Operation Gomorrah – Bombing of Hamburg in 1943
For a week in late July and early August in 1943, the British Royal Air Force committed to a week-long bombardment of Germany’s second city called Hamburg. Due to the weather on the first night of Operation Gomorrah which was hot and humid, civilians were tossed indiscriminately into an inferno which incinerated them immediately. Another aftermath of the raid was its political effect on the population of Hamburg. For example, citizens of Hamburg performed less Nazi salutes. However, even though Hamburgers were less passionate about their leaders, their morale was not dampened as they created so-called ‘rubble societies’ to help each other get through aftermath of their city being obliterated.…show more content… Historian Alan J Levine stated that the City produced 28% of the Third Reich’s oil. This oil could contribute greatly to the German war effort as it could fuel tanks, ships and planes which may help the dwindling German war effort which was gradually losing its territory in Russia. In addition, Hamburg was Europe’s second largest port and one of Germany’s biggest naval bases. The Kriegsmarine, German Navy, could launch submarines to sink British merchant ships in the Atlantic which were carrying supplies for the British war effort. Furthermore, being a port, it could be a processing station for iron ore coming in from Norway which could be used for war materials and supplies could be shipped out of Hamburg to the North Baltic coast to prop up the continued German siege of Leningrad. As a result, I see a military justification for operation Gomorrah because Hamburg could supply the German War effort and potentially starve the allied one into…show more content… This city is known as Dresden. The death toll of the raid has fluctuated to for propaganda reasons. The East German government, the part of Germany that Dresden ended up in after the War due to the post-war German partition, said that the death toll was around 100,000 while most western historians say it is only about 30,000. The lack of corroboration between historians and politicians difficult to examine the moral arguments for and against the bombing of Dresden as a difference of 70,000 lives between East German reports and western historians is large. However, if I take an average of the two different death tolls, I get an average death toll of 65,000. This is a very high death toll in only a moderately sized city and leads me to believe there is no moral argument for the bombing of Dresden as too many innocent civilians were killed. The reason for the lack of moral basis for the raid on Dresden is that it wasn’t for moral purposes as some historians suggest that the British were trying to show off their air power to Stalin. Therefore, the Dresden raid has no Moral justification as the raid was a British ‘show