It's difficult, if not impossible, to determine the actual death toll. Though Dresden was a city of approximately 5,000 residents at the time, it is estimated that there were at least 600,000 refugees, mostly women and children, sheltering in the city considered safe in that it contained nothing significant that contributed materiel to Germany's war effort.
Towards the end of our stay in Berlin we took a train to Dresden to see for ourselves how the city looks today. Though only a couple of hours from Berlin, if we'd fallen asleep enroute we could have found ourselves in Prague or the end of the line in Budapest
The European rail network has always fascinated me, in that standing in the main railway station at Milan or Florence for example you can see destination signs for numerous other countries, like our trains go from Southern Cross to places such as Bendigo and Warrnambool. Maybe more about trains later in this blog.
Simply, buildings or parts of buildings that remained after the firestorm are blackened, while replacement stonework is relatively clean and lighter in colour.
Dresden Hauptbahnhof
With destruction of German's rail network important to disrupting the movement of troops and war fighting material the Dresden railway yards would have been important targets for Allied bombers.
The unblemished railway overpass and partial rebuilding of the main railway station facade (photo below) are evidence of the damage to the rail facilities.
