Irving's Opinion on, Was it a Legimate target?

David Irving made a poignant case In 1963 that Dresden was not a military target, referred to by A.C Grayling as”seemingly arbitrary attacks.”¹ He presents Dresden as being a weakly defended city, economically based on, “theatres, museums, cultural institutions and home-industries.”² and that they were impossible to spot by air, “...it would have been hard to single out any one plant of major importance.”³ Irving's claim of a industry-weak Dresden is not as holistic as it seems, as he relents and states that munitions as well as Junker and V.2 manufacturing firms but assures that, “None of these plants... was within three miles of the city centre, or within the area marked out for R.A.F. Bomber Command’s two devastating night attacks.”⁴ All of these claims were based on evidence from prior to 1963

Irving dismisses the official claims of the RAF that it was seen as a major transport link. Irving believed that, “At the time of the attack, however, the city’s strategic significance was less than

marginal”⁵ he based on the evidence at the time which shows that the raids had minimal impact on the city.

“Rail transport through the city – the ostensible target of the raids – had barely suffered, confirmed the police chief. Although traffic had halted for a few days, by the end of the month the trains were rolling through again.23 Years later, the east German (Soviet zone) history of the destruction and reconstruction of Dresden stated: ‘The railroad lines were not particularly seriously damaged; an emergency service was able to repair them so swiftly that no significant dislocation of traffic resulted.’ After referring to the devastation wrought on the city’s architectural treasures the history continued that ‘in contrast to these cultural monuments and the entire Dresden inner city, these transport installations were not destroyed.....”⁶

Although the initial damage had cause traffic to halt briefly the rail yards were unscathed compared to the destruction that had been hoped according to Irving. However several problems arise in these claims. His information is based off unreliable Soviet sources and does not consider that the result does not make it a legitimate target, as Bomber Command had still aimed for them.

1A.C Grayling, Amongst the Dead Cities the history and moral legacy of the WWII bombings of civilians in Germany and Japan, Walker & Company, 2006, p. 73

2Irving, op. Cit, p. 91

3Ibid., p. 91

4Ibid., p. 92

5Ibid., p. 93

6Ibid., pp. 230-231