Il fuoco e l'oscurità: Dresda 1945

by Sinclair McKay

Il 13 febbraio 1945 alle 22.03, 244 bombardieri britannici e 9 marcatori sganciarono sulla città tedesca di Dresda qualcosa come 880 tonnellate di bombe esplosive e incendiarie.

All’inizio del giorno seguente, i bombardieri americani finirono ciò che era rimasto.

Nel giro di quattordici ore, la città fu così completamente distrutta in uno degli attacchi più devastanti della seconda guerra mondiale.

A raccontare, in questo libro monumentale, quella drammatica notte e i giorni che seguirono sono i sopravvissuti, miracolosamente scampati alla tempesta di fuoco che incenerì palazzi storici, ridusse in macerie strade e abitazioni, e uccise, secondo le stime, 25.000 persone. Accanto ai loro tragici ricordi, i diari e le lettere di quanti, rischiando a propria volta la vita, ubbidirono all’ordine di radere al suolo la città, in un’azione che turbò a lungo le loro coscienze.

Ancora oggi, a settantacinque anni di distanza, Dresda è rimasta il simbolo dell’oscenità della guerra e il suo nome associato all’annientamento, come già per Hiroshima e Nagasaki.

Nel corso dei decenni, del carattere morale – o immorale – sia del comportamento della città sotto il nazismo sia della decisione di distruggerla con il fuoco s’è discusso con rabbia, rimorso e dolore in gradi variabili. Dibattiti che fanno ancora parte del paesaggio: a Dresda il passato è nel presente. Per quanto la città sia stata infatti miracolosamente ricostruita, e i restauri scrupolosi fin nei minimi dettagli, è ancora in qualche modo possibile scorgerne le rovine.

Ma le toccanti pagine di Sinclair McKay non parlano soltanto di un’indicibile catastrofe, restituiscono anche la vita della città prima e dopo l’attacco, il lungo periodo di ricostruzione e recupero, e soprattutto il racconto di come tante vite spezzate siano riuscite a rigenerarsi.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Germany, Audiobook, Military History

456 pages, Hardcover

First published February 4, 2020

About the author

Sinclair McKay writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph and The Secret Listeners and has written books about James Bond and Hammer horror for Aurum. His next book, about the wartime “Y” Service during World War II, is due to be published by Aurum in 2012. He lives in London.
-Source

Reviews

[Margarita Garova · Rating 5 out of 5]

На 13 февруари 1945 г., в 22.03 часа 244 британски бомбардировача “Ланкастър” хвърлят хиляди тонове запалителни и фугасни бомби над източногерманския град Дрезден. Скоро в разрушението се присъединяват и американски бомбардировачи, които в рамките на няколко налета успяват да обезобразят до неузнаваемост това, което доскоро е бил един от най-красивите, културни и процъфтяващи градове в Европа.

За всеки ценител на високото художествено творчество - оперна, симфонична, хорова музика, театър и изобразително изкуство, както и майсторски изработен порцелан, Дрезден е специално място. И е било такова от векове насам. Освен изискан център на културата, в града се развиват инженерство и фина оптика, а прекрасната му архитектура, отразена в обществени и жилищни сгради, магазини и кафенета, привличат тълпи от туристи дори в най-мракобесните нацистки години.

Към края на Втората световна война Дрезден, за разлика от много други германски градове, е пощаден от съюзническите бомби. Градът не е интересен от военно-стратегическа гледна точка и на дрезденчани не им хрумва, че това може фатално да се промени. Към момента, когато в британското военно-въздушно командване се взема решението за планираното му унищожение чрез така наречената “бомбардировка на площ” (от същия тип, който Съюзниците прилагат и в София), градът е на практика беззащитен и крайно неподготвен за въздушно нападение – нито има подходящи убежища за цивилните, нито войници за зенитните батареи.

Това, което следва, е неописуем ужас, огнен ад с библейски измерения, запознаването с които ще оставя на смелия читател. Подходът на Синклер Маккей е кинематографичен и много експресивен, с бърза смяна на кадрите от “небето” и “земята” – горящите хора долу и пилотите горе, за които това е просто поредната опасна мисия с неясен край.

