Dresden, 1945: The Devil's Tinderbox

by Alexander McKee

The eye-opening definitive account of the horrific fire-bombing of the undefended city of Dresden.

This history of one of the most controversial events of the Second World War should be an essential book for readers who wish to learn the true story behind Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.

Prior to World War Two, Dresden had an international reputation a beautiful cultural centre, filled with architectural masterworks. Yet on 13th February 1945 the RAF and USAAF began an ‘all out’ attack on the city. On this night and the following two nights, 1,300 British and American aircraft dropped 5,000 tons of incendiary and high-explosive bombs. The total number of resident women and children, refugees, and prisoners-of-war in transit who died will never be known, but it is likely that the official figures of between 35,000 to 45,000 were vastly understated.

The strategic reasons for bombing Dresden were limited and by February 1945 it was becoming increasingly clear that the Allies would win the war. So, who are the men responsible for this horrific event, and what justifications did they make for ordering it?

Alexander McKee, the renowned historian, saw first-hand the results of the Allied bombing of the ‘friendly’ French towns of Caen and Lisieux, as well as the destruction of enemy-held Emmerich and Arnhem, while serving with the 1st Canadian Army. Haunted by these scenes as well as the sheer barbarity of the Dresden raid, McKee interviewed survivors of the attack and the Allied airmen who flew in the raids, to provide a personal view of this atrocity, which is supported by a thorough examination of the official records.

‘A salutary reminder of the excesses to which democracies, too, may be prone under the pressures of war’ The Observer

‘a compelling account of the destruction of Dresden.’ The Journal of Historical Review

‘A worthy attempt to "bring out the terrible truth" about the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden at the close of World War II — widely condemned at the time and made indelible in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. … [How] the author interweaves myriad individual stories and the extensive eyewitness testimony is potent.’ Kirkus Reviews

‘McKee's book is rigorously fair-minded and does not take the easy option of moral denunciation of the Allies, who were divided among themselves and still had a war to fight.’ The Irish Times

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction

421 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Alexander McKee was no "yes-man", he dared to criticise many military, political, economic, media and academic icons and he always kept an open mind. He was fanatical about making his works as accurate as he possibly could. He was ever alert to plain-wrong, biased, distorted or sloppy reports and hidden agendas; wickedly delighting (the more so as a self-educated man) in criticising and exposing assertions that did not fit the evidence. Among his targets were those who tended to emphasise media-image-managment, the accumulation of personal wealth and career progression over both personal integrity and respect for other people's contributions. He gleefully highlighted all the many lapses of integrity that he found. Equally, many established experts, often highly educated people and indeed experts regarding the theoretical aspects of their disciplines, but whom he considered scandalously remiss when they complacently failed to complement such theoretical understanding with practical knowledge as a way to test their theories empirically. Consequently, some of them came in for some harsh criticism on occasion. One gets the impression from his work that some of them appeared reluctant to venture outside the academy at all; out into the "real world": let alone to mix with ordinary people. Implicitly, he urged them to converse with the fishermen, the builders, the soldiers, the doctors, the nurses, the shipwrights and the firemen to glean practical understanding from these practical people, who had to be willing and able to carry out the ultimate tests on their theories to provide demonstably working solutions in order to fulfill their typical working roles. Then he urges such experts in the theory to re-test their theories against the empirically derived knowledge gleaned from their excursions among the working classes, and to do so conjunction with their own senses, out in the "real world": rather than limiting themselves and risking their reputations on the results of thought experiments alone. He dug deep into eye-witness testimonies and spent countless hours searching libraries and museums for the documentary evidence surrounding each his-story. One may find this slightly comical that viewed against the background of established caricaturisations, when the elevated "pillars of wisdom", went "building castles in the air" around about the "ivory towers" and he found strong contradictory "real world" evidence he often lambasted them mercilessly, although it does sometimes seem to be overdone. In contrast, he made the point that some of the sloppy documentary historical works such as that of Sir Robert Davis, that temporarily led his own research astray (and much to his annoyance caused him to repeat untruths in public lectures) while causing the propagation of serious errors until he uncovered them, were nevertheless probably a consequence of the pressures of work, owing to the high quality of the rest of the publication.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book works on two fronts - a detailed account of the horrors that turned the Florence on the Elbe into a fireball; although the writing isn't particularly great; and secondly it's anti Churchill propaganda. Would have been better off rereading Slaughterhouse Five if I wanted an anti-war book about Dresden, not someone pulling apart Churchill every chance he gets.

[Glenn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Biased

Biased and very predictable as the book wore on.
The authors dislike of both Churchill and Harris are very obvious.

[Russ Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

this history of the bombing on Dresden in 1945 & the deaths of countless thousands should be a compelling read, & is when it tells the stories of many of those who survived and those who didn't, however it starts a bit sluggishly. There is still some debate on the rights and wrongs of the bombing and the author is clearly against it. However his habit of repeatedly going over his opposition to it is somewhat off putting, however there is too little on the post war controversy over the bombing. It would appear that Churchill had questions to answer on just how much he pushed for the bombing and why (when there was talk of dropping poison gas on German cities)and then washed his hands of the whole thing, but it seems the opportunity to explore this afterwards is missed, as most of the debate is in the wrong place,at the front of the book. This makes it good, but not a great book.

[Tomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

McKee gives a clear picture of the horrors in Dresden due to Allied bombing raids. He explains some of the rationale behind the bombing. However, the book just isn’t very well-written. The chronology is wonky and McKee repeats himself numerous times. He hints at hidden motives (particularly for Churchill) but never clarifies them. Overall, I agree that the bombing of a beautiful, cultural city was a terrible thing - but we have to remember that this was war. Bad things happen in war and it is often only hindsight that shows us how horrible those things were.

[James Christensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Condemns the mass bombing of European cities during WW2 as being unnecessary, excessive, and immoral.

[Gary Ozard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dresden 1945

Horrifying read but absorbing makes one question mankind and ask questions ones self a must read for any war history buffs.

[wally walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting work showing perhaps too much detail

[Ray Rials · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for anyone that enjoys history. The author does a great job describing this horrific event from the eyes of the people that were actually there and their journey to safety and in some cases their last moments.

This book describes in great detail the fire bombing of Dresden during WWII, and the possible motives of the allies in the complete destruction of human life for a non-military target. Scholars disagree on the official numbers killed but the numbers range between 25K to 300K. At the time of the bombing Dresden was already a city of 1M people before the war and had swelled to 3M as refugees fled the Russian onslaught.

A few interesting subplots in this book:
- How the firebombing of Germany changed military ideas of the use of Air Force assets
- Winston Churchill motivations for the firebombing

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was reading this book mostly for background info for a novel I'm writing about the bombing of Berlin. What I liked was that he interviewed a lot of people who were there. His descriptions of the fire were also terrific.

I also liked the fact that he interviews Germans as well as non-Germans.

[Jon Feeley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non-fiction - WWII

Explores the history of fire bombing and the reasons for bombing the hell out of Dresden. Also weighs the counter arguments. Interesting book...truly shows that war sucks.

[Eleanor Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simply heartbreaking account of the horrific raid on undefended Dresden. Absolutely heartbreaking.