Today in History, February 14, 1945

The British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force today dropped thousands of tons of bombs on Dresden, the capital of the Saxony region of Germany. Dresden had been predominantly constructed out of wood, and the incendiary bombing caused a firestorm that ravaged the city. The inferno reached 2,700 degrees (Fahrenheit) in places and killed an estimated 25,000 to 40,000 civilians.

“The Dresden assault struck the network of rail and highway arteries and depots upon which the Wehrmacht is dependent to supply its front-line forces, now rapidly falling back upon the Saxony capital,” reported the Winnipeg Free Press on February 14, 1945. “[…] Dresden itself was hit by nearly 4,000 R.A.F., Dominion and American bombers last night and today in the first big joint operations supporting the Red army offensive.”

NOTE: Late American author Kurt Vonnegut was a prisoner-of-war held in an underground camp in Dresden at the time of the bombings. His novel Slaughterhouse-Five is based on what he experienced during and following the firestorm.

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