Dresden Blasted
1945
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This segment of a United News Newsreel shows hordes of British and 8th Air Force planes bomb Dresden by day and night.
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DRESDEN BLASTED
NARRATOR: In the greatest blitz on Germany, Allied airmen link up their attacks with Marshal Stalin's armies. British bombers head for Dresden, the Saxony bastion of the Nazis along the Eastern Front.
And up comes Goebbel's newest secret weapon, a 'Scarecrow,' exploding like a plane hit by Ack-Ack.
Eight hundred RAF Lancasters splash 650,000 incendiary bombs on transportation lines in Germany's seventh largest city. They smash a big Reich roadblock across the Russian advance. Damage to Dresden hampering the Wehrmacht helps Konev's forces 70 miles away.
Out of the west, 1350 American bombers of the 8th Air Force streak their vapor trails into the dawn.
For two full days, miles of these bombers hammered Reich factory and railroad centers in the east; Chemnitz, Magdeburg, Cottbus. The veteran 1st Division of the 8th Air Force today carried its 200,000 ton of bombs to help an ally. Now, they hit Dresden, hardest of all.
The blitz here, blasting away for the Russians now 45 miles away, links the two-front Allied drive from east and west on Berlin.This primary source comes from the Records of the Office of War Information.
National Archives Identifier:
39158Full Citation: Motion Picture 208-UN-1041; Dresden Blasted; 1945; Motion Picture Films from "United News" Newsreels, 1942 - 1945; Records of the Office of War Information, Record Group 208; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/dresden-blasted, April 23, 2024]