A Drizzly Day in Dresden

Before the Second World War, the city of Dresden was regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It's combination of medieval buildings and priceless works of art and historical items was hard to match anywhere.

That all came to a tragic and abrupt end in mid February 1945. The war was approaching the final end game. Russian troops were rapidly advancing from the east and massive allied bombing raids were progressively reducing entire cities to rubble.

Up till then Dresden had been largely spared large scale bombing, but over a period of 2 days, over 1000 bombers dropped thousands of tons of incendiary and explosive bombs on the city. All pretense of only attacking military targets was long forgotten. The main aim now was to destroy the morale of the German people.

The old timbered buildings in the centre of the city created a firestorm so intense that it resembled a nuclear explosion. Almost every building in the city was converted to ruins. No one knows exactly how many perished, but it was in the tens of thousands. The exact total was difficult to estimate because of the large number of refugees from the east that had flooded the city.

In the morning after the bombing, charred bodies were piled high in the streets and had to be buried in mass graves. Although the people of the city initially thought that their beloved Frauenkirche (Lady's Church) had survived the onslaught, it collapsed a few hours later. It was not rebuilt until 2005.

I spent the morning walking around the city in light drizzle, watching the spectacle of the floodwaters. Although the water is well over the banks of the Elbe, apparently it looks like it has peaked, and the authorities are hoping it may start to recede. We hope so too.Read more