https://irving.video/videos/watch/b63c84d9-5333-4f4a-a462-fc48e538b8f6 OverviewIrving delivers a lecture on the 1945 bombing of Dresden, examining the decision-making behind the Allied air campaign and contextualizing it within earlier aerial bombardments of the Second World War. He discusses his research methodology, including interviews with pilots and commanders, declassified intelligence records, and archival investigation, while arguing that the attack was strategically unnecessary and drawing distinctions between the targeting of civilians and the classification of such acts as war crimes. Topics coveredBritish decryption of German Enigma communications and access to air force orders 00:04:06, Irving's research process: interviewing surviving Allied aircrew and visiting Dresden archives 00:06:01, Conversation with a Lancaster pilot about precision bombing and the human experience of the raid 00:08:00, Photographer Walter Hahn's documentation of Dresden ruins and the role of visual evidence 00:10:01, Irving's decision to become a writer following publication of Der Untergang Dresden 00:11:00, German bombing of Warsaw: analysis of propaganda claims versus archival evidence 00:14:03, The bombing of Guernica (1937): casualty figures and Communist Spanish newspaper records 00:15:01, Rotterdam bombing (May 1940): German Luftwaffe orders, miscommunication, and Churchill's inflated death toll claims 00:16:01, Key momentsIrving describes his shame as a young Englishman in 1960 for not knowing about Dresden while Britain, as a victor, kept its own war records sealed for decades 00:02:31, He recounts asking a Lancaster pilot whether he was aware of the tragedy unfolding 2,000 metres below, and the pilot's response that he was a specialist focused only on precision of execution 00:08:00, Irving argues that the Dresden raid would not have shortened the war by a single day, calling it "completely senseless" and distinguishing between killing innocent people (always a crime) and genocide as propaganda categories 00:12:01, SourceRecorded in Dresden, Germany in 1990. The audience appears to be a public lecture venue in the city itself, with Irving addressing a local German audience. No broadcaster attribution is evident from the metadata; the original publisher or distribution channel is not specified in the archive record. About this archive: irving.video preserves the lectures, interviews, and TV appearances of historian David Irving. All videos are captioned, every transcript is searchable. Books at irvingbooks.com. Sat, 20 Jun 2026 02:08:13 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://irving.video https://irving.video/lazy-static/avatars/217f0272-12b9-4650-9c50-a2b60755061b.jpg https://irving.video/videos/watch/b63c84d9-5333-4f4a-a462-fc48e538b8f6 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://irving.video/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.