This book is well worth reading. The unification of Germany allowed access to many records that were previously unavailable to western historians as well as to many survivors. This is as an objective and balanced history of the bombing of Dresden as you're going to find. The author takes great pains in presenting and debunking many of the myths that sprung up over the years.You learn a lot about the history of Dresden,"Florence on the Elbe." The city was famous worldwide for its architecture and other treasures. The Nazis played up this angle in their propaganda after the bombing raids to portray Dresden as a city devoid of military targets. The author points out just the opposite. Dresden was well known for making cameras before the war, along with china. These industries were converted into war industries, often using prisoners of war and slave labor (Jews and citizens of conquered countries). In addition, Dresden was a communication and transportation hub for the Eastern Front.You learn about the development of bombers, beginning in World War I through the Spanish Civil War and into World War II. The British learned a lot about area bombing of cities from the German's bombing raid on Coventry in 1940. High explosives destroyed water mains and blocked streets with bomb craters and piles of rubble. They also blew out windows and walls, creating drafts which allow the fires created by incendiaries to spread out of control. Despite advancements such as Pathfinders dropping flares to mark bombing targets, bomb master aircraft hovering over the target area to direct bomber flights, radar and radio direction finding equipment, "precision bombing" often wasn't very precise due to cloud cover and other factors. The destruction of huge areas in cities and their infrastructure often had a longer lasting effect than direct hits on targets.The British learned how to create firestorms. Several factors came together to make Dresden a horrible example of just how destructive area bombing can be. The Germans in Dresden didn't help matters. They didn't construct air raid shelters that would keep out carbon monoxide. Consequently many of the victims died of carbon monoxide poisoning or asphyxiation before the flames reached them. The residents of Dresden also followed instructions to remain in their bomb shelters rather than go back up into their houses and other buildings and extinguish the small fires caused by the incendiaries before they caught hold and got out of control.The stories of most of the German civilians are touching, including Jews who were actually saved by the bombing from being rounded up and sent to concentration camps. You also hear the stories of individual aircrews. Of course the stories of the Nazi leadership are repelling.As horrible as the destruction and loss of life was, one of the greatest myths about the bombing raids is the number of people killed. Nazi propaganda inflated the numbers by an order of magnitude. The best estimates range from 25,000-45,000 killed. And stories about American fighters strafing fleeing civilians turned out to be civilians getting hit by stray bullets from fighter dogfights fought at low altitudes over Dresden.If you're going to read one book about the bombing of Dresden, other than reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" (he was a prisoner of war in Dresden at the time of the bombing raids), read this book.
Empecé este libro porque quería documentarme sobre Dresde, la ciudad de la antigua Alemania del Este donde he estudiado alemán en julio y agosto. No ha sido una lectura seguida: a finales de junio avancé bastante pero en los dos meses siguientes, como estudiante y turista y divirtiéndome por vacaciones, toqué poco esta obra.Me ha parecido un trabajo de divulgación excelentemente documentado y razonado, constando al final una extensa bibliografía. Sin embargo, se me ha hecho un poco largo y, por momentos, repetitivo. El objetivo para el que lo usé se ha visto satisfecho: aun cuando el libro describe al pormenor la trágica noche del 13 al 14 de febrero de 1945 (uno de los bombardeos más sistemáticos y destructivos de la historia), nos pone en antecedentes desde los remotos orígenes de la ciudad en la Edad Media, cuando era un poblado fronterizo entre sajones y eslavos. Y sigue con detalle contándonos su desarrollo en la época barroca, cuando se ganó el apelativo de la “Florencia del Elba”, su destrucción a manos de los prusianos en la Guerra de los Siete Años, el crecimiento del antisemitismo en el siglo XIX, el período de entreguerras y el ascenso del nazismo, antes de entrar propiamente en la descripción minuciosa de las horas de terror que supuso la destrucción a manos de los aliados de uno de los tesoros culturales de la humanidad. Sí he echado en falta más noticias del Dresde comunista y sobre todo del Dresde posterior a la reunificación alemana; pero, claro, el subtítulo del libro acota el interés del autor y una historia general de la ciudad habría sido un trabajo excesivamente extenso.El bombardeo fue una pesadilla. Algo que me ha fatigado un poco ha sido el intento del autor de combatir mitos y falsedades sobre el mismo, lo que hacía un poco marear la perdiz con una lluvia de datos. La idea que se desprende es una atrocidad justificada: Dresde no era una ciudad tan inocente como quieren hacer ver los neonazis alemanes: era cuna de cultura, sí, pero también prestaba un considerable apoyo al esfuerzo de guerra alemán.Aunque muy bien escrita, no recomendaría esta lectura para simples propósitos de entretenimiento: sí la recomiendo, por supuesto, a quien, como yo, tenga un particular interés por esa ciudad.
What do You think about Dresden (2005)?
An eye-opening account of what has traditionally been portrayed as the great war crime of the Allied forces in Germany. Taylor is persuasive in his argument that propaganda (which was first disseminated by Goebbels in the immediate aftermath of the bombing,and subsequently by the Communist GDR) led to nearly universal and unquestioning acceptance that Dresden had no military value and was targeted only to destroy cultural treasures and terrorize civilians. The first book I ever read that proved that history is not always written by the winners.
—Lara Newman
Dresden was bombed on February 13th 1945 on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras in New Orleans). The bombing was so intense it caused a firestorm which destroyed the city. Both British and American bombers attacked that night and early morning the next day. Dresden however was not an open city of no military value senselessly attacked. While the morals of bombing cities as military targets is certainly a dubious proposition that was the practice on both sides. Dresden was a beautiful baroque city but it was bombed for legitimate strategic reasons in had plants that made munitions for the German war effort. It is right to say bombing of cities is evil and the bombing of Dresden was particularly destructive due to the firestorm. But it was not any more senseless of bombing any other target in Germany it was an industrial center which contributed to the war effort and the targeting was at the request of the Russians who wanted it bombed to help their advance on Saxony. It was not as apologists for the Germans sometimes say a "terror bombing" carried out by the allies and the moral equivalent of the holocaust. Still it was very destructive and horrendous and puts into the question the bombing of cities even if it is for strategic reasons especially in the Nuclear Age.
—Peter Mcloughlin
I found this book a bit annoying at first as it seemed the author was attempting to set up an argument justifying this most infamous of RAF raids but as the narrative continued a cohesive and unbiased account emerged. A fairly thorough background history of Dresden and Saxony is presented leading up to the Nazi's coming to power as well as a look at the industrial and commercial role of Dresden in the reich. An indepth look at the raid from many perspectives lends clarity to the events while attempting to dispell many of the myths and rumours surrounding the attack. This is followed by a look at how Dresden survived the next fifty years as part of the GDR under the communist regime. Concluding appendices clear up more myths that Dresdeners and historians alike had taken as fact based upon Nazi and communist propaganda. At the end of the day it is left to the reader to determine the morality of area bombing and wether Bomber Command "crossed a line" with it's raid on Dresden. Wether one feels the raid justified or not it is impossible to not empathize with those innocent civilians caught between the bombs and a regime that didn't know when to call it quits.
—Simon
