the legitimacy of bombing civilians extension to: 'the legitimacy of Dresden as a target'

 Grayling offers a philosophical approach to the legitimacy of the raid by considering the raid from a moral view point. Grayling makes a clear point about bombing civilians proffering the idea that, “Allied bombing in the Second World War was on whole or part morally wrong,”¹ challenging the notion that war creates forgivable necessities. Grayling uses the memo from Winston Churchill's minute on the 28^th of March that stated, “..I feel the need for more precise concentration upon military objectives, such as oil and communications behind the immediate battle-zone, rather than mere acts of terror and wanton destruction, however impressive.”² He uses this to show the immediate reactions of Churchill to the bombings so as to show that it was a moral issue from the beginning.

The bombing of Dresden is likened to the blockade in Hew Strachan's article, “Strategic Bombing and Civilian Casualties” in which he states that both were a part of total war and as such, “It defined not only what would be required of one's own population, but what one could inflict on the enemy's.”³ He makes it clear that the WWI blockade was worse than the bomber campaign as “600,000 died, fewer than were reckoned than were reckoned to have succumbed to the navy's blockade in the First World War.”⁴ Strachan makes this statement to highlight that the blockade, “was not a war crime.” Hence Strachan concludes that Dresden is not a war crime as contextually the blockade and air offensive had the same objective of fighting an enemy engaged in total war. Dresden being bombed as not a war crime supported by Russell Wilson, “In the concept and conduct of war in the twentieth century,civilians increasingly came to be seen....as an integral part of the war machine...”⁵

1Grayling, op. Cit, p. 5

2Ibid., p. 175

3H. Strachan, Strategic Bombing and Civilian Questions in P Addison and JA Crang (ed.), Firestorm: The bombing of Dresden, 1945, Ivan R. Dee, 2006, p. 2

4Ibid., p. 17

5R. Wilson, Why Dresden Matters in P Addison and JA Crang (ed.), Firestorm: The bombing of Dresden, 1945, Ivan R. Dee, 2006, p. 168