Previous thread.

The 1942 Dresden Yearbook boasted:

Anyone who knows Dresden only as a cultural city...would be rightly surprised to be made aware of the extensive and versatile industrial activity, with all its varied ramifications, that make Dresden...one of the foremost industrial locations of the Reich.

Dresden was a functioning centre of enemy administration, industry, communications, transport, and logistics. In Autumn 1944, the Dresden military district was the most popular site for dispersed industry because of its perceived relative safety from air attack.

In October 1944, with the Eastern Front drawing closer, 28 military trains passed through per day, each train could carry more than 15,000 men. It was a key junction not only for east/west but also north/south, not just for troop movements but also to and from concentration camps such as Belzec and Auschwitz, shuttling back and forth up to 5 times per day with approximately 2,000 Jews each trip.

It produced precision glass for weapon sights, telex terminals for the Wehrmacht, torpedo parts for the Navy, as well as field telephones, radios, artillery observation devices, fuses, machine guns, searchlights, aircraft parts, directional guidance equipment, and ammunition. There were 127 different factories which contributed directly to the war, as well as countless smaller workshops and suppliers. Almost 200 of these were damaged in the bombing.