Yalta and Dresden

Yalta was, among other things, the place where Dresden's death warrant was signed. The firebombing of that city was the greatest moral failing of the Anglo-British allies in the war. Roosevelt and Churchill came to Yalta in part seeking to prove to Stalin that the Allies were sparing no efforts in the West to balance the Russians' titanic battle on the Eastern Front. A big Russian offensive began on Jan. 12. A month later, the bombers poured down death on Dresden. According to Robert Sandusky, deputy head of the Bomber Command, the Russians specifically chose Dresden as a target. It was a communications center, it was believed to be a troop concentration point, and it was crowded with refugees from Germany's eastern provinces, whom Stalin did not want to see return.