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Hello, Skip.
The first plane is just going down.
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If your intention
is to kill civilians,
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how would you define the atrocity?
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Steady.
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Bombs down.
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Dresden was the raid
that went horribly right.
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Super-hot air spreading the fire
underground.
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People in terror
trying to escape,
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separated by buildings
that were exploding.
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We just don't know how long
the Germans will fight
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and possibly have to kill everyone,
because they were not stopping.
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He is the most controversial
British officer of the Second World War.
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He is a fanatic.
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Was it justified morally or not?
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That really is
the million-dollar question.
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The bombing of Dresden
is one of the most controversial events
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of World War II.
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Now rare footage from around the world,
expertly restored in full color,
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tells the story
as you've never seen it before.
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The morning
of the 15th of February 1945,
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the eastern German City of Dresden
lies in ruins.
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Further evidence of
the Allies' total dominance of the skies.
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But within days, the Dresden story
is turned on its head.
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A hidden source inside Germany
feeds shocking pictures to the press.
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And a previously unreported level
of civilian suffering and destruction
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is revealed to the world.
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All of a sudden
people in the United Kingdom
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and the United States were saying,
"How on Earth, in our name,
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are our planes actually producing terror
against civilians?
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It's completely unacceptable."
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It's reported that Dresden
was a city of culture,
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with no military value.
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And allegedly, hundreds of thousands
of men, women and children
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have been killed.
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The Allies, seen for so long
to be fighting evil,
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look to have perpetrated an atrocity.
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It's a totally different situation
in the Second World War.
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All the rules have been torn up
and kicked into touch.
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So how did Britain
and the United States come to this?
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What is the truth about Dresden?
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Six years earlier,
Nazi Germany sweeps through Europe,
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powered by an era of mechanized warfare,
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both on the ground and in the air.
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The French, Belgians,
and Dutch are overwhelmed.
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And the British Expeditionary Force
is chased off the beaches of Dunkirk.
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By the summer of 1940,
Britain stands alone
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and under attack by the Luftwaffe.
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But Britain's new prime minister
refuses to surrender.
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You ask, what is our policy?
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I will say: It is to wage war
by sea, land, and air,
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with all our might.
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To wage war against a monstrous tyranny,
that is our policy.
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To try and win favor
with the British public,
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Hitler tells the Luftwaffe
not to attack Central London.
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But that August,
a sortie mistakenly hits Oxford Street.
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Winston Churchill strikes back
with a small shock raid of his own
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on Berlin.
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The attack prompts
a fearsome response from Hitler.
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And if the Royal Air Force
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throws 2,000, 3,000
or 4,000 kg bombs on us,
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then we will throw 150,000, 180,000
230,000, 300,000 kgs in one night.
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The time will come
when one of us will break,
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and it will not be Germany!
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The Luftwaffe launch
an unprecedented bombing campaign
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designed to break Britain's morale.
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Mass raids
drop incendiary bombs,
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loaded with flammable material,
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like thermite,
on dozens of British cities.
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There are major fire attacks
on Liverpool, Birmingham, and Coventry.
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And London is hit by a blitz
for over 50 consecutive days.
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The campaign against London
is a 24-hour campaign
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almost from the beginning.
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They see and hear the air battle going on
as it comes towards them,
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so it makes Londoners very much feel
that they are now a part of the battle.
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The German air raids
in Britain kill over 40,000 people.
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Angered and fighting
for her very existence,
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there is now an appetite in Britain
to strike back,
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and make mass bombing a major part
of its own war strategy.
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Churchill's stance
over area bombing
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during the Second World War
seems to move.
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In the early stages,
he voices quite a lot of reservations
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that actually, it doesn't do the job.
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It's not going to break the enemy morale,
in fact, it could stiffen it.
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On the other hand, it was an opportunity
to strike back at the Germans
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at a time when the Germans
seemed to be victorious
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in pretty much every other
theater of war.
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If you had asked British people,
particularly following the Blitz,
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going into 1941, if they could fight
with as much force as possible,
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the answer would have been an overwhelming
"yes" from almost everybody.
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The RAF's own bomber division,
known as Bomber Command,
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has been launching targeted raids
against Nazi Germany since 1939.
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Initially they fly day sorties,
aiming for precision targets
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like airfields and oil refineries.
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But flying in the broad daylight
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leaves the bombers horribly exposed
to attacks by the Luftwaffe.
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Within a year, the RAF is forced
to switch most of the fleet
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to bombing at night.
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Night timers are safer,
you have the cover of the darkness.
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The only real problem with bombing,
there's no way attacking at night
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at high altitude you could hope
to hit anything, you know,
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of a small nature on the ground.
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The bombers' rudimentary
targeting technology
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is hopelessly ill-equipped
for the challenge
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of night-time precision bombing.
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In the summer of 1941
there is a notorious report,
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and they discover that hardly anyone's
even getting within five miles
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of hitting their target,
let alone a few hundred yards.
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In the first two years
of operations,
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Bomber Command makes little impact
on the Nazi war machine.
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The campaign comes at a huge cost.
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Germany's bristling air defenses
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are slaughtering RAF air crew.
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These young sons,
boys, were killed in tens of thousands
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by German night fighters and flak.
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I mean, they had a huge death toll.
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Where is he, rear gunner,
can you see him?
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Jerry planes are behind us.
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Just keep weaving,
there's some flak coming at me.
