Dresden firebombed
February 14, 1945
Over two nights, British and American bombers created a firestorm in the baroque Saxon city of Dresden. Perhaps twenty-five thousand civilians died, many of them refugees fleeing the Red Army. The raid became one of the most argued-over episodes of the Western air war, a touchstone in later debates over total war and moral limits.
In context
Also in 1945 (12 other events on record)
- Liberation of the camps · Europe · War
- Trinity test lights the New Mexico desert · North America · Science
- Hiroshima bombed · East Asia · War
- V-E Day · Europe · War
- Hitler kills himself in the bunker · Europe · War
- Nagasaki bombed · East Asia · War
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in War
Era
Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.