yr13_ia_2007_burge_b

=Summary of Evidence (500-600 words)=

In 1942 Charles Portal introduced a policy called area bombing which was known as ‘terror bombing’ in Germany for obvious reasons, the policy meant that entire cities and towns were targeted not just strategic points. A way of bombing known as fire storming was used, which was dropping bombs filled with very flammable chemicals such as napalm, the bombs created such heat above the areas bombed that cold air rushed down creating tornadoes of fire.

In February 1945 a few months before the fall of Berlin over 700 Lancaster bombers were sent by Britain and over 500 bombers by the US were sent to bomb the German city of Dresden, the bombing of Dresden was not a particular military target, Dresden had no defences and was overpopulated due to the gathering refugees fleeing from the advancing Russian army. It is impossible to know the amount of victims that there were because of the extent of the destruction, it is estimated to be around 40 000 but some sources argue its [**it was**] 100 000.

It is easy to see why the Dresden bombing was such a controversial action and it is often questioned as a war crime or a justifiable military action. This extract from Arthur Harris’ autobiography shows reason for the bombing //‘I was called upon to attack Dresden; this was considered a target of the first importance for the offensive on the Eastern front. Dresden had by this time become the main centre of communications for the defence of Germany on the southern half of the Eastern front and it was considered that a heavy air attack would disorganise these communications and also make Dresden useless as a controlling centre for the defence’ [Bomber Offensive-Autobiography of Sir Arthur Harris].// [**this is really giving reasons and justifications for the bombing, so it belongs in your analysis section; this section should instead be PURELY DESCRIPTIVE AND NARRATIVE**]

Accounts from survivors of the Dresden bombing show how truly horrifying the bombing was, //‘To my left I suddenly see a woman. I can see her to this day and shall never forget it. She carries a bundle in her arms. It is a baby. She runs, she falls, and the child flies in an arc into the fire’[Margaret Freyer was living in Dresden at the time of the bombing] .// There is clear evidence proving that public opinion even now has not let the matter rest, in 1992, 47 years after the bombing when the Queen’s mother unveiled a bronze statue of Arthur Harris; the statue was attacked by people ‘//the crowd clambered over the statue like ants’//. [**source of this quote?** - **however, this is a MUCH better paragraph - you are outlining what actually happened rather than passing judgement, at least in the first half of the paragraph**]

The idea that the attack was such a massacre can be seen from this GAF pilot //‘they were allowed to fly wherever they pleased and no one did anything about it’// [German national archives] when thinking of how they could not handle the American and British planes, resulting in an undefended Dresden.

So in studying this question perhaps the underlying question is ‘what is a war crime?’ and to decipher whether or not the bombing of Dresden was a war crime, the definition of a war crime is a crime against the laws of war and the bombing of Dresden could certainly be spun that way with the act ‘Directing attacks against civilians’. However it is difficult to show something such as the Dresden bombing as a war crime because of apparent motives for the attacks such as the idea put across that it was to aid the Russians in their advance thus helping the war effort making the bombings a defendable if ruthless attack. [**This analytical point belongs in your analysis section, not here; this section should be purely narrative, with little or no personal judgement in evidence**]

In 1946 the victors of the war tried the Germans in Nurembourg [**spelling!**] for their crimes, in accordance with the Moscow document [**which document?**] which stated, 'evidence of atrocities, massacres and cold-blooded mass executions which are being perpetrated by Hitlerite forces in many of the countries they have overrun and from which they are now being steadily expelled, will be judged on the spot by the peoples whom they have outraged' [**So? What point are you making in this paragraph?**]