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Down!
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About 55% of the men
who served in Bomber Command died.
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There was enormous fear that they tried
to keep under control
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by various coping strategies,
including often very heavy drinking,
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because the mathematics
were simply overwhelming
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that a large proportion of them
would not survive their tours.
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By 1942, morale inside
Bomber Command is rock bottom.
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That February,
a new commander in chief is appointed,
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with a remit to turn things round.
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His name is Arthur Harris,
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he soon becomes known as "Bomber" Harris.
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He was stubborn, opinionated,
to the point of rudeness.
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Believed passionately in air power.
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He was an attack dog, basically,
hired by the British government
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to do what they felt was now a key job.
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If you individually succeed,
you will have delivered
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the most devastating blow
against the very vitals of the enemy.
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Let him have it, right on the chin.
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He is a fanatic.
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He is someone who,
once he gets an idea in his head,
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finds it impossible to change it.
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On the other hand, he would have been
brilliant to serve under.
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He looked after his men
extraordinarily well,
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provided them with the best
equipment possible,
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and gave them as much
support as possible.
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Arthur Harris spearheads
an entirely new approach
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at Bomber Command.
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Night raids that no longer rely
on precision targeting,
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Harris targets entire German cities.
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What they can do
is hit a city-sized target.
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You don't have to be accurate,
you have to hit something
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the size of Hamburg, you know,
one of the biggest cities in Germany.
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It really comes
to a cold calculation of war.
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Arthur Harris is adamant
that in his hands,
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city bombing can force Germany
to surrender.
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Because he plans to up the ante
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and carpet bomb not just industry
and infrastructure,
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but also civilian housing.
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Harris believes
the new approach,
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coldly titled "Worker Dehousing",
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will deprive the Nazis of the manpower
they need for their war economy
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and cripple German manufacturing.
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The concept was,
there is no difference
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between combatants and non-combatants.
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Because the civilians,
by their sheer existence,
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they're producing something
and they have a value for the war.
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No civilized country, like Germany,
can wage the war without its cities.
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If we destroy their cities,
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if we burn down their cities,
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then we have won.
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There are a lot of people
who say that bombing can never win a war.
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Well, my answer to that
is that it has never been tried yet.
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Germany will make a most interesting
initial experiment,
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and we shall see.
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Harris has a potent new weapon
to execute his strategy,
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the RAF's rapidly expanding fleet
of heavy bombers.
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The famous bomber,
the Lancaster,
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one of the most famous bombers
of the Second World War,
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is a brilliant night-time bomber.
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It can fly high,
it's a very stable platform,
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and it can carry a heavy bombing load.
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There was no way Britain
could fight a land war against Germany,
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we didn't have the manpower.
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What it did have were resources,
technology, and a huge pool of volunteers
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to call on for building a large air force.
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The heavy Lancaster bombers
are also developing new technology
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like ground-scanning radar
and radio navigation.
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Harris trains and organizes
his new fleet.
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When in 1942 the United States
joins the war in Europe,
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they base hundreds of their own
B-17 Flying Fortresses in Britain.
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The Allied air fleet
is now too big to be stopped.
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They served the wind and now,
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they are going to reap the whirlwind.
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In the entire Blitz of London,
from September to May 1940,
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the Germans only dropped 18,000 tons
of bombs on London.
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In 1944 the RAF is dropping on Germany
over half a million tons.
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Off the radar in terms of increased scale.
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It was absolutely huge.
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If you have a hammer,
you're going to go around
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looking for nails.
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And in the RAF we had a very big,
very expensive hammer.
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It acquired a momentum of its own.
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On the 24th of July 1943,
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Hamburg, Germany's second largest city,
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is hit in a joint Allied raid
called Operation Gomorrah.
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A fire storm grips the city.
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Sixty percent
of the residential area is destroyed…
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00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:49,240
and over 43,000 people are killed.
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00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:54,800
The devastation wrought
on western Germany
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00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:57,800
is a shock even to Winston Churchill.
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00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:03,840
Churchill is shown film
of a Ruhr City being bombed
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00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:08,720
and he almost wept and said,
"Are we beasts to be doing this?"
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00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:14,360
So one has this strange duality
in Churchill running a war
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00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:18,560
and this actually proved to be the case
with the bombing campaign too.
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That year, with the Allied
bombing campaign escalating,
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00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:30,040
Nazi propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels,
calls on every German civilian
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00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:35,080
to join the war effort
in what he calls total war.
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Do you want total war?
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00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:44,200
But the grizzly aftermath
of the bombing raids
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is played down in the German press.
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The Allies monitor and sanitize
their news reports as well.
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The public are told
the city bombing campaign
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00:15:57,560 --> 00:15:59,800
is focused on military targets.
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00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:05,960
One of the greatest
serial stories of the war,
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00:16:06,040 --> 00:16:07,440
the battering of Hamburg.
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The cargoes of our bombers
shattered military objectives in the city
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and started hundreds of fires.
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00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:16,880
The general population
seems happy enough with the policy.
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The British people had been attacked
in their cities from 1940 onwards.
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Some think the Germans almost deserve it.
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00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:27,840
Harris's bombing campaign
is relentless.
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As the German war machine
begins to falter,
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00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:36,080
dozens of her industrial cities,
including Karlsruhe,
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Bremen, and Stuttgart
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are smashed by Allied raids.
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00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:50,600
We propose to entirely
emasculate every enemy center
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where production is necessary.