Но за да стигне до 13-ти февруари, Маккей подхожда отдалеч - Дрезден е представен не само в цялото си великолепие и величаво минало, но и в един дълъг кадър от военновременното настояще. Разкошните описания създават предварителен болезнен фон, защото читателят вече знае, че всичко това ще се превърне в пепелище. Но и най-красивият град е просто музей на открито без своите жители. Личните истории на дрезденчани от всякакви професии и прослойки, някои от които са били деца по време на нападението, добавят изцяло нов пласт човешкост към трагедията на града.

Картината се допълва и от конкретните истории на преките извършители – младите британски и американски пилоти, до един доброволци, и то в мисии, от които почти половината не се завръщат. Техният началник Артър Харис, доволно неприятен тип, до края на живота си така и не отрича необходимостта от нападението, за което той искрено вярва, че ускорило края на войната.

Дебатът за това дали унищожаването на съкровище като Дрезден и мъчителната смърт на 25 000 души, е терористично нападение или военна необходимост, породена от инерцията на една твърде дълга и твърде безмилостна война, виси и днес. Аз имам специално отношение към града, добре де – обожавам Дрезден с цялата му култура и красота, така че не мога да бъда безпристрастна по този въпрос. Но ако е излязло поне нещо добро след трагедията от 13-ти февруари, то е, че днес градът продължава да го има, все така блестящ, жизнен и изискан, за което принос имат и многото английски приятели на града :)

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Controversy in the Skys

The bombing of Dresden in February 1945 has become infamous as a case study into the huge needless loss of human life and materials that occurred in the Second World War. It was the allied plan to bomb the Germans into submission, to break their moral and try and end the war quicker. By targeting certain towns, such as Dresden with train links to Berlin and though to house huge concentrations of troops, the back you the Third Reich could be broken. The only problem was that up to 30,000 civilians were killed in the process, brushed off by Sir Arthur (‘bomber’ or ‘butcher’) Harris as the collateral of war. Sinclair McKay in this book tells the story of why Dresden was chosen, how it occurred and what the results for the Germans and allies were. Within this we get poignant personal stories from citizens below and the soldiers in the sky. All of this leading up to how we remember and think about the event today. The tale is sobering.

Dresden: The Fire and the Darkness begins with Dresden in the wake of the First World War. A beautiful baroque city, citadel of the House of Wettin, Saxon electors and later kings for nearly 800 years. There are countless priceless works of art, architectural gems and cultural curiosities to behold. The Saxon State Opera Hall (Semperopa) and the Frauenkirche, the city’s glorious cathedral come to mind. We are then taken to Germany in WWII and Dresden’s role in the war effort. Factories turning their hand to the war effort and the seemly solid support for the Nazi party. We are also introduced to Sir Arthur Harris Air Chief Marshal and Carl Spaatz his counterpart in the USA Air Force. Harris had been an early advocate of sweeping bomb raids rather than precision bombing, in order to ‘catch everything’, anything non military was just an unfortunate but necessary casualty of war. Both Spaatz and Harris believed the war would be won from the air. Harris was the one who believed civilians were legitimate targets, working in the factors and supporting the troops at the front. As such Harris made a request to his superiors to knock out the remaining industrial cities.

In this book I particularly enjoyed the turmoil of the airmen who flew over to Germany to commit these raids. There was a quota of 30 flights to make, with a 33% chance of not coming back. They had to be highly skilled individuals to operate and navigate the bomber planes and with so much stress some gained PTSD, whilst others, equally unhealthily, became addicted to flying. This is mirrored with those on the ground, the Dresdeners themselves, who can tell tale of the death and destruction unimaginable to most. How people were killed and died in such ways simply could not be make up. There is a real trend in recent years to tell history this way, the strategy and tactics alongside individual accounts. For me this always works well, as I understand what’s going on and how people felt about it. It really brings history alive.

As the night approaches in Dresden: The Fire and the Darkness as sense of doom lingers over the narrative. The sirens rang out and many rushed to the many air raid shelters. It would not be enough to save most. As the first wave rolled in, bombs landed everywhere, fumes and fire ran into cellars, glass and metal melted in the inferno. People weee literally blown out of their clothing. Then the second wave came, much larger than the first and with apocalyptic effect. The palaces, zoo, housing and factories were utterly vanquished. McKay tells all of this with great mastery. Dresden: The Fire and the Darkness then goes on to discuss the effect of the bombing, whether the Nazi war machine was truly stopped and how the event has become so controversial today. Dresden itself is like a phoenix raising from the ashes, with much of its beauty restored in a modern and conscious Germany. As for Harris he stood by his actions until his death in 1984. He will forever now be a controversial character. We’re his actions necessary or did he go too far? That is something for you to figure out, after reading this fascinating book.

