This playlist is Lord HardThrasher’s series on the bomber war over Europe in the Second World War, covering RAF Bomber Command, the USAAF, strategic bombing, bombing accuracy, the Butt Report, the Norden bombsight, Hamburg, Dresden, area bombing, precision bombing, and the moral and military arguments around the Allied bombing campaign. It asks whether strategic bombing worked, why early bombing failed so badly, how Bomber Command improved, what the Americans and British got right and wrong, and why the bomber offensive remains one of the most controversial parts of the war.
Curated by: HardThrasher (15 videos)
In Firestorm Dresden: 3 Days in Hell*, we’ll upack the bombing and subsequent firestorm in February 1945. We'll look at how first the RAF night raids and then the US 8th Airforce daylight attacks unfolded, the damage they did and the horrific impact on the ground. We'll look at how the aftermath shaped the myths and understanding surrunding the raid, and the fate of Arthur Harris and those we'd planned the raid. *Proof once more, as if it were needed, how shit AI is - I have, apparently, to put the title of the video into the first words in the description to attract Google's attention...I am so soryy to brutalise the ENglish language like this Join the Hellfire Club here! - patreon.com/LordHardThrasher Buy Merch here! - https://hardthrasher-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp Email me here! – lordhardthrasher@gmail.com Shout at my Socials here ! – Twitter @hardthrashe Bluesky @lordhardthrasher.bsky.social Insta - https://www.instagram.com/lordhardthrasher/?hl=en TikTok - @lordhardthrasher (I kind of use it, kind of not) 00:00 – 02:22 – Opening 02:26 – 06:20 - The Weather 06:20 – 16:12 – The Attack 16:18 - 25:17 – Horror on the Ground 25:22 – 29:26 – USAAF Attacks 29:30 – 34:30 – Dealing with the Bodies 34:34 – 44:59 – Reaction in the West 45:03 – 48:06 - The Soviet View 48:10 – 54:27 – Summing Up and Close i. https://oceansgovernclimate.medium.com/europe-in-ice-age-january-1940-why-bc513303f831 ii. https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/berlin/year-1944 iii. Dresden, Taylor, Bloomsbury Books, 2004 (Electronic version 2011) p.518 iv. Hastings, Max. Bomber Command (Pan Military Classics) (p. 376). Pan Macmillan. Kindle Edition v. The Bomber Command Diaries, An Operational Reference Book 1939-945, Middlebrook & Everitt, Penguin, 1985 (from 1990 ed) P.271-273 vi. The Bomber Command Diaries, An Operational Reference Book 1939-945, Middlebrook & Everitt, Penguin, 1985 (from 1990 ed) p.633 vii. Flak; German Anti-Aircraft Defenses 1941-1945, Westermann, University Press of Kansas, 2001 p.279 viii. Dresden, Taylor, Bloomsbury Books, 2004 (Electronic version 2011)p.312 and on ix. Dresden, Taylor, Bloomsbury Books, 2004 (Electronic version 2011)p.360 x. Peter Reichler, Dresden Hauptbahnhof (Egglham, 1998), p. 54. xi. HStaD Feuerwehpolizei Bereitschaft 9 Commanders Report, 3rd Company xii. The Bombing War in Europe, Overby, Penguin, 2014 p.395 xiii. Carl A Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, Richard G. Davis, Centre for Air Force History, 1993, p.556 xiv. Dresden, Taylor, Bloomsbury Books, 2004 (Electronic version 2011)p.412 xv. Carl A Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, Richard G. Davis, Centre for Air Force History, 1993, p.558 xvi. Dresden: The Fire and Darkness, Sinclair, Penguin, p.257 xvii. Dresden, Taylor, Bloomsbury Books, 2004 (Electronic version 2011)p.448 xviii. Dresden, Taylor, Bloomsbury Books, 2004 (Electronic version 2011)p.452 xix. Dresden, Taylor, Bloomsbury Books, 2004 (Electronic version 2011)p.469 xx. Dresden, Taylor, Bloomsbury Books, 2004 (Electronic version 2011)p.475 xxi. Taylor, Frederick. Dresden: Tuesday, 13 February 1945 (p. 488). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. xxii. Taylor, Frederick. Dresden: Tuesday, 13 February 1945 (p. 508). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. xxiii. Taylor, Frederick. Dresden: Tuesday, 13 February 1945 (p. 505). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.