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We are well on the way now to that end.
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War is a race.
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And the prize is victory.
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00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:05,960
But whilst the destructive
city raids drain the Nazi's resources,
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00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:08,920
still they refuse to surrender.
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00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:12,440
That level of destruction
usually does the trick,
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00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:17,440
but it doesn't in the Nazi state
because of that iron grip of the Nazis,
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00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:20,840
because of this black and white
world view that Hitler has
244
00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:23,640
of either the Thousand-Year Reich
or Armageddon.
245
00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:31,800
Then in the summer of 1944,
246
00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:37,640
the whole focus of the Allied war effort
changes with D-Day.
247
00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:44,160
The largest land invasion force
in history storms the Normandy beaches
248
00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:47,480
and pushes into occupied France.
249
00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:56,000
Harris' deputy
dismisses the operation
250
00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:59,400
as an unnecessary boating expedition.
251
00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:04,800
But to most observers,
it's now the surest route to victory.
252
00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:10,560
Many senior Allied generals
want Bomber Command
253
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:14,400
to stop the city attacks
and support the ground war.
254
00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:20,520
They know the Lancaster's
accurate new targeting technology
255
00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:25,560
is now more than capable
of hitting precision military targets.
256
00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:30,280
But Harris viewed this
as a complete waste of time and effort.
257
00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:34,320
And same goes for repeated American
requests for Bomber Command
258
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:37,720
to try and hit targets like oil fields,
oil refineries, factories.
259
00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:41,200
His bombers had helped
drive Germany out of the war
260
00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:44,800
and provided this role, so he continues
wanting to devastate the cities.
261
00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:48,200
And so Harris,
the right man for the job,
262
00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:52,440
but perhaps a bit of a liability
in some ways in terms of his refusal
263
00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:54,840
to contemplate how his force
could be better used.
264
00:18:56,280 --> 00:19:00,960
Despite Harris's reluctance,
Churchill tells him to comply.
265
00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,640
His Lancaster bombers are pressed
into service as transportation.
266
00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:09,680
And a new city bombing campaign
against Berlin,
267
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:13,320
called Operation Thunderclap, is shelved.
268
00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:17,600
It looks like area bombing
has had its day.
269
00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:29,200
But that winter,
the Allies' ground war
270
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:30,320
grinds to a halt.
271
00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:36,520
Hitler launches
a surprise counter-offensive
272
00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:37,640
in the Ardennes.
273
00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:39,680
The Battle of the Bulge.
274
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,920
Ninety-thousand American troops
are killed.
275
00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:48,480
And the British Army is a spent force.
276
00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:52,080
The British perspective was,
we just don't know
277
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:55,360
how long the Germans will fight,
and possibly have to kill everyone
278
00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:57,000
because they were not stopping.
279
00:19:57,440 --> 00:19:59,520
They were not stopping,
they were not giving up.
280
00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:05,840
We have to end this damned war.
281
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,920
The only Allied advance
is on the Eastern Front.
282
00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:17,240
The Soviet Red Army is pushing on
from their decisive victory at Stalingrad.
283
00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,000
The offensive is brutal
284
00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:24,800
and it's costing the Soviet Union
millions of men.
285
00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:33,040
That February,
the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin,
286
00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:36,440
asks President Franklin Roosevelt
and Churchill
287
00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:40,600
to Yalta in Crimea for urgent talks.
288
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:46,280
Relations between Roosevelt,
Churchill, and Stalin
289
00:20:46,360 --> 00:20:48,480
were noticeably more strained
at the Yalta Conference
290
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:50,040
than at previous meetings.
291
00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:54,000
Joseph Stalin felt the Soviet Union
had been left deliberately
292
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:57,960
to take the vast majority of the losses
and the causalities of the war
293
00:20:58,040 --> 00:20:59,240
against Germany.
294
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:04,160
If Churchill and Roosevelt
want a quick end to the war,
295
00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:07,160
they need to keep the Red Army
on the move.
296
00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:13,920
The Western Allies don't have the will
or the means to offer manpower,
297
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:16,520
but they do have a huge air force.
298
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:21,320
Western air superiority
can solve their problem.
299
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:25,400
Churchill's misgivings
about the morality of area bombing
300
00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:26,800
are set aside.
301
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,296
This is something that Churchill
and Roosevelt were very, very keen
302
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,536
to provide because it was well within
their capabilities,
303
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:34,440
as well as visually impressive.
304
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:41,480
Bomber Commands' moth-balled
Operation Thunderclap
305
00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:45,640
is revived and refocused
for the Eastern Front.
306
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,880
RAF strategists believe
that attacking fresh cities
307
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,840
in the east of Germany
will cause chaos and destruction
308
00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:59,440
behind enemy lines
and aid the Red Army's advance.
309
00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:02,400
The Germans are having
to move men and material
310
00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:04,920
up to the Eastern Front
to fight the Russians.
311
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:06,920
And they have to go through
these cities.
312
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:10,120
If those cities are attacked by bombers,
313
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,640
it will put greater pressure
on the Germans,
314
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:14,760
it will cause confusion in those cities,
315
00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:18,200
it will stress the resources
that the Germans have.
316
00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:24,560
Soviet strategists
give their approval to the plan.
317
00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:31,360
Once again, the city bombing campaign
is at center stage.
