cool down.

Dresden

The Bombing of Dresden remains one of the most controversial events of World War II to this day. Historians have disputed the military necessity of the Allied air raids. Information about the bombing of the marshalling yard in Dresden was transmitted by the head of the aviation department of the American military mission in Moscow, Major General Hill, only on February 12, 1945. The document did not say a word about the bombing of the city itself.

Dresden was not considered a strategic target, and by February 1945, the Third Reich was living out its last days. Thus, the bombing of Dresden was more of a demonstration of the power of US and British air power. The officially stated target was German factories, but they were virtually undamaged by the bombing, 50% of residential buildings were destroyed, and in general 80% of city buildings were destroyed.

Dresden was called "Florence on the Elbe" and was a museum city. The destruction of the city caused irreparable damage to world culture. However, it must be said that most of the works of art from the Dresden gallery were taken to Moscow, thanks to which they survived. They were later returned to Germany. The exact number of victims is still disputed. In 2006, historian Boris Sokolov noted that the death toll from the bombing of Dresden ranged from 25 to 250 thousand people. In the same year, in the book of the Russian journalist Alyabyev, the total number of deaths was from 60 to 245 thousand people.

Lubeck

The bombing of Lubeck, carried out by the British Royal Air Force on March 28-29, 1942, was an operation of retaliation by the British for air raids on London, Coventry and other British cities. On the night of March 28-29, in Palm Sunday, 234 British bombers dropped about 400 tons of bombs on Lübeck. The air raid took place on classic scheme: first, high-explosive bombs were dropped to destroy the roofs of houses, then incendiary bombs. According to British estimates, almost one and a half thousand buildings were destroyed, more than two thousand were seriously damaged, and more than nine thousand were slightly damaged. As a result of the attack, more than three hundred people died, 15,000 were left homeless. The irreparable loss of the bombing of Lübeck was the loss of historical and artistic values.

Shirokorad Alexander 02/10/2015 at 15:01

On July 28, 1935, the first flight of the American four-engine bomber B-17 Flying Fortress took place. And from February 13 to 15, 1945, with the help of these powerful machines, Anglo-American aviation virtually destroyed the ancient city of Dresden. Unlike other large German cities, such as Essen and Hamburg, Dresden did not have any heavy industry. There was no point in bombing Dresden. However, the USA and Britain had other considerations...

The USA and Great Britain subjected Dresden to the “Hamburg” treatment

At the beginning of the war, many heavy anti-aircraft batteries were installed in Dresden, but since the city was not bombed, the vast majority of the guns were redeployed to the Ruhr and the Eastern Front.

By mid-January, only concrete platforms remained in place of the anti-aircraft guns in Dresden, and only wooden mock-ups were left on the suburban hills for the defense of the city.

On February 2, 1945, Hitler gave the order to use air defense fighters air fleet"Reich" is only used against ground targets on the Eastern Front, where the Russians created bridgeheads on the western bank of the Oder, or against concentrations of enemy troops on its eastern bank.

Thus, the raid on Dresden was not an air battle, but the murder of tens of thousands of women and children with impunity.

The British and American command pre-planned Operation Thunderbolt as a massacre of civilians. It was decided to subject Dresden to the “Hamburg” treatment (meaning the four-day raid on Hamburg in 1943) in full: first, it was necessary to tear off roofs and break out windows with high-explosive bombs. After this, incendiary bombs will rain down on the city, setting houses on fire and sending up whirlwinds of hot sparks. Through broken roofs and windows, raging flames will engulf rafters, furniture, floors, carpets, curtains.

In the second attack, high-explosive bombs were needed to expand the fire area and scare away firefighters.

According to British estimates, the secret report estimated that 23 percent of the city's industrial buildings and 56 percent of its civilian buildings were seriously damaged in the raids. 78 thousand apartments were completely destroyed, 27.7 thousand apartments were temporarily uninhabitable, and another 64.5 thousand apartments received minor damage.

The British historian Irving wrote: “Priceless architectural monuments were destroyed. Among them are three palaces, the old town hall, the Zwinger (also built by Semper), the New Art Gallery, four museums, the House Church. The world-famous art gallery called the Green Vaults, an architectural masterpiece Schinkel, the Albertinum with its priceless collection of sculptures and the Academy of Arts also burned to the ground."

