Apocalypse 1945 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub

Apocalypse 1945

of one percent.19

At 6:49 A.M. that morning, February 14, the Air Ministry communiqué began to

rattle out of the teleprinters throughout the English speaking world:

6ASH. LAST NIGHT BOMBER COMMAND DISPATCHED 1400 AIRCRAFT. THE MAIN OBJECTIVE WAS DRESDEN. MESSAGE

ENDS 06:50 HOURS 14.2.1945.20

For Dresden however it was not the end. For Dresden the onslaught was just beginning

anew. A new force, this time of American bombers, was already lifting into

the air. The principal target for the 1,350 Flying Fortresses and Liberators was to be

Dresden once again. The third heavy attack within fourteen hours was under way.

v v v

It was 6:14 A.M. that morning before Adolf Hitler had gone to bed in Berlin. He

never retired until the last planes had left German air space. Racked with exhaustion

THE DESTRUCTION OF DRESDEN 184

he rose at one P.M. that afternoon to learn that Dresden was in flames, and that

American bombers had just returned to complete the carnage.

After the sirens sounded the all clear Hitler chanced upon Dr Erwin Giesing, visiting

the Reich Chancellery; the young army doctor had treated his head injuries

after the bomb attempt on his life seven months before. His voice cracking, his gaze

drifting absently between the doctor and the floor, Hitler talked of a Victory Weapon

(Siegwaffe) that he still had up his sleeve. ‘Then the war will come to a glorious end,’

he said. ‘Some time ago,’ he continued, ‘we solved the problem of nuclear fission and

we have developed it so far that we can exploit the energy for armaments purposes.

They won’t know what hit them! It’s the weapon of the future. With it Germany’s

future is assured. It was Providence that allowed me to perceive this final path to

victory.’

He shambled off back down into the bunker: he had lied to the doctor – or perhaps

romanticised, and he knew it.21

1 RAF Bomber Command, Report BC/S. 26342/2/ORS4 (dated May 3, 1945) on Night Operations,

13/14th February, 1945 (PRO) (Author’s microfilm DI–35).

2 The records of Dresden-Klotzsche were quoted to the author by the German Central Meteorological

Office in Offenbach.

3 Appendix: Summary of Operations against Germany on Nights of 13th/14th and 14th/15th

February 1945 (Records of RAF Bomber Command, PRO file AIR…/…) (Author’s microfilm DI–

35).

4 RAF Bomber Command, Report BC/S. 26342/2/ORS4 (dated May 3, 1945) on Night Operations,

13/14th February, 1945 (PRO file AIR */*) (Author’s microfilm DI–35).

5 RAF Bomber Command, Report BC/S. 26342/2/ORS4 (dated May 3, 1945) on Night Operations,

13/14th February, 1945 (PRO file AIR */*) (Author’s microfilm DI–35).

6 HSSuPf Elbe in den Gauen Halle-Merseburg, Sachsen, und im Wehrkreis IV: Befehlshaber der

Ordnungspolizei, ‘Schlußmeldung über die vier Luftangriffe auf den LS-Ort Dresden am 13., 14.

und 15. Februar 1945’, signed [Police colonel Wolfgang] Thierig, Eilenburg, den 15. März 1945 (Dresden

city archives) (Author’s microfilm DI–35).

7 Details of the Main mForce brefings were quoted to the authgor by Messrs Hofmann, Abel,

Lindsley, and Jones, all foremr Bomber Command aircrew personnel. Other details were quoted to

THE DESTRUCTION OF DRESDEN 185

the author by Messrs Cook, Mahoney, Parry, and otehr airmen and offciers of Bomber Command at

the time.

8 That the Air Ministry had spoken of poison gas plants, vital ammunition works, etc.

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