318
00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:36,280
Harris is given a target list
of eastern German cities
319
00:22:36,360 --> 00:22:41,000
and told the objective
is to cause chaos and disruption.
320
00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:45,400
Harris just absolutely wants to show,
321
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:47,360
as many ways it's self-vindication,
322
00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:50,720
he wants to show that he's right,
prove he's been right.
323
00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:58,720
Nightfall on the 13th
of February 1945.
324
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:06,280
A stream of RAF Lancaster bombers
take off from bases in eastern England.
325
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:13,480
They make their way across the Channel
into liberated France,
326
00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:17,400
through Belgium and down
into Nazi Germany.
327
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,480
By now they are on enemy radar.
328
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:25,640
The bomber formation tries to throw
the Germans off the scent.
329
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:28,840
The British come up
with quite ingenious inventions
330
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,480
to try and confuse German defenses.
331
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:36,000
One of the most famous is Window,
which is to drop a huge amount of chaff,
332
00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:39,880
just strips of aluminum,
that they would drop into the air,
333
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,040
like aluminum foil
and they'd fill the air
334
00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:44,560
with aluminum foil
and the radar would go haywire.
335
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:49,280
Which meant that the Germans
essentially saw nothing
336
00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:52,760
but a kind of curtain,
behind which they could not see
337
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:55,080
until the bombers emerged from it.
338
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,920
And that kept the Germans
from knowing precisely
339
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:01,880
where the bombers of Bomber Command
were headed that night.
340
00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:07,480
Finally at around 9:00 p.m.,
the Lancasters emerge
341
00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:09,640
from behind the cover of their chaff.
342
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,200
They're heading south east
across Germany.
343
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:21,960
Even under the cover of darkness,
a bombing raid is fraught with danger.
344
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:27,400
Creeping across the sky in a slow,
heavy bomber,
345
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:30,120
with no fighter planes for protection.
346
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:36,520
And this time, the crews are heading
deeper into enemy territory
347
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:38,200
than ever before.
348
00:24:39,120 --> 00:24:40,880
They're covering
an enormous distance,
349
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,440
probably the longest raid most of them
would have carried out
350
00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:45,160
during the whole of the Second World War.
351
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:47,096
And of course they're vulnerable
during that period,
352
00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:50,800
from anti-aircraft fire and also
from interception by German fighters.
353
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:54,280
You never quite know
when something's going to hit you,
354
00:24:54,360 --> 00:24:55,960
and it must have been quite scary.
355
00:24:56,640 --> 00:25:00,320
Going this far east in particular
was something that the crews dreaded.
356
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:02,760
But the thrill of, you know,
being in these mighty things,
357
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:05,120
thundering across,
particularly on moon-lit nights
358
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:07,280
with the kind of silvery clouds
and things, you know,
359
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,400
a lot of them kind of had moments
of elation in between sheer terror.
360
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,040
On this sortie, however,
the German Luftwaffe
361
00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:16,880
are nowhere to be seen.
362
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,280
Their numbers have been slashed
by constant combat
363
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:23,200
and dwindling resources.
364
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:28,640
And tonight they fail to respond
to the Lancaster's raid at all.
365
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,800
It's an unusually clear winter's night.
366
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:37,920
The pathfinder and marker planes
at the lead
367
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:40,360
can see their target perfectly.
368
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:50,320
It's the eastern German city
of Dresden.
369
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:56,080
The unsuspecting inhabitants below
are just finishing the day
370
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:57,680
of carnival celebrations.
371
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,200
Dresden has told themselves
nobody will want to bomb this city
372
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:03,560
because it's so beautiful.
373
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:04,960
Sadly, they were wrong.
374
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:08,920
Dresden is the capital of Saxony
375
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,720
and one of Germany's most historic
and cultural cities,
376
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,320
layered with centuries-old architecture.
377
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:20,880
It was called
the Florence of the Elbe.
378
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:26,120
It was a city that many westerners
loved to visit during the interwar years.
379
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,640
It had exquisite architecture,
lots of art.
380
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,760
And so it was a city
that was very deeply appreciated
381
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,400
by the cultured classes,
the educated classes.
382
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:39,880
It's not just
the cultural center,
383
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:45,040
it played the role in the Third Reich,
economy, administration,
384
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,960
in the world of Nazi Germany.
385
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:51,040
There were Jews hunted down, killed.
386
00:26:51,120 --> 00:26:53,800
The whole dark side of Nazi Germany.
387
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:58,960
The city has been virtually
untouched by bombing.
388
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:04,680
It has become a place
of safe harbor for refugees
389
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:07,040
from other war-torn German territories.
390
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,360
And by now,
the inhabitants of Dresden are sure
391
00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:16,720
the city is protected
by a special status.
392
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:20,640
People told themselves
all kinds of stories,
393
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:24,280
they felt that their city,
preserved as it was
394
00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:29,040
with its beautiful palaces,
would somehow be a possibility
395
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:33,000
for being the Allied capital
after the war.
396
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:41,600
And there was a funny story of,
circulating,
397
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:47,440
saying that Dresden will not be attacked
because Churchill's aunt is living there.
398
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:50,240
Who this aunt was supposed to be,
I do not know.
399
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:54,640
The local Nazi leader
in Dresden is so complacent,
400
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,600
he makes no preparations
for an air attack.
401
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:04,120
Apart from the one deep concrete bunker
he has constructed for himself,
402
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,480
there are very few bomb shelters
in the city.