Or maybe the total bombing of Dresden was a tragic mistake? Maybe intelligence officers reported that atomic bombs were being made there? Remember, the CIA reported to White House that nuclear weapons are being produced in Iraq. As a result, Iraq was bombed “by mistake.”

No, in England they openly admit that the purpose of the bombing was to exterminate civilians.

Anglo-American bombers destroyed hundreds of cities

Back in the mid-1930s, the British began producing long-range bombers designed to attack major cities Europe.

At the beginning of 1936, the Royal Air Force headquarters developed tactical and technical requirements for a new heavy bomber. According to them, the bomber should have been able, operating from British airfields, to bomb Leningrad. By the way, the four-engine Stirling bomber was designed based on these technical specifications.

Already in 1940, British aircraft began bombing German cities. During the war, the low effectiveness of long-range four-engine bombers against industrial and military targets was revealed.

So, for example, the Germans were very successful in camouflaging and dispersing their military factories, and also located them in abandoned mines and other shelters. As a result, the military production of the Third Reich grew steadily until the end of 1944.

Heavy-duty concrete shelters for submarines and small ships in Norway and France, as well as concrete shelters large-caliber guns The Atlantic Wall turned out to be too tough for either the British Stirlings and Lancasters, or the American Flying Fortresses.

Application strategic bombers for direct support of ground forces on the Western Front in the fall of 1944 - winter of 1945. also turned out to be ineffective.

But armadas of Anglo-American bombers managed to destroy hundreds of cities in Germany, Italy, Austria, France, the Czech Republic, Romania and other European countries. For 70 years now, Western propaganda and the ministries of education of the respective countries have been trying to make their population forget about this.

So, for example, does at least one out of a hundred French schoolchildren know about terrible bombings French cities on the coast of the Bay of Biscay: Lorian, Saint-Nazaire, Nantes, Bordeaux, La Rochelle, etc. German losses in personnel and material were minimal, since the Todt organization built powerful and comfortable reinforced concrete shelters for them. But according to the most conservative estimates, 60 thousand French died in cities on the coast.

The Anglo-Americans had no intention of fighting in this godforsaken corner of France. As a result, most of the German garrisons on the coast of the Bay of Biscay quietly surrendered in April-May 1945. But the ancient French cities were mercilessly destroyed. Try to find mentions of this in French history textbooks.

Chemical weapons played an important role in England's plans. Only in the late 80s of the twentieth century did Western researchers discover a previously unknown memorandum signed by Churchill: “I want you to seriously consider the possibility of using combat gases,” he addressed the Air Force leadership. “It is stupid to morally condemn this method... This is just only a matter of fashion, which changes just as the length of a woman's dress changes... Of course, it may be weeks or even months before I ask you to drown Germany in poisonous gases. But when I ask you about it, I want efficiency. was one hundred percent."

According to the plan, 20 of the largest cities in Germany (including Königsberg) were to be treated with phosgene, and another 40 cities were to be treated with mustard gas. However, British intelligence officers explained to Churchill how a chemical attack on Germany could end for England.

“According to a report published in the newspaper Allgemeine Schweitzer Militarzeitung, Allied occupation forces in Germany discovered warehouses containing significant stockpiles of chemical weapons, including special artillery shells, 130 thousand chemical bombs weighing 205 and 500 kilograms, filled with gas, protection from which was not provided by existing types of gas masks. Most of these storage facilities were underground."

I note that strategic bombing of peaceful cities was carried out only by the USA and Great Britain. Germany, Italy and the USSR did not even have enough long-range bombers. For example, the USSR in 19413–1945. produced only 80 four-engine Pe-8 bombers, and the United States produced about 16 thousand!

The Soviet Air Force and the Luftwaffe carried out intensive attacks on enemy cities solely in the interests of the ground forces advancing on a given city: Warsaw 1939, Rotterdam 1940, Smolensk 1941, Stalingrad 1942, Königsberg, Poznan, Berlin 1943-1945. etc.

The bombing of Dresden was blamed on the USSR

But then 1945 came. The Red Army entered Germany. The outcome of the war is obviously predetermined. It would seem that it is time to stop bombing peaceful cities. However, the Anglo-Americans are only strengthening them. The fact is that the purpose of the bombing is no longer the approach of victory, but the desire to blackmail and frighten Soviet Union, that is, his own ally.

When Allied aircraft bombed Dresden, the tank units of the Red Army were only 80 km from the city.

