The Destruction of Dresden

A photographic record of the Allied bombing of Dresden, February 1945

These photographs document the destruction of Dresden on 13–15 February 1945, one of the most devastating air raids of the Second World War. The images were collected by David Irving during his research for The Destruction of Dresden (1963) and its revised edition Apocalypse 1945: The Destruction of Dresden (2005). Many were taken by the Dresden photographer Walther Hahn.

Before the Raids

The Dresden skyline before the war: unchanged since painted by Canaletto

The Frauenkirche in Dresden before its destruction

Dresden is filled with refugees on the night of the raid

The Attackers

Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, commander of RAF Bomber Command

The aiming point was routinely marked in the centre of the German town’s residential area. A line and an X marks where the bombs were to be concentrated

The Lancaster bomber — workhorse of RAF Bomber Command in the second half of World War II

Flight Lieutenant William Topper, Marker Leader in the first attack on Dresden

Master Bomber Wing Commander Maurice Smith and his navigator Flight Lieutenant Page with their Mosquito before take-off

The Attack

The first bomb on Dresden: a target indicator released by Flight Lieutenant Topper hurtles toward the Sports Stadium, the marker reference point

The candles of doom. Target indicators go down over the already blazing city. The Germans called this eerie spectacle “Christmas Trees”

A horrific firestorm begins as more target indicators rain down to guide the oncoming main force

As the firestorm blazes, another bomb hurtles down into the inferno, silhouetted against the blazing city

American bombers over Dresden at noon the next day found great fires still raging

The Dresden target map actually used by Wing Commander Maurice Smith for the first attack. It shows the fan-shaped sector he was to attack — the heart of the famous old city

The Aftermath

Not until March 1945 did a reconnaissance plane manage to secure an aerial photograph of the devastated city

The city’s ruins, photographed months later

A ruined streetcar teeters in the city’s ruins

All that remained of a fleeing car passenger

The Cremations

From 25 February 1945, the remains of air raid casualties were gathered up for identification and open-air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square.

Bodies gathered for cremation, Dresden Altmarkt

Remains gathered for identification, Altmarkt, 25 February 1945

Remains gathered at the Altmarkt square

Troops heap up the bodies on makeshift pyres, trampling them down to make room for more

The bodies are cremated in the open air on Dresden’s Altmarkt square

A family caught in the British air raid, shortly before their burial at the Tolkewitz cemetery

Pathetic chalked messages on the ruins — survivors seeking information on missing wives, mothers, and family members buried in the rubble

The Aftermath — Other Raids

The devastating raids continued to the end. On 27 February, two weeks after Dresden, the RAF obliterated Pforzheim, killing 17,000 in the firestorm — one in four of the town’s population

The Investigation

Walther Hahn, Dresden’s photographer of record, visited by David Irving in 1962

The RAF Master Bomber at the first Dresden attack, Wing Commander Maurice Smith, interviewed by David Irving in his office, March 1962. Shown the appalling photographs of the carnage, he went quiet and blushed

David Irving interviews Sir Arthur Harris

On the following day, 23 March 1962, David Irving (aged 27) interviewed Marshal of the RAF Sir Arthur Harris at his home in Oxfordshire about the Dresden raids

In March 1945, Churchill wrote to his Chiefs of Staff attempting to shrug off responsibility for the Dresden raids. They refused to accept the document

The Destruction of Dresden by David Irving

David Irving’s book on Dresden, the first to reveal the truth about the horrific air raid to the outside world. First published 1963; revised edition 2005

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