Dresden and yalta slideshow

Dresden

The Firebombing of a City

Dresden: Firebombing of a CityDresden, Germany was a cultural city. One known more for art than business or

military uses.

In the last year of World War 2, 1945, the Allies sent 300 bombers (British and American) to attack the crowded German city of Dresden. Churchill actively supported

the Dresden bombing.

This attack was not the precision bombing of specific military targets. It was deliberate bombing of a whole city. The bombs destroyed buildings – civilian structures - and

started huge fires.

• The allies had air superiority over Europe, even though the Nazis still controlled the ground

The date was February 13, 1945.

On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing it to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000

people.

• More than 3,400 tons of explosives were dropped on the city by 800 American and British aircraft.

• The firestorm created by the two days of bombing set the city on fire for many more days, littering the streets with charred corpses.

• Eight square miles of the city was ruined, and the total body count was between 35,000 and 135,000 (an approximation is all that was possible given that the city was filled with many refugees).

• Some historians have argued that this attack was not justifiable on military grounds, that it was nothing more than a slaughter of civilians. But others say it helped to shorten the war in Europe.

• Ultimate responsibility for this attack lay with the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, though he did not have knowledge of every bombing run.

• Possible reasons for the bombing were revenge for the Blitz, to help the Russians, or to intimidate them.

You decide:Was the bombing of Dresden by the Allies a justifiable act during wartime?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU3wkOGXlcY

The Yalta Conference

The YALTA Conference

Yalta was a major World War II conference of the “Big Three” (three major Allied leaders):• President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States• Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and• Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union

They met at Yalta (Crimea) in Feb, 1945, to plan the final defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany.

It was agreed that Eastern Europe would have temporary governments (run by the Soviets) until free elections could be held there.

As a matter of fact, Stalin never fulfilled his promise of free elections, and Eastern Europe was under Russian rule from 1945 on.

The Yalta Conference was criticized for FDR and Churchill’s “softness” toward Stalin.Reasons for “softness”:• they thought Soviet military assistance might be needed in Pacific War• no nation had an appetite for further war

Sidenote: A conference was scheduled to prepare the United Nations charter (plan)