403
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:14,600
So, the whole city was in the end
not prepared for an air attack.
404
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,120
Nobody expected Dresden to be attacked.
405
00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:29,960
But for RAF Bomber Command,
the reality of Dresden is very different.
406
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:35,720
Germany's seventh largest city
is also important to their war economy.
407
00:28:37,360 --> 00:28:40,600
Harris has only spared the city
because until now,
408
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:44,600
the Lancaster's fuel tanks
weren't large enough to reach it.
409
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:51,000
Allied intelligence was aware
of significant military production
410
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:52,200
within Dresden itself.
411
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:55,880
There were factories
making machine guns, rifles,
412
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,560
there's a factory making
tank landing ships.
413
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:01,560
Dresden is a major rail hub.
414
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,320
From Dresden troops are being sent
to the Eastern Front,
415
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,000
they're being sent down to Verona,
to the Italian Front a well.
416
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:13,520
It is not the fault of RAF Bomber Command
that air raid shelters
417
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:16,440
have been given such scant regard.
418
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:20,920
At 10:00 p.m.,
RAF pathfinder planes
419
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:22,960
swoop down on the city.
420
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,400
They face almost
no anti-aircraft fire.
421
00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:33,320
The Nazi high command
has moved all the guns
422
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:35,160
to the front line in the east.
423
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:39,200
The scene is set for a perfect storm.
424
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:45,040
The pathfinders drop their marker flares
uncontested
425
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:47,560
and with unerring accuracy.
426
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:52,200
The target they've been given by Harris
and Bomber Command
427
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:57,040
is the central stadium,
right next to the marketplace,
428
00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:00,640
the heart of residential Dresden.
429
00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:03,200
Why isn't it the railway?
430
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:06,880
It's absolutely the glue which is keeping
the German war effort together.
431
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:09,480
The markers go on the old,
432
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:11,280
the Altstadt, the old town.
433
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,280
Dresden was not
a military target for the British,
434
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:16,560
this is quite clear.
435
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:20,320
Of course Dresden
had war industry factories,
436
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:22,080
but these were more on the outskirts.
437
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,160
But this was not the aim
of the British bombers.
438
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:30,600
The aiming point of the British bombers
was the marketplace, the Altmarkt.
439
00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:34,560
Whilst we were preparing
some scrambled eggs
440
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:40,160
we heard the warning,
which was this time the real thing.
441
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,000
And it was right above the city.
442
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:46,960
Okay, boys, okay.
443
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:48,240
Left, left.
444
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:52,880
Under normal conditions,
the bombers would avoid anti-aircraft fire
445
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:56,840
and drop their payloads far away
from the target area.
446
00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,040
Will you put the revs up please?
447
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,240
But tonight
it's like a training maneuver.
448
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,120
Hello Bombardier,
okay when you are.
449
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:07,840
Bomb doors open.
450
00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:09,840
Bomb doors open, Bombardier.
451
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:11,280
Steady.
452
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:14,080
Steady.
453
00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:15,800
Bombs gone.
454
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:25,160
Two hundred and forty-four
Lancaster's drop all their bombs
455
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,062
in the space of just 15 minutes.
456
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:34,280
The sound of the falling bombs
came closer and closer.
457
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:36,880
And I thought,
"Well, when will the next come?
458
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:39,960
And will it fall onto our house?"
459
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:45,000
It was a fright which shook the knees
and the teeth were chattering
460
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:47,640
and, uh, one was numb.
461
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:55,640
Huge high explosive
blockbuster bombs
462
00:31:56,320 --> 00:32:00,360
and 200,000 clustered incendiaries
463
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:03,840
smash into the historic center of Dresden.
464
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,960
The precise combination
is deliberately designed
465
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:14,880
to get inside the buildings
and start fires.
466
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:18,160
Large explosives,
like the 4000-pound cookie,
467
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:21,240
blow the roofs off a street
or a square of houses,
468
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,520
and then hundreds of light incendiaries
fall into those open roofs
469
00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:26,880
and set everything on fire.
470
00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:31,600
And the combination, of course,
blew buildings apart
471
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:33,280
and then lit many fires.
472
00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:37,120
And once those fires got on the way,
473
00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:41,680
they began to converge
and converge and converge.
474
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:47,160
Dresden's tightly packed
medieval streets and wooden houses
475
00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:50,120
are the perfect fuel for the flames.
476
00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:55,880
And tonight, a steady wind
fans them across the city.
477
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:02,680
Fire fed itself
and it started to pull oxygen in
478
00:33:02,760 --> 00:33:05,960
from all around, a self-feeding fire.
479
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:09,360
Something that one can't even begin
to imagine,
480
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,160
it's kind of an outer ring
of Dante's Inferno.
481
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:19,280
And just a few hours later,
482
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:24,880
a second huge wave
of over 500 bombers arrives.
483
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:31,200
A coldly calculated tactic
Harris has picked up from the Luftwaffe.
484
00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:35,200
This second raid
was deliberately timed
485
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,600
to give the firefighters on the ground
enough time to get out there
486
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:40,080
and try and put out the fires.
487
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:44,560
And then another enormous
quantity of bombs rains down.
488
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,960
And the second raid started,
it was more frightening
489
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:50,960
because we were outside.
490
00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:54,880
My sister was hysterical,
I had to calm her down.
