World War II/Dresden

Dresden was fire-bombed by the allied forces near the end of World War II. It was widely known as a "free city". These were cities generally regarded by both sides as having no industrial or strategic importance. The fire-bombing consisted of dropping large amounts of parafin, followed by incendiary devices. Although precise numbers are difficult to attain, documentation of the rescue operations puts the number of dead at about 25,000. Larger numbers seem to derive from a forgery by Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, that added a 0 to the numbers of bodies, cremated and estimated dead on the final report from the police. Still, the Dresden bombing is a very debated decision, and one that still doesn't seem to have a justification of military necessity.

For details on the falsification of numbers, you can read Lying About Hitler (ISBN 0465021522 (amazon.com, search)).

There are anecdotes of the pilots and crew having problems years later. Some had nightmares, some thought they would go to hell as war criminals, some had unshakable visions of the fires and the burning cities.

/Talk