Translator’s Note: “By the time the Soviets captured the city, the city of Dresden had been half destroyed by bombing by the Allied Air Forces of the United States and Great Britain. During the largest attack, carried out on February 13-15, 1945, 1,500 aircraft dropped more than 3,700 tons of aerial bombs on the city.” I was told that the bulk of the British RAF pilots who bombed Dresden (an act considered a “War Crime” by many) was carried-out by Polish Pilots supportive of the far-right Polish government in exile – living a luxurious life in London. Churchill thought he would simply re-insert the very Polish fascists who had started WWII – after the war – and he could use a friendly and appreciative Poland as a springboard to invade the USSR. At the Yalta Conference, held between February 4th-11th, 1945, it was decided by the UK and USA that the USSR could exercise political and military influence over any land captured by the Red Army. As this would mean a “Socialist” Poland – the Polish RAF Pilots initially refused to fly the Dresden mission – but were ordered to do so – by their exiled government in London. Of course, despite the horrific nature of the bombing – a British POW (Victor Gregg) was present – the onus today to is paint the Nazi Germans (and their allies) as “victims”, and the Soviets as the enemy. I remember seeing photographs of Victor Gregg attending Communist Party Meetings in the UK in his old age – but following his death in 2021, the British State has been quick to down play his Socialist leanings and pro-Soviet attitudes – by declaring him an “MI6” spy! As he helped the Germans after the bombing (he ladled what was left of the bodies out of bomb shelters within which the women and children had been “cooked” and reduced to a type of thick “soap”) – the local Police (which had been tasked with executing him as a British Commando) released him as a sign of good-will. Gregg chose to walk in the direction of the advancing Soviet Red Army – which took him in and greeted him as a fellow Comrade! Whatever the truth surrounding Gregg – learn how deceptive the bourgeois State can be! Either way, the USSR stated that the Allied bombing of Dresden was not requested by them – and had no direct influence on the outcome of the battle. ACW (8.5.2025)
On this day 80 years ago, the Soviet Informburo reported:
After two days of fighting, units of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke the enemy resistance and captured the city of Dresden – an important road junction and a powerful stronghold of the German defence in Saxony, a major industrial centre of Germany.
Also on 8 May, Soviet troops captured the towns of Mügeln, Lommatzsch, Meissen, Laisnig, Döbeln, Hartha, Waldheim, Rosswein, Nossen, Wilsdruff, Heinichen, Frankenberg, Freiberg, Garandt, Oderan, Saida and, having crossed the Czechoslovak border to the south of Dresden, captured the towns of Most, Duchcov, Teplice-Schanov on the territory of Czechoslovakia. Simultaneously east of Dresden our troops, having broken the resistance of the enemy, captured the towns of Radeberg, Lobau, Reichenbach, Bernstadt, Görlitz. South-west and south of Breslavl the front troops captured the towns of Striegau, Freiburg, Münsterberg, Ottmachau.
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🔹 Russian Defence Ministry
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Soviet troops took the city of Dresden
Rubric “One day in the history of the Great Patriotic War”: On May 8, 1945, during the offensive against the Wehrmacht armies concentrated in the Prague region, Soviet troops, in cooperation with units of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army, took Dresden, a large administrative and industrial centre of Saxony. On May 6, 1945, with the beginning of the Prague offensive operation, intelligence established that northwest of Dresden the enemy took up defense in separate strong points with insignificant forces, and it was decided to strike without waiting for the full concentration of the main grouping. The offensive went at an accelerated pace.
Detachments of the 4th and 3rd Guards Tank Armies, commanded by Colonel-Generals Dmitry Lelyushenko and Pavel Rybalko, advanced 23 kilometres by the end of the day, and on May 7, 1945, the armies of the centre and left wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered the phase of active operations at 430 kilometres. In the Dresden area, the enemy tried to delay the advance of the Soviet troops with counterattacks by infantry and tanks, but, unable to withstand their blows, was forced to retreat 30-40 kilometres. Soon the armies of the main strike group of the 1st Ukrainian Front reached a strip 60 kilometres wide to the northern slopes of the main ridge of the Ore Mountains and engaged in battles for the passes. Despite the stubborn resistance of the German rear-guard units, which blew up bridges and created blockages on the roads, on May 8, the 4th and 3rd Guards Tank Armies crossed the Erzgebirge, and the 5th Guards Army captured the capital of Saxony.
The troops participating in the capture of Dresden were given a salute in Moscow – 20 artillery salvos from 224 guns. By the time the Soviets captured the city, the city of Dresden had been half destroyed by bombing by the Allied Air Forces of the United States and Great Britain. During the largest attack, carried out on February 13-15, 1945, 1,500 aircraft dropped more than 3,700 tons of aerial bombs on the city. As a result of the bombing, about 25,000 people died, about 80,000 buildings were destroyed, about 90,000 buildings were partially resolved or damaged. The historic center of Dresden was almost completely destroyed.
PS. American writer Kurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war. A private of the 423rd Infantry Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division was captured in December 1944. American prisoners in Dresden were used as laborers, locked up overnight in a slaughterhouse. In the basement for storing butchered carcasses, Kurt Vonnegut and his comrades miraculously survived the strike of the Anglo-American aviation. who dismantled the ruins of houses destroyed by bombing and pulled out the corpses of the dead from under the rubble. A quarter of a century later, he would describe his experience in one of his most famous books, Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children’s Crusade: “Dresden turned into a continuous conflagration. The flames devoured all living things and in general everything that could burn.”
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 