491
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,480
By now the rare conditions
have come together
492
00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:02,560
to form an unstoppable high-speed inferno,
493
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:04,760
known as a firestorm.
494
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,680
It effectively creates a tornado
on the ground.
495
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:13,640
Super-heated air that automatically
sucks at very high speed,
496
00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:17,520
air in from the surrounding area
and creates very high winds,
497
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,760
strong enough to lift people,
uproot trees,
498
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:23,360
move vehicles and suck them all
into the flames.
499
00:34:23,720 --> 00:34:29,080
The destruction of the city
is much, much more effective.
500
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:36,800
As day breaks,
the Americans arrive.
501
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:43,760
Their bombers are heading
for Dresden's military marshaling yards
502
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:45,080
and industry.
503
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,480
The American Air Forces
liked to state
504
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,360
that they only engaged
in precision attacks.
505
00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:56,240
But when they bombed Dresden,
of course the city was covered
506
00:34:56,360 --> 00:35:00,320
in a great rolling cloud of smoke
from the previous night's raids.
507
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:04,080
So essentially, they engaged
in another area attack.
508
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,800
One bomb group actually completely
misidentified the target
509
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,560
and bombed Prague instead of Dresden.
510
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,560
When the Lancaster bombers
land back in Britain,
511
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:22,400
RAF Bomber Command is astounded
by the effectiveness of the mission.
512
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:28,120
They've lost just six planes
from a sortie of 800.
513
00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:33,640
The next day, the Allied press
trumpet the success of the raid.
514
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:36,880
Bomber Command
was using the techniques
515
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:39,040
that it used at Dresden routinely.
516
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:43,880
And it just so happened that everything
at Dresden went perfectly,
517
00:35:44,240 --> 00:35:46,840
it just ran like clockwork.
518
00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:57,880
Just a few days later,
a German backlash gathers momentum.
519
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:05,280
Rumors coming from inside Germany
hint at the scale of the human tragedy.
520
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,880
And anger grows among the population
521
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:12,040
to the complete absence
of air raid defenses.
522
00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:16,160
The Nazi Elite is worried about,
is there is going to be this implosion,
523
00:36:16,240 --> 00:36:19,016
that everyone's going to go,
"Do you know what, I've had enough of this
524
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:20,440
and I'm just going to surrender."
525
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:25,080
Party Boss, Mr. Mutschmann,
fled Dresden
526
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:29,160
and was somewhere
in the surrounding mountains.
527
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,600
He was a deserter and a pig.
528
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:37,520
People said
they would kill Hitler
529
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:39,440
if they got their hands on to him.
530
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:46,400
But to everyone's surprise,
the Nazi regime does little
531
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:50,360
to suppress the details
of the horrific Allied raid.
532
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:56,040
With the enemy now at the gates,
the Nazi's propaganda chief,
533
00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:59,520
Joseph Goebbels, takes a bold new tack,
534
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:02,320
and spins the bad news.
535
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:11,120
Goebbels decided
that not to minimize Dresden
536
00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:14,120
but to maximize it,
to go right up to the max.
537
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,000
What he's trying to do
with Dresden, he's going,
538
00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:19,320
"You know, this is the barbarity
that we're dealing with,
539
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:23,600
you know, these awful people
who are wanting to destroy everything
540
00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:26,400
that is good about Germany,
but you've got to keep going,
541
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:28,480
you've got to keep fighting
because the alternative
542
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:30,800
is complete annihilation
and destruction."
543
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:35,640
Goebbels unleashed something
very wild after the Dresden raid.
544
00:37:35,720 --> 00:37:39,400
I mean, you could almost call it
like a sort of propaganda plague,
545
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:41,160
and it was infectious.
546
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:45,960
Goebbels leaks horrific photos
and eye-witness testimony
547
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:48,720
from inside Dresden anonymously
548
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:52,520
through the neutral press
in Sweden and Switzerland.
549
00:37:52,600 --> 00:37:55,480
SWEDISH DAILY NEWS
25th FEBRUARY 1945
550
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:56,720
He tells them
551
00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:58,680
Nearly 200,000 victims
of the Dresden raid.
552
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:01,760
That up to 200,000 civilians
have been killed.
553
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:04,120
It was useful to Goebbels
554
00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:06,920
to interpret this as a terror attack,
555
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,720
in his attempt to win
world public opinion,
556
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:13,800
and in his attempt to paint the Allies
as terrorists.
557
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,760
And so he was very aggressive
in trying to reach the neutral press
558
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:23,280
in particular, to tell the tale
of this awful thing
559
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:24,800
that happened to Dresden,
560
00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:27,960
to rally the German people
and to shock the rest of the world.
561
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:32,720
It would have been very easy
to have gotten shocking pictures
562
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,960
of deaths of non-combatants at Dresden.
563
00:38:37,720 --> 00:38:40,800
I think for a propaganda minister
that would have been easy work.
564
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:46,320
Many of the inhabitants
believed the city was immune from bombing
565
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:50,400
and didn't take the air raid siren
seriously at first.
566
00:38:52,360 --> 00:38:56,440
The eye-witness reports and pictures
reveal the merciless hell
567
00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:58,320
at the Dresden firestorm.
568
00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:02,720
The story of Dresden transforms
569
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:07,000
from Nazi failure into Allied cruelty.
570
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:10,960
The scene would have been
one of complete havoc.
