I would not call Arthur “Bomber” Harris a war criminal, even though his crews referred to him as “Butcher Harris”. As the RAF Bomber Command noted in January of 1945, “Dresden, the seventh largest city in Germany…is also the largest un-bombed built-up (area) the enemy has got. In the midst of winter with refugees pouring westwards and troops to be rested, roofs are at a premium. The intentions of the attack are to hit the enemy where he will feel it most …and incidentally to show the Russians, when they arrive, what Bomber Command can do."
It was the sixth year of Britain’s war, and by now the intricate process of bombing had become almost automatic. The staff at Bomber Command estimated Dresden in terms of concrete and wood and plaster and steel. An average of 28 military trains passed through Dresden’s rail yards ever day. There were 127 factories scattered throughout Dresden making everything from guns to time fuses.
It was the sixth year of Britain’s war, and by now the intricate process of bombing had become almost automatic. The staff at Bomber Command estimated Dresden in terms of concrete and wood and plaster and steel. An average of 28 military trains passed through Dresden’s rail yards ever day. There were 127 factories scattered throughout Dresden making everything from guns to time fuses. What would be the best mix of explosives to destroy this city? How much would be required? How many bombers would be needed to carry that? How much fuel would they need to reach the target and return?
Everything needed was listed and compiled, from high octane aviation fuel to flares and ammunition, to spare tires and crew meals and string for marking the briefing maps. And all this coordination was expended to produce over the target, in General George Patton’s lexicon, “…an orgy of disorder.”
At 5:20 P.M. Tuesday, February 13th, 1945 the first Lancaster took off for Dresden. This huge four engine bomber, 69 feet long, with a 102 foot wingspan, required a crew of seven to deliver seven tons of bombs in the dark. It was an expensive operation. 
At 5:20 P.M. Tuesday, February 13th, 1945 the first Lancaster took off for Dresden. This huge four engine bomber, 69 feet long, with a 102 foot wingspan, required a crew of seven to deliver seven tons of bombs in the dark. It was an expensive operation. Out of every 100 flight crew in Bomber Command during World War Two, 55 would be killed, 3 wounded, 12 would be captured, 3 shot down, and only 27 would survive their first 30 mission tour of operations. Only one in forty could be expected to survive a second tour.
So vulnerable was the Lancaster bomber stream that Basil Dickins, of the Operational Research Section, tried to convince Air Marshal Harris to remove the gunners, to save their lives and the fuel. It was a choice that American General Curtis LeMay would make for the B-29 fire raids over Tokyo one month later. But Harris refused.
He also refused to listen to the Mr. Dickins when he urged Harris to make the emergency escape hatches of the Lancaster a few inches bigger. It seemed a trivial issue at the time, and Dickins did not push for it. But a post war survey found that 50% of the crews bailing out of American bombers survived. The percentage for Lancaster crew members was 15%
The air raid warning sirens sounded in Dresden at 9 minutes before 10:00 P.M. Announcers interrupted the local radio. “Achtung! Achtung! Achtung! The lead aircraft of the major enemy bomber forces have changed course and are now approaching the city area.” Lothar Metzger was a child at the time. “We…dressed quickly, to hurry downstairs into our cellar…My older sister and I carried my baby twin sisters, my mother carried a little suitcase and the bottles with milk for our babies.” There were very few public shelters in the city, and no anti-aircraft guns. Ten night fighters were scrambled from a nearby airbase, but it would take them thirty minutes to get to altitude.
At 10:15 P.M. the first bombs began to fall from the stream of 244 Lancaster bombers, one after the other, approaching from slightly different angles. All courses crossed above the sports stadium. First to be dropped were the parachute flares and 1,000 pound Target Indicators, called by the Germans “Christmas Trees”. 
He also refused to listen to the Mr. Dickins when he urged Harris to make the emergency escape hatches of the Lancaster a few inches bigger. It seemed a trivial issue at the time, and Dickins did not push for it. But a post war survey found that 50% of the crews bailing out of American bombers survived. The percentage for Lancaster crew members was 15%The air raid warning sirens sounded in Dresden at 9 minutes before 10:00 P.M. Announcers interrupted the local radio. “Achtung! Achtung! Achtung! The lead aircraft of the major enemy bomber forces have changed course and are now approaching the city area.” Lothar Metzger was a child at the time. “We…dressed quickly, to hurry downstairs into our cellar…My older sister and I carried my baby twin sisters, my mother carried a little suitcase and the bottles with milk for our babies.” There were very few public shelters in the city, and no anti-aircraft guns. Ten night fighters were scrambled from a nearby airbase, but it would take them thirty minutes to get to altitude.At 10:15 P.M. the first bombs began to fall from the stream of 244 Lancaster bombers, one after the other, approaching from slightly different angles. All courses crossed above the sports stadium. First to be dropped were the parachute flares and 1,000 pound Target Indicators, called by the Germans “Christmas Trees”. These served to mark the target, so that the following bombers could drop their “cookies”, 250 two ton “block busters”, so called because they could destroy an entire city block, designed to “rupture water mains, and blow off roofs, doors, and windows, creating an air flow that would feed the fires caused by the (375 tons of) incendiaries that followed…”. The last Lancaster of the first wave released its bombs at 10:22 P.M. The night fighters were just reaching their defensive positions.
