From everything I can find, everyone who could distance themselves from the decision making process that culminated in the burning of Dresden did so when the news reported the resulting carnage and death toll estimates. This doesn't surprise me given Dresden's relative lack of military targets, making it all the more obvious that the attack was directed primarily towards civilians. So who was it that actually made the decision to commence the attack? Did any Americans take part in the mission, or was it solely RAF bombers/pilots? Who all knew about, and eventually capitulated to, the plan? Were there any repercussions (court-marshaling, lost rank, etc)?
My grandfather was a WWII B-17 bomber pilot who was shot down on his 13th mission. While he didn't take part in the actual mission to bomb Dresden, he was sick about the fact that the Allied forces would ever do something like that. I'm wondering how something like that ever even happened given that Allied forces were vehemently opposed to indiscriminate killing of civilians, and were at least somewhat clearly winning the war by that point as well.
We need to first establish that much of the Bombing of Dresden has been overblown for many non-historians. Much of the information about it being a cultural city and the large casualties of 185,000-325,000 is propaganda, presented as truth by discredited historian David Irving. He is most well known for his book Destruction of Dresden, which popularized the Dresden Myth. The sources which backed up the hundreds of thousands of deaths in Dresden was proven to be forged information. The true causality number lies around a 25,000-35,000 depending on contemporary historians and sources. While the firebombing did happen and people died due to this, much of the casualty list and controversy surrounding the bombing is over inflated or a myth.
The choice of Dresden as a target for the bombing campaign was in support of the Vistula-Oder offensives the Russians launched. This was the final push into Germany and to end the war. Any help that could be provided to the Russians would help shorten the war and prevent more Allied casualties. The city itself lied in a transportation hub that had multiple railways and roads out of the city towards the East. This would be a good assembly area and could send out supplies and troops to the defense in the East. The destruction of this hub of transportation would save many Russian lives. There were also a number of factories that were in the city that were still producing war materials such as guns and aircraft components. These factories were still a target as long as it keeps producing these for the Germans. They were still a valid target for the Strategic Bombing command. While the civilians were also targets for the bomber command. Strategic Bombing took all targets including civilians as valid targets for bombings. Every civilian could be used as a soldier to fight on the front, or be used in factory to build a tank or gun, be used to harvest food, man anti aircraft guns, etc., if it could be used to help the war effort in any way, it became a target.
If there is a person to blame if any it would be Arthur Harris who is infamously known as “Bomber” Harris. He advocated for large area bombing on Germany and being in charge of RAF Bombing operations as it’s Commander in Chief for air operations. While you could blame him for the wide devastation of strategic bombing on Germany, his tactics were in response to the bombings Germany delivered early on in the war. Such as the Blitz on London which killed 60,000 people during the campaign.
While the bombing was devastating to the city of Dresden, it was no different from the dozens of other bombings that were happening to Germany and much of the rest Europe during WW2. This bombing gets too much attention for the wrong reasons as much of the information surrounding it is a myth.
Sources:
Biddle, Tami 2008. Dresden 1945: Reality, History, and Memory". Journal of Military History. 72 (2): 413–450.
Richard J. Evans, Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial
Ross, S. H. (2003). Strategic bombing by the United States in World War Ii: the myths and the facts. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.