571
00:39:11,120 --> 00:39:14,080
People in terror trying to escape,
572
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:17,920
trying to keep track of their children
or their loved ones,
573
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:20,080
people calling out for one another,
574
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:24,840
people being separated by buildings
that were exploding.
575
00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:29,680
The terrible winds that children
wouldn't have been able to stand up in.
576
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,400
I can't even imagine
what it would have been like,
577
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:35,800
especially as a mother
with a young child,
578
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:38,760
trying to keep a child safe
in this kind of environment.
579
00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:42,360
I ran through the burning streets
580
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:45,520
and my face and hair was singed.
581
00:39:45,840 --> 00:39:49,400
There was some awful scenes,
a number of people died
582
00:39:49,720 --> 00:39:54,520
when they passed an open entrance,
the suction was such
583
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:55,960
that they couldn't fight it
584
00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:59,040
and were dragged
into the burning building.
585
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:04,760
Those who could,
ran to the park or into the reservoir.
586
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:08,360
But they were boiled alive or blasted
587
00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:10,200
by the second wave of bombers.
588
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:14,720
Some took refuge
in the old interconnected cellars
589
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:18,000
under their homes,
as they'd been told to.
590
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,440
But they were cooked alive by the heat.
591
00:40:22,720 --> 00:40:26,160
The super-hot air
started infiltrating,
592
00:40:26,240 --> 00:40:28,320
coming down through the cellars
and actually shooting
593
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:30,840
through the breakthroughs,
even faster in some ways
594
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:32,480
than it was spreading above ground.
595
00:40:32,720 --> 00:40:35,040
So there really was no escape
and this is the true horror
596
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:36,880
of the Dresden firestorm.
597
00:40:38,240 --> 00:40:39,680
Bodies are being melted.
598
00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:43,160
Enormous numbers of casualties
on the ground actually lost their lives
599
00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:45,520
as a result of suffocation or poisoning,
600
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:47,400
rather than they were actually
burnt to death.
601
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:52,640
There was really no escape
except to run, but then where?
602
00:40:53,240 --> 00:40:56,800
People tried to tramp through
melting streets
603
00:40:56,880 --> 00:41:00,040
and found their shoes
stripped off their feet,
604
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:03,120
and they could no longer move
and died where they stood.
605
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:06,000
Whether you survived
was simply a matter of luck.
606
00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:11,440
Two days later,
Dresden is still burning.
607
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:15,760
It takes a recovery team seven hours
608
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:19,240
to get into the city's one main
air raid shelter.
609
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:27,840
Once inside, they find nothing
but green, brown liquid, and bones,
610
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:32,840
all 1,000 people inside
have simply melted.
611
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:36,880
Well, it was horrendous
quite honestly.
612
00:41:37,240 --> 00:41:41,760
My father was found
only identified by his teeth.
613
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:47,440
There were a lot of German soldiers
who were on their stations
614
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:49,040
in the Altstadt,
615
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:51,400
and people really got killed.
616
00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:55,400
Bodies and bodies, hanging heads down
and legs down.
617
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:02,240
Bombing the city centers,
and by this, causing chaos,
618
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:05,760
we have to focus
that it was about killing civilians.
619
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:08,480
Kill as many civilians as possible.
620
00:42:08,720 --> 00:42:12,080
And the more civilians you kill,
the bigger the chaos will be,
621
00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:16,960
the greater will be the effect
on ending, shortening the war.
622
00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:19,960
But of course it was not worth it.
623
00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:24,280
We have no evidence whatsoever
that it achieved any effect.
624
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:29,280
The main streets were again serviceable
after a couple of days.
625
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:31,360
And even the factories were not destroyed.
626
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,280
The factories, the airfields,
all things you could use
627
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:37,640
for military purposes were not destroyed.
628
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:44,520
News of the indiscriminate
targeting of civilians in Dresden
629
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:47,160
soon reaches Allied journalists.
630
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:54,680
A young American reporter
sneaks the phrase "terror bombing"
631
00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:59,200
past the sensors and it's published
all over the United States.
632
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:04,000
The story shocks
a previously insulated public.
633
00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:08,840
It just sounds different
from what we've heard before,
634
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:12,160
exploiting refugees in a crowded city.
635
00:43:12,640 --> 00:43:14,520
And the reporters picked up on that.
636
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:17,480
There was a media storm produced
in the western press,
637
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:20,360
this was the point at which questions
were beginning to be asked
638
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:22,960
in the British Parliament,
and you very much got
639
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:25,120
the British Government
on the back foot now.
640
00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:30,320
Goebbels' master plan
starts to play out.
641
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:34,400
A catastrophic failure
of the German air defense
642
00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:38,000
evolves into a model crisis
for the Allies.
643
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:43,080
And when he seeded the story
in the neutral press,
644
00:43:44,200 --> 00:43:45,400
Goebbels lied.
645
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:49,200
He exaggerated the death toll,
646
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:53,240
taking the true figure
from the Dresden police report
647
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:55,440
and adding a zero.
648
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:59,640
The real death toll is 25,000.
649
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:04,440
Goebbels produced
this huge figure for Dresden
650
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:07,840
that's one of the most successful pieces
of fake news
651
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:10,560
in the history of fake news.
652
00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:17,280
So, it's not the numbers
which were announced by Goebbels,
653
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:19,120
so in the 200 thousands.
654
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:22,760
The town of Dresden
a couple of years ago
655
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:24,600
set up an academic committee
656
00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:28,080
who should definitely clear
how many people were killed in Dresden.
