DOUGLAS PUNCHARD’S letter (DST, May 29) on the bombing of Dresden seems to imply that we should be apologising for the allied bombing – the USAAF, not just the RAF, also bombed the city.
Regrettable as the bombing was, I would beg to differ.
Dresden was not designated an ‘Open City’. By February 1945 it was a functioning enemy administrative, industrial and communications centre, close to the front line. Even the nearby Meissen ceramics factory was producing communications equipment for the Wehrmacht.
If anyone is to blame it should be Martin Mutschmann, Gaulieter of Dresden and his cronies. They were the ones who were guilty of the “appalling neglect of air raid precautions”. He was also present at the rally in Berlin when Goebbels’ call for “total war” was so enthusiastically endorsed by his audience, thereby sealing the fate of many German cities, Dresden included.
All of this is well laid out by Fredrick Taylor in his definitive book about Dresden published by Bloomsbury in 2004. The Allied air forces were simply doing their job and many aircrew never lived to witness the freedom for which they fought and which we now enjoy.
John Young, Gilling West
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