Dresden (58 page)

“biblical pillars of fire”: Jäckel, interview.

dropping heavy crates: Günter Jäckel is referring to the five-hundred-pound canisters of M17 incendiaries, which the Flying Fortresses carried in such unusually high numbers for the daylight raid on Dresden.

“we had this phosphor”: Fritz and Hannelore Kuhn, interview. Also for the following.

“due to cloud cover”: Intops Report No. 290, NARA, Washington, D. C.

the most serious damage: Cited in Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 148f.

for special persecution: Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 151.

Chapter 24: Aftermath

“my father came to me”: John, interview.

“they had gone”: Frau A. Kleinstück, interview by the author, Ottendorf-Akrilla, October 2001.

he would be back at school: Adam, interview.

they found refuge: Brenner, “
Das Lied ist aus,”
p. 93ff.

textile industry had declined: See Michael C. Schneider, “Die Wirtschaftsen-twicklung von der Wirtschaftskrise bis zum Kriegsende” in
Sachsen in der NS Zeit,
ed. Clemens Vollnhalls (Leipzig, 2002), p. 72f.

another crowded night: Bomber Command Intelligence Narrative of Operations No. 1008 14th/15th February 1945, PRO, London, AIR 14/3422.

abstract application of ethics: Tripp,
Eighth Passenger,
p. 90.

through thick cloud: Intops Summary No. 290, NARA, Washington, D. C. See also Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 154.

“bombing…appeared scattered”: Bomber Command Intelligence Narrative no. 1008, PRO, London, AIR 14/3422.

glow of fires: Operations Record Book, RAF Bomber Command 1 Group, 14/15 February 1945, PRO, London, AIR 25/3.

“over the continent”: Tripp,
Eighth Passenger,
p. 91.

without a scratch: Chemnitz was, however, to be bombed by the RAF again on the night of March 5–6, 1945, with 760 aircraft. This time, a third of the city's built-up area was destroyed and thirty-seven hundred of the city's inhabitants died. Among the important factories destroyed was the Siegmar plant, which made engines for German tanks. Sir Arthur Harris was nothing if not persistent.

“Frauenkirche is still standing”: Fritz and Hannelore Kuhn, interview.

bricked up from the outside: For details see Wolfram Jäger and Dieter Rosenkrantz, “Der letzte Trümmerberg Dresdens sagt aus” in Reichert, ed.
Verbrannt bis zur Unkenntlichkeit,
p. 136ff.

the cloud stayed thick: See Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 158f.

display problems: Bergander,
Dresden in Luftkrieg,
p. 159.

they were picked up by police: See Seydewitz,
Die unbesiegbare Stadt,
p. 103ff. and “Die ganze Komödie dauerte zwei Tage.” Gerichtliche Vergeltungsmaßnahmen gegenüber oppositionellen Tschechen aus dem “Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren” in Haase, Norbert, and Birgit Sack, eds.
Die Strafjustiz der Diktaturen und der historische Ort. Leipzig,
2001. p. 84.

“this was the last straw”: Bergander, interview.

“city gone”: Lebenszeichen von Himmstädt, Ali dated 15.2.

from Stadtarchiv Dresden Collection 13. Februar 1945 e. V. Handschriften.

“we just stared”: Lang, interview.

Chapter 25: City of the Dead

“attacks were obviously very severe”: Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 175f.

rescue and clearance:
Schlussmeldung über die vier Luftangriffe auf den LS-Ort Dresden am 13. 14. und 15. Februar 1945 vom 15. März 1945
, copy in HstA D and also reproduced in Weidauer,
Inferno Dresden,
p. 206ff (hereafter S-S-Final Report).

special powers: See Groehler,
Der Bombenkrieg gegen Deutschland,
p. 197.

armed with full powers: Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 165ff.

“rumor-mongering”:
Der Freiheitskampf,
February 17, 1945, p. 2 in the cutout-and-keep section “Was jeder wissen muss!” (What everyone must know): “Warm food will be…available to all. No one need worry about nourishment.” 348 immediately executed: SS Final Report.

“Many holes were dug at once”: Kurt Vonnegut,
Slaughterhouse-Five,
New York, 1969, p. 272f.

corpse-filled cellars: Papers of R. C. Dunford, former prisoner of war, in Imperial War Museum, London, 86/251.

basements had been emptied: Diary of Alec White, 1944–45 in Stadtarchiv Dresden 2001. 131.

It became imperative”: Ellgering quoted in Götz Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 179.

