The day of the bombing of Dresden – level 3

13-02-1945

It was the beginning of February 1945, and World War II was coming to an end. The Russians advanced from the east, and they were only about 100 kilometers from Berlin. The Russians asked the Americans and the British a favour. It would help Russian troops if the American and the British bombed large key German cities.

Dresden was a beautiful city, a pearl of Baroque architecture. In February 1945, there were up to a million people living there. Until then, Dresden was the only large German city on which a single bomb had never fallen.

February 13, 1945, changed everything. The first of four air attacks came. 1,249 planes were used in these attacks which lasted three days. The goal was to destroy the city center, the railway station, and factories.

The bombs set the entire city center on fire. Not even the shelters provided safety because the fire sucked out all the oxygen from them. The fire was so big that it took three days for the city to be extinguished. The air attacks destroyed the city and killed 25,000 people.

Difficult words: ask somebody a favour (to ask for help), troops (big groups of soldiers), key (important), pearl (a beautiful example), set on fire (to make something start burning), extinguish (to make a fire stop burning).

Do you think the American and British bombers were justified in bombing Dresden?

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