Below the bombers, Lothar Metzger crouched in his basement. “There were nonstop explosions. Our cellar was filled with fire and smoke…In great fear we struggled to leave this cellar. My mother and my older sister carried the big basket in which the twins were lain. With one hand I grasped my younger sister and with the other I grasped the coat of my mother…We did not recognize our street any more. Fire, only fire wherever we looked. Our fourth floor (apartment) did not exist anymore. The broken remains of our house were burning. On the streets there were burning vehicles and carts with refugees, people, horses, all of them screaming and shouting in fear of death. I saw hurt women, children, old people searching a way through ruins and flames.”
Three hours later, as another 539 Lancaster bombers approached Dresden, they could see the fires from 500 miles away. The objective of this delayed second wave of bombers was, as the RAF stated at the time, to “…catch rescue workers, firefighters and fleeing inhabitants at their fullest exposure.” This time there were no warning alarms. The electricity was out. Between 1:21 A.M. and 1:45 A.M the RAF dropped another 1,800 tons of bombs. The center of Dresden was now consumed by a firestorm, with hundred miles an hour winds and temperatures reaching 2,700 degrees F.
A young soldier recovering from wounds, Rudolf Eichner, remembered, “…it was becoming increasingly impossible to breath in the cellar (of his hospital) because the air was being pulled out by the increasing strength of the blaze.” Rudolf ran outside but, “We could not stand up, we were on all fours, crawling. The wind was full of sparks and carrying bits of blazing furniture, debris and burning bits of bodies. There were charred bodies everywhere. The experience of the bombing was far worse than being on the Russian front, where I was a front-line machine gunner.”
Lothar Metzger and his family hid in another cellar, but found no shelter. “Explosion after explosion; It was beyond belief, worse than the blackest nightmare…. We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to the size of small children…whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro…and fire everywhere, everywhere fire…I cannot forget these terrible details. I can never forget them.”
Below the bombers, Lothar Metzger crouched in his basement. “There were nonstop explosions. Our cellar was filled with fire and smoke…In great fear we struggled to leave this cellar. My mother and my older sister carried the big basket in which the twins were lain. With one hand I grasped my younger sister and with the other I grasped the coat of my mother…We did not recognize our street any more. Fire, only fire wherever we looked. Our fourth floor (apartment) did not exist anymore. The broken remains of our house were burning. On the streets there were burning vehicles and carts with refugees, people, horses, all of them screaming and shouting in fear of death. I saw hurt women, children, old people searching a way through ruins and flames.”Three hours later, as another 539 Lancaster bombers approached Dresden, they could see the fires from 500 miles away. The objective of this delayed second wave of bombers was, as the RAF stated at the time, to “…catch rescue workers, firefighters and fleeing inhabitants at their fullest exposure.” This time there were no warning alarms. The electricity was out. Between 1:21 A.M. and 1:45 A.M the RAF dropped another 1,800 tons of bombs. The center of Dresden was now consumed by a firestorm, with hundred miles an hour winds and temperatures reaching 2,700 degrees F.A young soldier recovering from wounds, Rudolf Eichner, remembered, “…it was becoming increasingly impossible to breath in the cellar (of his hospital) because the air was being pulled out by the increasing strength of the blaze.” Rudolf ran outside but, “We could not stand up, we were on all fours, crawling. The wind was full of sparks and carrying bits of blazing furniture, debris and burning bits of bodies. There were charred bodies everywhere. The experience of the bombing was far worse than being on the Russian front, where I was a front-line machine gunner.”Lothar Metzger and his family hid in another cellar, but found no shelter. “Explosion after explosion; It was beyond belief, worse than the blackest nightmare…. We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to the size of small children…whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro…and fire everywhere, everywhere fire…I cannot forget these terrible details. I can never forget them.”And Margaret Freyer tried to describe what it was like to be on the streets of Dresden, after the bombers had left. “To my left I suddenly see a woman. I can see her to this day and shall never forget it. She carries a bundle in her arms. It is a baby. She runs, she falls, and the child flies in an arc into the fire…. I do not know how many people I fell over. I know only one thing: that I must not burn.”
Less than 12 hours later, about noon the next day, Wednesday, February 14, 1945 – Ash Wednesday – Valentines Day - 316 B-17 bombers from the US 8th Air Force dropped another 771 tons of high explosives and incendiaries on Dresden. 