“huge grill racks”: “Riesige Roste.” See Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 180.

former staff from…Treblinka: See Groehler,
Der Bombenkrieg gegen Deutschland,
p. 412.

lengthy, meticulous report on air attack: SS Final Report.

situation report: Der Chef der Ordnungspolzei, Berlin den 22. März 1945 Betr: Luftangriffe auf das Reichsgebiet Lagemeldung 1404 (hereafter Situation Report 1404); copy in HStaD file
Feuerschutzpoilizei Dresden,
original at Bundesarchiv Koblenz.

“the total number of dead”: SS Final Report.

saddest category of death: Lists of dead, street by street and house by house, in HStaD file
Feuerschutzpolizei Dresden
.

result of a pact: Prince Ernst Heinrich von Sachsen,
Mein Lebensweg,
p. 287.

“heat was like in an oven”: Letter “Lieber Hans!” dated March 29, 1945, and letter of December 1997 to Günther Kannegiesser, copies supplied to the author by Herr Kannegiesser.

a death toll: SD reports cited in Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 314f.

government had “hushed up”: See Longmate,
Air Raid,
p. 220.

list of streets: Matthias Neutzner, “Wozu leben wir nun noch? Um zu warten, bis die Russen kommen?” in Dresdner Hefte 41, p. 11.

“special case”: For this and the following, see Neutzner, “Der Wehrmacht so nah verwandt,” p. 217ff. See also Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 177.

for trains traveling southeast: See SS Final Report.

“back to normal”: Neutzner, “Der Wehrmacht so nahe verwandt,” p. 220. On March 2 the USAAF would launch another damaging attack on the Dresden railway system. This time, the railway bridge was worse hit. For a few days the line was once more impassable. The technical brigade planned to import nine thousand workers to put the Dresden system back in full use yet again, but by that stage this was a truly unrealistic ambition. Official accounts from the American side overemphasized the damage done to Dresden as a railway center in February 1945. German announcements erred in the opposite direction. The truth lies somewhere in between. Vital shipments could be brought through, albeit more slowly, but restoration of the pre–February 13 service was never more than partial.

remained simply “missing”: Railway report of February 18, 1945, cited in Neutzner, “Der Wehrmacht so nah verwandt,” p. 220.

twelve thousand dwellings: Situation Report 1404.

low military death toll: Situation Report 1404.

“all the barrack buildings”: Hoch, interview.

two hundred factories: Figures for factories and damage from SS Final Report.

industry worst affected: Stadtarchiv Dresden Kriegsschädenamt (OB 1432) 11.4.45, cited in Reichert, ed.,
Verbrannt bis zur Unkenntlichkeit,
p. 60.

Zeiss-Ikon's plants: Situation Report 1404.

effect on armaments: The exact estimate was arrived at by Dresden city archivist Friedrich Reichert, Reichert, ed.,
Verbrannt bis zur Unkenntlichkeit,
p. 60.

“suffered seriously”: Figures on Balda-Werke and estimates of damage to the Balda factory from Herbert Blumtritt,
Geschichte der Dresdner Fotoindustrie
(Stuttgart, 2001) p. 90f.

now said to be suitable: Stadtarchiv Dresden Kriegsschädenamt (OB 1431) 11.4.45, cited in Reichert, ed.,
Verbrannt bis zur Unkenntlichkeit,
p. 60.

Chapter 26: Propaganda

“a big double attack”: NARA, Washington, D. C., RG331, Box 15, Public Relations Division Briefings, February 14, 1945.

“first of all”: Transcript of press briefing in NARA, Washington, D. C., RG331. Also for the following references to journalists' questions and Grierson's answers.

“story was passed”: Memo, Lieutenant Colonel Richard H Merrick, Hotel Scribe, to Colonel Dupuy, American Express Building, Story by Cowan, AP, Re Bombing, February 18 1945, in NARA, Washington, D. C., RG331.

“this is entirely horrifying”: Cecil King,
With Malice Towards None: A War Diary.
Entry for February 17, 1945, p. 290.

“the form of a bonus”: Copy of cable from Reuters correspondent Steen in NARA Washington, D. C., RG331.

reorganize the entire press department: See memorandum from Deputy Chief of Air Staff (General D. M. Schlatter) to Bedell-Smith (and the latter's reply), in NARA, Washington, D. C., RG331.