657
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:32,560
And their maximum estimate is 25,000.
658
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:36,880
It's a huge number,
but it's not ten times that number.
659
00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,760
And when you go to concentration camps
and you see the monstrous way
660
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:45,800
in which the Nazis behaved,
and what they did to others,
661
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:49,520
the idea that they've got the nerve
to challenge what the Allies were doing
662
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,360
on something like Dresden
is absolutely outrageous.
663
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:58,440
The Allies take the bait
nonetheless and turn on each other.
664
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,480
The United States blame the British
665
00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:04,040
for the indiscriminate bombing
at Dresden.
666
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:08,360
The Americans worked very hard
to distinguish themselves
667
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:11,960
and claim that they were not doing
area bombing.
668
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:16,880
They didn't want to be tarred
with the same brush as Bomber Command.
669
00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:21,600
With the US Air Force
denying responsibility,
670
00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:25,800
the actions of RAF Bomber Command
come under scrutiny.
671
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:32,040
And Winston Churchill fears
he might be held responsible.
672
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:38,240
By now the prime minister
has no need for the bombing campaign.
673
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:42,080
The Western Front is moving again
674
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,520
and the Soviets are deep inside
Nazi Germany.
675
00:45:46,720 --> 00:45:50,320
So that March,
he starts to distance himself
676
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:52,520
from the policy of city bombing.
677
00:45:53,320 --> 00:45:55,920
He's always been slightly torn
over the bombing of cities,
678
00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:57,040
the area of bombing.
679
00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,400
He's flip-flopped really between the two.
680
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:03,360
And I think the storm of protests
that there was after Dresden
681
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:06,400
has actually made him pretty guilty
about the whole thing.
682
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:10,360
He began to worry about how
his own actions
683
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:13,240
might be judged by historians.
684
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:18,520
And at this point,
he basically changed course
685
00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:23,040
and sent a minute saying
that we really shouldn't engage
686
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:27,280
in this kind of activity anymore,
and we should avoid anything
687
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:30,480
that even remotely looks like
terroristic bombing.
688
00:46:32,200 --> 00:46:35,600
As Churchill distances himself
from area bombing,
689
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:38,360
the blame for the Dresden attack shifts
690
00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:43,000
to Bomber Command's ruthless leader,
Arthur Harris.
691
00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:46,960
Now clearly, Harris was willing
to carry out the campaign,
692
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:48,040
that was his job.
693
00:46:48,680 --> 00:46:51,720
But increasing attention
focused on Harris as the person
694
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:54,280
who had envisioned the raid,
695
00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:57,960
but in fact, Churchill himself
had been critical
696
00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:00,080
in spurring the Dresden Raid.
697
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:02,520
Harris is fairly incensed by it
698
00:47:02,880 --> 00:47:06,000
and famously expresses the opinion
699
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:08,840
that Dresden is not worth the bones
700
00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:10,760
of one British grenadier.
701
00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:13,680
After Dresden,
702
00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:18,120
the reputation of Bomber Command
and Arthur Harris
703
00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:20,040
lies in tatters.
704
00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:22,600
Harris after the war
becomes somebody
705
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:24,760
that no one wants to embrace.
706
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:26,320
He's not a hero.
707
00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:29,960
In many ways the single largest part
of the British war effort,
708
00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:34,720
Bomber Command, becomes someone
that no one wants to be associated with.
709
00:47:39,120 --> 00:47:41,800
The final snub for Bomber Command
from Churchill
710
00:47:42,040 --> 00:47:45,880
is that in his VE speech, he mentions
just about every branch
711
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:48,960
of the armed service and what they’ve done
and where they’ve served,
712
00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:51,640
apart from one
and that is Bomber Command.
713
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:55,400
It takes 67 years
714
00:47:56,640 --> 00:48:01,320
for the 55,000 men who served
and died in RAF Bomber Command
715
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:04,400
to finally get a memorial in London,
716
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:07,680
alongside the other British Armed Forces.
717
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:12,320
And the morality of the area bombing
of Dresden
718
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:17,040
is a difficult question,
debated to this very day.
719
00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:22,560
We have to balance our great
sympathy for the Germany civilians
720
00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:24,120
who were caught there and destroyed,
721
00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:27,440
with the knowledge that hundreds
of thousands of people
722
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:31,080
will be killed by Germans
in the coming months.
723
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:36,760
So, Dresden is a legitimate target
and also Germany is resisting.
724
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:39,640
It's an odd thing. It's almost like
the victory of the Allies
725
00:48:39,720 --> 00:48:43,120
in the Second World War was so complete
that the Germans have become victims.
726
00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:46,960
It's, of course,
hard for a democracy
727
00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:48,680
who fights against Hitler.
728
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:52,320
It's a bit like,
"Definitely, good against evil."
729
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:54,440
But there was no limit.
730
00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:57,720
The more civilians we kill,
the better it is.
731
00:48:58,720 --> 00:49:01,040
There's nobody who says,
"Stop, we can't do that."
732
00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:05,080
And there's a point
at which you have to look at yourself
733
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:09,000
and say,
"What have I become in doing this?"
734
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:12,960
and I think this is where Dresden
is relevant.
735
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:14,560
It's a warning.
736
00:49:31,820 --> 00:49:36,320
Re-sync & redact: BLU DUAINE
blu.duaine@protonmail.com