Dresden 1945: The Devil's Tinderbox (1982) By Alexander McKee
 
During the night of 13th February, 1945, RAF Bomber Command launched an "all out" attack upon the city of Dresden. Two major raids took place, and the following day American Flying Fortresses pressed home the attack. The city was reduced to rubble, and so intensive was the attack that the concentration of high explosive and incendiary bombs combined to turn the city into a blast furnace. A minimum of 35,000 people lost their lives, including thousands of refugees fleeing before the Russian advance from the East. The hospitals were full and many prisoners of war were based in the vicinity. After the main offensive, there were other, mainly abortive raids on and around the city, but the real damage, which many have seen as an act of wilful mass murder committed on a helpless civilian population, was done in that first horrific raid. Much has already been written about Dresden, about the purpose of the attack and the dreadful consequences in terms of human life. Many questions still remain unanswered. In an attempt to throw further light on the whole affair, Alexander McKee has chosen to examine the story primarily from a personal rather than a political or statistical point of view. He sets the scene by placing the event in the context of the Yalta Conference and the progress of the war at that time, discussing the attitudes of the Allied leaders and the desperate tactics of Hitler, and examining in particular the reasons put forward for making the attack at all. Haunted by the sheer brutality of the raid, he has interviewed witnesses both on the ground and in the air, recording the impressions of the air crews and above all the horrific experiences of those who survived the inferno. Most of those who lived through that night lost.
 
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
334 pages
In Good Condition