Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II

The controversial fire bombing of Dresden was 85 years ago this evening. Historians have argued the reasons for it, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a powerful novel about it (he was there as a prisoner of war during the bombing), and governments have passionately either defended or attacked the massive air raids and the reasons it happened.

IMHO, America and Britain had spent tremendous amounts of money building heavy bombers and training the crews, only to find they could not hit German factories. So, to get something back from the investment, they resorted to carpet bombing cities on the theory that killing the workers would shut down the factory just as well as hitting it with bombs. Then, with most German cities already flattened, they decided to hit Dresden, even though there were no factories of note located there. After all, if one has all these bombers, one needs to do something with them.