Less than 12 hours later, about noon the next day, Wednesday, February 14, 1945 – Ash Wednesday – Valentines Day - 316 B-17 bombers from the US 8th Air Force dropped another 771 tons of high explosives and incendiaries on Dresden. On February 15th, cloud cover over another target forced the Americans to cancel the bombing of that site, so they returned to Dresden yet again. In all more than 700,000 phosphorus bombs were dropped on Dresden – about one bomb for every two people in the city.
The Dresden police reported that the three raids destroyed 12, 000 homes and apartments, 24 banks, 700 shops, 64 warehouses, 31 hotels, 11 churches, 19 hospitals, 39 schools and the zoo. More than 200 factories were damaged, but most were quickly put back in to operation.
The Dresden police reported that the three raids destroyed 12, 000 homes and apartments, 24 banks, 700 shops, 64 warehouses, 31 hotels, 11 churches, 19 hospitals, 39 schools and the zoo. More than 200 factories were damaged, but most were quickly put back in to operation.Again according to the Dresden police. as of March 22, 1945, more than a month after the raids, 22,906 bodies had been either buried or stacked and cremated with flame throwers. Between the end of the war and 1966, another 1,858 bodies were found. While that is a horrible death toll it is nowhere near the 100,000 dead claimed by pseudo-historian and holocaust denier David Irving. But was the bombing of Desden a war crime?
It was a war. All wars are crimes. As General Curtis LeMay expressed it, “Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier.”
It was a war. All wars are crimes. As General Curtis LeMay expressed it, “Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier.”- 30 -
Timothy Dexter never attended school. He had been sent to farm work at the age of eight and at 16 he became an apprentice. In 1769, at the age of 29, Timothy Dexter opened his own glove making shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts. A year later Timothy married the widow Elizabeth Frothingham; “…an industrious and frugal woman” who was nine years his senior. Besides having given birth to four children, Elizabeth ran a “Hucksters shop”, where she sold second hand items and local produce. After the wedding Timothy moved into her house at the corner of Merrimack and Green streets and opened his own shop in the basement; “…at the sign of the Glove, opposite Somerby's Landing.” There were some in Newburyport who disapproved of the uneducated Timothy Dexter, who were offended by his ambition and ignorance. They noted he drank too much, and spoke clumsily. They scoffed at his luck and were impatient for his fall.
During the Revolutionary war Timothy was a patriot. But wartime inflation threatened all he had built. In July of 1777 a bushel of wheat cost eight Continental dollars. Just a year later it cost almost thirteen. Over the same year a pound of coffee rose from 48 Continentals to 120. It was no wonder then that many holding the shrinking Continentals sold them to speculators at a fraction of their face value, for quick gold or British pounds. But urged on by his savvy wife, Timothy gambled on the Continentals. He bought thousands of dollars worth, for hundreds. And to the surprise of many, in the “dinner table compromise” of 1790, Congress decided to buy all the outstanding Continentals at face value. Overnight Timothy was made a wealthy man. In fact, at the age of 49, Timothy Dexter was rich enough to retire.
It was a harmless speech, made, he supposed, amongst friends, and he sent a copy of it (translated into English) to the local newspaper. He explained the readers should not be surprised he could speak French because “…Frenchmen express themselves very much by gestures…”. But there were those present who were not Timothy’s friends, who insisted he had made a drunken, rambling and barley coherent speech (in English), and that more educated supporters had improved the English before committing it to ink. Wrote one critic; “He has been regarded as the most marked example of a man of feeble intellect gaining wealth purely by luck.” Then in 1795, when Timothy offered to construct at his own expense a public market house for Newburyport, these envious men and others who trusted them, voted to reject his offer, with thanks, of course. Stung by the insult Timothy decided to leave town.
He sold his new house on State Street (now part of the public library) and moved to Chester, New Hampshire (that home now "The Dalton Club"). But he lived there for only two years. And when he returned to Newburyport in 1798 he was a changed man. Any hesitation for what others thought of him had evaporated. In fact he seemed determined to remind those who despised him, just why they hated him.
He built himself a most unusual house on High Street. “He put minarets on the roof…(and)in front placed rows of columns fifteen feet high…each having on its top a statue of some distinguished man….and occupying the most prominent position were the statues of Washington, Adams and Jefferson, and to the other statues he gave the names of Bonaparte, Nelson, Franklin…often changing them according to his fancy. In a conspicuous place was a statue of him self, with the inscription, "I am the first in the East, the first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the Western world." They were gaudily painted, and…attracted crowds, whose curiosity deeply gratified the owner, and he freely opened his grounds to them.”
