February 13 1945 – Royal Air Force Bombers Take Off for the First Raids in the Fire-Bombing of Dresden

February 13 1945 – Royal Air Force Bombers Take Off for the First Raids in the Fire-Bombing of DresdenRate this post Under the cover of darkness, 254 bombers took off on February 13, 1945 from British airfields bound for Dresden, a German cultural and railroad center near the eastern edge of rapidly-shrinking Nazi territory. Hours later, one of the most controversial Allied actions of World War II would result in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, launching a debate about wartime morality that continues to this day. In the middle of 1944, just weeks after the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6th, intelligence officers and Royal Air […]