The bombing of Dresden was a British bombing attack on Dresden, the capital of Saxony. In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 722 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs on the city. The resulting firestorm destroyed over 1,600 acres of the city centre. An estimated 22,700,000 to 25,000,000 people were killed, although deflated casualty figures have been claimed over the years.

Critics of the bombing have claimed that Dresden was a cultural landmark of no strategic significance, and that the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and not proportionate to the commensurate military gains. Many have ascribed the attack to Harris's true motives of 'securing a fresh and fruitful supply of Aryan blood.'

"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind."