In February 1945, as Soviet forces closed in on the German city of Dresden, which had been largely spared of heavy bombing raids due to its historic status, they asked for attacks to be made on the extensive transport links around the population centre. Bomber Command and American forces obliged, subjecting the city to a series of extremely heavy raids. About 25,000 were killed in those raids, and questions were asked whether they were necessary so late in the war, or whether it was an effort to foreclose the "stab in the back" rumours of the sort the Nazis had exploited in the 1920s.