Apocalypse 1945: the Destruction of Dresden
February 17, 2005
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DESCRIPTION: David Irving’s book on Dresden, the first to reveal the truth about the horrific air raid to the outside world. It first appeared in 1963. This new edition appeared in 2005.
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Focal Point Publications/Parforce UK Ltd
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DESCRIPTION: All that remained of a fleeing car passenger
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COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: The Dresden skyline before the war: unchanged since painted by Canaletto.
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COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: The Frauenkirche in Dresden before its destruction
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COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn
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DESCRIPTION: Dresden is filled with refugees on the night of the raid
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COPYRIGHT: OKW, censored
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DESCRIPTION: Sir Arthur Harris, Britain’s RAF bomber commander, a great commander of men
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COPYRIGHT: Crown copyright
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DESCRIPTION: The aiming point was routinely marked in the center of the German town’s residential area. Here a line, and a X. marks where the bombs are to be concentrated in Wuppertal Elberfeld. Five thousand died in the blaze. Meanwhile, the politicians in Parliament lied.
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COPYRIGHT: David Irving/Crown Copyright
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DESCRIPTION: The Lancaster bomber — workhorse of RAF Bomber Command in the second half of WW2
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COPYRIGHT: Air Cdre H I Cozens
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DESCRIPTION: An RAF bomb aimer in the nose of his plane.
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COPYRIGHT: Air Cdre H I Cozens
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DESCRIPTION: Flight Lieutenant William Topper, Marker Leader in the first attack
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COPYRIGHT: David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: The first bomb on Dreden: a target indicator bomb released by Flight Lieutenant William Topper, Marker Leader, hurtles down toward the Sports stadium, marker reference point.
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COPYRIGHT: David Irving/Crown Copyright
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DESCRIPTION: The first bomb on Dresden: a target indicator bomb released by Flight Lieutenant William Topper, Marker Leader, hurtles down toward the Sports stadium, marker reference point.
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COPYRIGHT: David Irving/Crown Copyright
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DESCRIPTION: 10:05 1/2 pm. The Mosquito of Flight Lieutenant William Topper, Marker Leader, has crossed the Elbe and passes over railway tracks five seconds later.
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COPYRIGHT:
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DESCRIPTION: Master Bomber, Wing Cdr Maurice Smith and his navigator Fl Lieut Page with their Mosquito bomber before take off
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COPYRIGHT: Maurice Smith
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DESCRIPTION: The candles of doom. The target indicators go down over the already blazing city. The Germans called this eery spectacle “Christmas Trees.”
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COPYRIGHT: Crown copyright.
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DESCRIPTION: A horrific firestorm begins in a German city, as more target indicator showers rain down as guides for the oncoming main force.
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COPYRIGHT:
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DESCRIPTION: As the firestorm blazes, another 8,000 bomb hurtles down into the inferno, silhouetted against the blazing city.
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COPYRIGHT: Crown Copyright/RAF Film Unit.
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DESCRIPTION: American bombers over Dresden at noon the next day found great fires raging.
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COPYRIGHT: US air force
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DESCRIPTION: The Dresden target map actually used by Wing Cdr Maurice Smith for the first attack on Dresden. It shows the fan shaped sector he was to attack — the heart of the famous old city. Those who claim the target was the city’s industries or bridges or railroads are lying.
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: David Irving/Crown Copyright
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DESCRIPTION: Not until March 1945 did a reconnaissance plane manage to secure an aerial photo of the devastated city.
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COPYRIGHT: Maurscie Smith/Crown Copyright
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DESCRIPTION: The city’s ruins, photographed months later
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COPYRIGHT: Erich Andres, Hamburg
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DESCRIPTION: The city’s ruins, photographed months later
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COPYRIGHT: Erich Andres, Hamburg
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DESCRIPTION: A ruined streetcar teeters crazily in the city’s ruins, photographed months later
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COPYRIGHT: Erich Andres, Hamburg
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DESCRIPTION: Walther Hahn, Dresden’s photographer of record; visited by author David Irving in 1962.
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COPYRIGHT: David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: Troops heap up the bodies on makeshift pyres, trampling them down to make room for more
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
FILE:
TITLE:
DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
FILE:
TITLE:
DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
FILE:
TITLE:
DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
FILE:
TITLE:
DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
FILE:
TITLE:
DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties are gathered up for identification and open air cremation in Dresden’s Altmarkt square, Feb 25, 1945
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
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TITLE:
DESCRIPTION: The bodies are cremated in the open air on Dresden’s Altmarkt square.
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: David Irving/Walther Hahn
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DESCRIPTION: A Lancaster Bomber is diverted because of fog, and has to land at a special airfield equipped with FIDO — fog dispersal edquipment: gasoline filled trenches alongside the runway are set on fire to boil away the fog.
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Air Cdre H I Cozens
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TITLE:
DESCRIPTION: All that remains of a car passenger caught in the Dresden firestorm
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COPYRIGHT: Walter Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: A family caught in the British air raid on Dresden, shortlybefore their burial at the Tolkewitz cemetery (later calle Johannis Friedhof). Their outer clothes and shoes are removed first for recycling.
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COPYRIGHT: David Irving/Walther Hahn
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DESCRIPTION: Badbly charred female torso, before burial at the Tolkewitz cemetery in Dresden, 1945.
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COPYRIGHT: Walter Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: Remains of air raid casualties at the Tolkewitz cemetery, later called the Johannis cemetery
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COPYRIGHT: Walther Hahn/David Irving
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DESCRIPTION: The devastating raids continue right to the end. On February 27, two weeks after Dresden, the RAF obliterates Pforzheim, killing 17,000 in the firestorm — one in four of the town’s population.
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: Air Cdre H I Cozebns
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DESCRIPTION: Pathetic chalked messages on the ruins of survivors seeking information on missing wives, mothers family buried in the ruins.
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FILE:
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DESCRIPTION: 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
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COPYRIGHT: Crown Copyright
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TITLE:
DESCRIPTION: The RAF Master Bomber at the first Dresden attack, Wing Cdr Maurice Smith, interviewed by author David Irving in his office, March 1962. Shown the apalling photographs of the carnage, he went quiet and blushed.
CREDITS:
COPYRIGHT: David Irving
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TITLE:
DESCRIPTION: On the following day, March 23, 1962, Mr Irving (aged 27 still) interviewed Marshal of the RAF Sir Arthur Harris at his home in Oxfordshire, about the Dresden raids.
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