“what happened on that evening”: Stokes' speech in
Hansard
Parliamentary Debates. Commons. vol. 408, Col. 1901. See also Irving's detailed account in
Apocalypse 1945,
p. 312ff.

a finishing school: Cook and Nesbit, Target: Hitler's Oil, p. 182.

“Dresden also is being smashed”: Stuart Ball, ed.,
Parliament and Politics in the Age of Churchill and Attlee: The Headlam Diaries 1935–1951
(Cambridge, 1999), p. 447.

a personal reassurance: Webster and Frankland,
Strategic Air Offensive,
vol. 3, p. 113.

“he immediately said”: See Len Giovannitti and Fred Freed,
The Decision to Drop the Bomb
(London, 1967), p. 41.

“Suddenly I was out there”: Günter Jäckel, interview.

reportedly shaking with rage: Ian Kershaw,
Hitler 1936–1945: Nemesis
(London, 2000), p. 779.

with the same bitter determination:
Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal,
vol. 16. Proceedings, June 21, 1946.

“Without Baggage”: Cited in Erich Kästner's diary entry for March 8, 1945, in Erich Kästner,
Notabene 1945: Ein Tagebuch
(Zürich, 1961), p. 52.

fell down or became irreparable: See Speer,
Inside the Third Reich,
p. 428f.

terrible “phosphor” burns: Copies of these from the records of the German Embassy in Berne, Switzerland from archive of the German Foreign Office (
Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes
), in the author's possession, courtesy of Dr. H. Schnatz of Koblenz.

the “terror” aspects: German Foreign Office document
Betr.: Bombenterror
dated January 16, 1945 (date-stamped by Berne Mission January 27) courtesy of Dr. H. Schnatz of Koblenz.

“his benighted name”: German Foreign Office document
Manifest gegen Luft-marschal Harris,
dated February 7, 1945 (date-stamped by Berne Mission February 12) courtesy of Dr. H. Schnatz of Koblenz.

“wholly possible for the residential areas”: Copy of DNB press release of February 16, 1945, from Germany Embassy, Berne, courtesy of Dr. H. Schnatz of Koblenz.

“Dresden, Victim of the Air War”: Telegram from Foreign Office, Berlin, February 19, 1945 to Embassy Berne (registered there February 20, 1945), courtesy of Dr. H. Schnatz of Koblenz.

columns of fleeing vehicles: Bergander,
Dresden im Luftkrieg,
p. 214.

an extra zero: See Weidauer,
Inferno Dresden,
pp. 111–112.

“150,000 dead”: Fritz and Hannelore Kuhn, interview.

his own private estimate:
Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal,
vol. 17. Proceedings, June 29, 1946 (afternoon). The evidence was given by senior Propaganda Ministry official Hans Fritzsche, who was present at that conference.

Chapter 27: The Final Fury

the greatest tonnage: Figures from Middlebrook and Everitt,
Bomber Command War Diaries,
p. 645.

he devoted more effort: See especially Sebastian Cox's remarks in his introduction to Harris,
Despatch on War Operations,
p. xxiii.

not…entirely risk-free: Some fell victim to the usual foul-ups, collisions and accidents, but most were shot down by flak or enemy fighters. Eighteen Lan
casters of 5 Group (7 percent) were lost over the Lützkendorf oil plant on March 14–15, 1945 (as John Aldridge, who took part in that raid, reminded the author), while on March 16–17 German night fighters got in among No. 1 Group's bomber stream on its way to Nuremburg and shot down twenty-four aircraft, 10.4 percent of the group's strength.

six days of fierce fighting: Friedrich,
Der Brand,
p. 313ff.

“stopped production so effectively”: Cited in Webster and Frankland,
Strategic Air Offensive,
vol. 3, p. 264.

these were never used again: Ian V. Hogg,
German Secret Weapons of the Second World War,
(London/Mechanicsburg, 1999), p. 43.

“moment has come”: Text of the Churchill memorandum in PRO, London, CAB 121/3, Bombing Policy in North-West Europe.

“The feeling, such as there is, over Dresden could be easily explained by a psychiatrist.”: Henry Probert,
Bomber Harris,
p. 322.

a fairly rare event: Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke,
War Diaries 1939–45
(London, 2001), p. 679 (entry for March 29, 1945).

notoriously prone to self-contradiction: R. G. Casey,
Personal Experience 1939–46
(London, 1962), p. 166 (diary entry for June 27, 1943). Casey, a conservative Australian politician, was British representative in the Middle East with ministerial rank in 1942–43. He responded flatly to Churchill that “we hadn't started it, and…it was them or us.”