Japan Unveils Biggest Warship Since WWII

[happyslug]

150. Dresden, remember who it was aimed at.

Dresden, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki were aimed as a warning to a specific enemy, the Soviet Union. The warning was simple, the west had the ability to bomb cities and kill all of the residents of those cities. Notice the aim was NOT at Germany or Japan, those countries were already defeated just the formal surrender and terms of the surrender were in question when the above bombings occurred, but the Soviet Union.

These bombings had NOTHING to do with repaying the Japanese for whatever they had done, it had everything to do with how to deal with the Soviet Union. In the west, we tend to take a view that without western Aid, Hitler would have defeated the Soviet Union. While western aid helped the Soviet Union in its war with Germany (and Stalin's bad tactical decisions at the beginning of the German Invasion did not help the Soviet Union), the German Army was stopped and put on the retreat with most of that aid still in the supply line. i.e. it was mostly Soviet Resources that the Red Army use to stop the Germans and put them on the retreat NOT western aid.

Now, by the time of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-1943, Western Aid was a significant assistance to the Soviet's fight with Germany, but by most accounts, the Red Army would still taken Berlin without that aid, but one or two years later then when it did. Once Stalin called back the Generals he had purged in the late 1930s and gave them the freedom to do what they wanted to do, the German gains of 1941 became a thing of the past. Another factor in the 1941 offensive is indications that Germany did not attack an Army on the Defensive, but one about to attack. The difference is best shown in how the Soviet Army acted in the first months of the war. The Red Army acted like it was NOT falling back on its own supply lines, in fact it appears the Germans had captured must of the supplies intended for the Soviet Army. In an army on the defensive you want your supplies at a safe distance to your rear, so the enemy can not reach it and if you have to, you retreat to those supplies. It is an army that is going to attack that wants its supplies up close, so the army can have such supplies follow them when it attacks. Such supplies were close to the Soviet Forces on the Frontier with Germany and thus indications that the Soviet Army was going to attack. In many ways to attack such an army first, is to destroy it for you easily separate it from its supplies as you surround that army and take the supplies for your own use.

I bring the concept of a Soviet attack being planned in 1941 to show that since the Germans attack first and it was attacking an army set to attack not defend, once those frontier forces were defeated it made the whole operation easier for the Germany Army. The person to blame for this was Stalin (along with his dismissal of many of the top officers of the Red Army during the purges of the late 1930s).

I also bring the above up, for once those losses were made up (by moving troops from elsewhere) the Soviet Red Army was able to stop the German Army at the Gates of Moscow and send it into retreat. The German army would go on the offensive in 1942, but it would be on the weak southern front NOT any attack on Moscow and that attacked also ended up in defeat. By 1943 the Soviet Army was the better of the two armies on the Eastern Front and that would continue till Berlin fell to the Russians in 1945.

I bring this up for Dresden was done to impress the Russians as they entered Germany. Even after the invasion of Normandy, most German Troops stayed on the Eastern Front. That was the main front, what was happening in Italy and France was, at best, a secondary concern for the Germans.

As to the Russians, they had the supplies to keep their army in the field. In many ways the much smaller western armies were having a hard time to match. The US Supply lines across France collapsed in September 1945 and no further offensive operations was possible after that date (Operation Market Garden was the last real effort to attack till spring). German resistance in the west was weak compared to what they were doing in the East and this became apparent as the supply problems eased in the West as Spring began (The Battle of the Budge ended more due to German shortages of fuel, men and equipment then anything the western allies did, not that the western allies did not put up a good fight, but both armies were working within very tight supply problems which lead to the success of the attack and its eventual failure).

Thus by winter of 1945, it was clear Germany would be under Ally occupation by summer and what the Western Allies and Russia were doing was more to impress each other then to deal with problems being created by the German Army. Out of this concern came Dresden. It was the largest city that had NOT been attacked from the air. It was an older city, where a fire storm could occur if enough bombs were dropped. Thus the older center city was the target, not the military bases and factories in the suburbs (to few wooden buildings to cause a fire storm in those locations). The Allies wanted the Russians to see what a Fire Storm caused by Incendiary bombs would look like. That appears to have been the goal, but a goal no one wanted to talk about for the Russians were technically allies and the Germans were suppose to be the real targets.

My point is Dresden had NOTHING to do with vengeance, it has everything to do with impressing the Russians.