Tragic act of war

I’m SURPRISED that Rev Dr John Cameron, who claims to be well-acquainted with military history, should continue to peddle the myth that the bombing of Dresden by the RAF in 1945 served no purpose and was, in his words, “immoral” (Letters, 8 August).

His letter mistakenly states that targeting it was “pointless”. While Holocaust-denying “historians”, like David Irving, along with neo-Nazis in Germany have sought to paint the bombing of Dresden as an Allied war crime, most respected historians agree this is a gross misrepresentation.

Far from being irrelevant to the German war machine, Dresden was home to more than 100 factories, producing a range of war material vital to Hitler.

In February 1945, when it was attacked, the advancing Soviets were just 90 miles away and as the city was an important transit point for military traffic, RAF planners rightly identified it as a legitimate target.

We know, in retrospect, that the war in Europe would end three months later, however, that hindsight was not available to the Allies, who expected the conflict to continue into 1946.

Nobody should ever diminish the tragedy of human pain and suffering in war, particularly civilian deaths, but in what was a bloody fight to the finish against a ruthless enemy, such bombing was a necessary, if tragic, act of war.

R Leask

Windsor Gardens

Musselburgh