After the Allied air raid on Dresden in February 1945, Dresden was reduced to ruins, with corpses lying everywhere, all the buildings destroyed, and thousands of citizens dead.

　　　After the Allied air raid on Dresden in February 1945, the city was strewn with corpses. Dresden had been reduced to ruins, all the buildings had been destroyed, and thousands of citizens had died. The city had suffered great damage, and all the buildings and famous landmarks had been destroyed by the ruthless aerial bombing. The Allied bombing method was to first expose the wooden frames of the buildings with high-explosive bombs, then ignite the wood with incendiary bombs, and finally bomb the area to prevent firefighting efforts. When World War II ended, investigators and journalists estimated the number of dead in Dresden to be between 10,000 and 200,000.

　　　On the night of February 13th 1945, British RAF bombers dropped thousands of bombs in just a few hours. Dresden's defenses were very weak, and only six Lancaster bombers were shot down, and by the next morning, British RAF bombers had dropped over 14,000 tons of high-explosive bombs and over 1,100 tons of incendiary bombs on Dresden. The attack destroyed most of Dresden's infrastructure and killed thousands of people.

　　　When the survivors fled the smoldering city on February 14, 1945, the US Air Force began bombing Dresden's roads, bridges, railways and houses, killing thousands more. On February 15, another 200 US bombers continued the attack on Dresden. On February 15, the Americans dropped 950 tons of high-explosive bombs and more than 290 tons of incendiary bombs. Later, the US 8th Air Force dropped more than 2,800 tons of bombs on Dresden in three attacks before the end of the war.

　　As the Soviet Red Army grew stronger and occupied city after city, Hitler defended Berlin with all his might. Dresden, which had offered only minimal resistance until the occupation of Berlin, was targeted for saturation bombing. The industrial and civilian areas of the city were destroyed along with the German military units. The Allied Command determined that the attack would devastate the German economy, demoralize the German people, and force an early surrender.