According to John James Currier in his “History of Newburyport”, Timothy “…would transact no business when intoxicated, and made his appointments for the forenoon, saying he was always drunk in the afternoon.” Timothy took to calling himself “Lord Timothy Dexter”, and had a coat of arms painted on the door of his carriage as if he were nobility. But those who missed the joke were unaware that his wife Elizabeth’s maiden name had been “Lord”. He claimed to have given Elizabeth $2,000 to leave him, and “hired” her back at the same sum two weeks later. He told other visitors that Elizabeth had died and that the "drunken, nagging woman" wandering about the property was her ghost. And then Timothy decided to write a book. He called it “A Pickle for the Knowing Ones or Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress”.
In the book Timothy claimed to have sold coals to Newcastle (at a profit), warming pans and mittens to the West Indies (at a profit), bibles to the East Indies and stray cats to Caribbean (both also at a profit). None of it was true of course, but anyone with a sense of humor got the joke. Many of his neighbors did not. That year, when a visitor finished a prayer for a meal, Timothy turned to his son and exclaimed, “That was a d----d good prayer, wasn’t it, Sam.”
In 1805 Mr, James Akin did an engraving of Timothy as he was often seen about Newburyport, with hat and cane, and followed by his little dog. It is the only image we have of the man. Timothy Dexter died on October 26, 1806 at the age if sixty. He left an estate valued at about $36,000. (worth about half a million in 2007.) Elizabeth followed him in 1809, aged 72. Said Timothy’s biographer, Samuel Knapp, " Many who attempted to take advantage of him got sadly deceived. He had no small share of cunning, when all else seemed to have departed from him…In buying he gave the most foolish reasons to blind the seller, who thought that he was deceived, when deceiving.”
The website devoted to honoring Timothy points to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s advice on living; “Be silly. Be honest. Be kind: for indeed, these were three simple dictates which guided Lord Timothy Dexter.” 
Journalist Edwin Black described the early economics of coal in an article at 
In this case the merchants were a forgotten class of lobbyists called “Hostmen”. Originally these were the medieval equivalent of Days Inn and Motel 6 operators. On July 24th, 1567 Queen Elizabeth I granted a patent to Mr. William Tipper as the sole provider of lodging and meals to “merchant strangers” or “merchant adventurers” visiting London. For that privilege Mr. Tipper paid her Majesty 40 shillings for each traveling salesman who paid him, and that is the origin for the term “a big tipper”, as in an extra payment for service. But the Hostmen of Newcastle-on-Tyne had bigger plans.
In 1529, to make the tax collector’s job easier, the crown decreed that every commodity harvested or produced within the watershed of the small River Tyne and its tributaries (in the vernacular, the Tyneside), had to be transshipped through the port city of Newcastle-on-Tyne. That also made it easier for the hostmen of Newcastle to gain control, since “…once the coal was on a boat, it was in the hands of merchants and shippers.” (Ibid) 
“By the fifteen hundred and fifties, the Hostmen (so) commanded the coal--from ground excavation to river distribution—that…in 1590, the Lord Mayor of London complained “…of the monopoly and extortion of the owners of Newcastle coals." (ibid) The tip left on the table for Elizabeth was one shilling paid to her for every 36 bushels of coal shipped. And it was said that 10 men - the Lidell, the Ridell, the Carr and the Clavering families (and the Queen) - controlled the sale of coal throughout all of England and much of coastal Europe.
After the Virgin Queen’s death in 1603, Parliament moved to cancel the royal monopolies, but the Hostmen of Newcastle too valuable to be interfered with, i.e. too big to fail. Their profit margins remained as high as 65%. Not even the bloody English Civil War could break their control of coal. “The Hostmen always produced smart defenses, polished cost justifications and retained the best spokesmen to make their case.” (ibid). By 1661 Thomas Fuller could define the popular phrase ‘to carry coals to Newscastle’ as “…to busy one's self in a needless employment.”
The next step was described in “Extracts from the Company of Hostmen, Newcastle-Upon- Tyne (1901): “…(coal) miners soon drove shafts down to underground water levels, and mines had to be drained before production could be raised to meet the new demand…In 1712 Thomas Newcomen's first coal-fired, steam-operated pump was installed in a coal mine in the West Midlands. It pumped 600 liters of water (150 gallons) a minute from the bottom of a shaft 50 m (160 feet) deep…”
The final cost of the Hostmen’s monopoly was highlighted on Saturday December 6, 1952, in the Great Fog of London, when, acerbated by thousands of coal fires heating homes and businesses, visibility fell to one foot and “smoke ran like water.” The next day 6,500 people died while walking to London hospitals because the fog was so thick ambulances could not safely navigate city streets. On Monday, with most people locked in their homes and avoiding all physical effort, only 900 died. On Tuesday, December 9, the wind finally swept the fog away, leaving a final death toll of 12,000 killed in just four days while just breathing the air.
