February 14, 1945: Allied forces heavily bomb Dresden, Germany.

On perhaps a less pleasant note, on this day back in 1945, the combined British and American air forces participated in one of the more controversial actions committed by the Allies - the destruction of Dresden, then one of Germany’s larger cities. The controversy arose from the debatable justification for the bombing, for Dresden was most famous as a cultural center (and during the war, a refuge for fleeing Germans), not an industrial city that warranted destruction (though it did contain many military factories). 

At the same time, it was the view of the British high command that any German city was an eligible target, regardless of its cultural worth, and so, between February 13 and 15, the RAF and USAAF dropped nearly 4,000 tons of explosives and incendiaries over Dresden. Some have remarked that the bombing of Dresden seemed to be direct retaliation for the devastating Luftwaffe bombing of the British town of Coventry, similar in that it was also a historical city.

The difference was, however, that while the entire country-wide Blitz of the United Kingdom claimed some 40,000 lives over an eight-month period, the destruction of Dresden alone claimed the lives of around 25,000 civilians in three days. Winston Churchill, who had helped plan the raid, even remarked afterwards:

“It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed… The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing. ”