Soon the British began to brazenly lie that Stalin asked them to bomb Dresden at the Yalta Conference. Alas, neither Stalin nor any other Soviet military leader addressed the allies with such a request.

The Americans claim that they wanted to help the Red Army by putting the railway stations in Dresden out of action. But the railway tracks and stations were almost undamaged.

And after the war, Anglo-American politicians repeatedly tried to blame the barbaric destruction of Dresden on... the USSR. Thus, on February 11, 1953, the US State Department issued a statement stating that “the devastating bombing of Dresden was carried out in response to a Soviet request for increased air support and was previously agreed with the Soviet leadership.”

And in February 1955, on the tenth anniversary of the bombing of Dresden, the British newspaper Manchester Guardian recalled the raids as an operation "carried out by British and American aircraft in response to an urgent Soviet request to attack this important communications center."

Soviet propaganda, which so zealously denounced the British and American “imperialists” with or without reason, was shamefully silent this time.

In fact, Churchill proposed carrying out Operation Thunderclap during the Crimean Conference, held February 4-11, 1945 in Yalta. Churchill wanted to intimidate Stalin by destroying a large German city. Alas, the bad weather let the British Prime Minister down, and the destruction of Dresden occurred after the end of the conference.

Speaking about the actions of the 8th American Air Force and the Royal Air Force in the spring of 1945, it is quite appropriate to ask the question: were they allies of the Red Army or fought against it?

Here is a typical example: April 25, the 69th American Division and the 58th Soviet Guards rifle division met on the Elbe in the German city of Torgau. And on the same day, bombers of the 8th American Air Force carried out a completely senseless raid on the Skoda factories in Pilsen, on which they dropped 638 tons of bombs, about the same as the Germans did on November 14-15, 1940 on Coventry. This largest industrial center in Czechoslovakia was supposed to be occupied by units of the Red Army in the coming days, but this did not suit the Yankees.

I note that before this, the Allies practically did not bomb the Skoda factories. Is it because 95 percent of the tanks, guns and aircraft manufactured there went to the Eastern Front?

The Anglo-Americans killed at least 2 million civilians in 1945

The US government still explains the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the desire to save hundreds of thousands of Americans who could have died in the invasion of the Japanese islands. But when was the invasion of Japan supposed to happen? According to published American plans - in 19463–1947.

This could be, although controversial, an argument if the Red Army did not exist. From 1941 to 1945, the Americans tried by hook or by crook to drag the USSR into a war with Japan. And in February 1945, in Yalta, Stalin guaranteed the USSR’s entry into the war with Japan exactly 3 months after Germany’s surrender.

Thus, already on May 9, 1945, the Americans knew for sure that on August 9, 1945, the Red Army would begin its offensive.

Or maybe President Truman had doubts, or the information was not conveyed to the chiefs of staff? Alas, a few weeks before August 9, Soviet and American generals and admirals determined the zones of demarcation of military operations and other issues related to the outbreak of the Soviet-Japanese War.

A reasonable question arises: maybe it would have been worth waiting 2-3 weeks for the atomic bombing of Japan? The Japanese army was significantly weaker than the German one, and the likelihood of a quick defeat of the Japanese by the Red Army was obvious.

According to the plans of the Soviet command, by the beginning of September 1945, our tank divisions were supposed to take Harbin and Port Arthur and approach 100 km to Beijing. And the 87th Rifle Corps was supposed to occupy the island of Hokkaido. Rhetorical question: would the Japanese resist after this?

I note that all operations in Manchuria and China were carried out by the Red Army exactly on time. But the 87th Corps had already been put on ships in Vladivostok, but after hysterical telegrams from President Truman to Stalin, the landing on Hokkaido was canceled.

Agree, everything turned out somehow indecent. The Americans and the British had been fighting against the samurai since 1941, but the landing on the southernmost Japanese island of Kyushu could have taken place only at the very end of 1945, or even in 1946. And the Russians would have ended up in Hokkaido less than a month after the start of hostilities .

This is why the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japanese military casualties in both cities were close to zero. But about 250 thousand Japanese died instantly and another 100 thousand died within a few months.

According to my rough estimates, the Anglo-Americans in 1945 killed at least 2 million civilians, mostly women, children and old people in Germany, the Czech Republic, Japan and other countries with the sole purpose of scaring “Uncle Joe”. Such a thing never occurred to Attila, Genghis Khan, or Adolf Hitler.