[Stefania Dzhanamova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sinclair McKay's book is a riveting account of the Allied bomb raid on the German city.

By the fateful February 13 1945, the citizens of Dresden had already endured their fair share of American attacks, one in the autumn of 1944 and the other on January 16 1945. Those raids have taken a heavy toll of human life – several hundred people on each occasion – and to add to the tension, the city's warning sirens had been howling every night, disturbing the people's sleep and reminding them of the war from which they had been removed for some years. This is why Dresdeners had found it hard to imagine any greater destruction than that which was already been wrought, explains McKay.
Yet, now, the news that the Red Army was a little over sixty miles away was spreading rapidly through the city, and the nightmarish rumor that on their way the Soviets had happened on a Nazi concentration camp and discovered thousands of "living skeletons", prisoners who had been left behind to die, was disseminating anxiety among the German civilians. "Yet, the real shadow over the city was not being cast by the Soviets," writes McKay. Instead, the unsuspected threat lay in the secret plans and intentions of the Allies in the west.

As McKay further reveals, by this stage of WWII, "the arguments, blazing and bitter, had long ago moved beyond ethics; possibly even beyond strict rationality," and the idea that civilians could be legitimately targeted was not new. As early as 1942, Joseph Stalin had told Winston Churchill that British bombers should be targeting German houses as well as German industry. But Churchill had not needed any such admonitions from Stalin: among senior British commanders and politicians, total war had already become an accepted fact. Before Stalin had made his views known, men such as the prime minister’s singular scientific adviser Lord Cherwell were insisting that bombing raids against Germany should aim to "de-house" the populations of the great cities; by doing so, they would begin to paralyse the industry and infrastructure of the entire country.
The most enthusiastic proponent of this idea was Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris of Bomber Command. A man "whose only streak of sentimentality seemed to extend to beautiful rural landscapes and the farmers who tended them," Harris never had a flicker of doubt about the need to destroy German cities. He was blankly indifferent to the ultimate fates of the civilians who lived in them, so he could morally justify all of this with ease. In a talk he gave in 1942 he insisted that he was not interested in retribution for the havoc wreaked upon Britain by German bombers. This was, as he saw it, simply about "bringing a swift end to the war", and he clung to this belief with religious fervour.
Just like Harris, comments McKay, other senior figures in RAF Bomber Command viewed cities such as Dresden simply as "coloured zones upon detailed maps, populaces presided over by fanatical authoritarians." There were few who bothered to make the exact distinction between civilians and soldiers, between German culture and Nazi cultism.

Since the First World War, Winston Churchill had dreamt of a weapon that could be created in a laboratory, and that would somehow contain hitherto unimagined destructive forces. He envisaged something "the size of an orange" which would be inconceivably more powerful than any existing technology. Such a weapon would be used by a decisive air power that, simply by threatening innumerable lives, would paradoxically serve to save many others. As McKay explains, it "could in one sense be cleaner."
Yet, reveals he, this is not how Britain began its air war with the Germans.
The RAF did not enter the war with a well-developed plan to conduct a strategic bombing offensive, designed to kill as many German civilians as possible. Even if it had wanted to, the means were not there: flight distances were limited, navigational technology was still rudimentary, the aircraft were not able to penetrate deep into Germany. In addition, the British had genuine scruples due to the the international rulings and guidelines that had been debated throughout the previous decade, as well as US President FDR's plea that civilian areas outside combat theaters should never be bombed.

The dissolution of the mutual code of aerial warfare was gradual, narrates McKay. For example, after the fall of France to the Germans in June 1940, when British forces were forced to retreat, the only way of taking the fight to the enemy was in the air. There was a British raid in August 1940 against Berlin, the targets including an airport near the centre. Ninety-five bombers flew in the raid, and though they caused some casualties and disruption, both were comparatively light. Nevertheless, the audacity inspired rage in Hitler.
On the night of September 7 1940 the Nazi began bombing London: "bombs that sounded like the footsteps of giant ogres, sheets of flame hundreds of feet high bringing choking clouds of toxic smoke laced with burning sugar and cinnamon, the result of warehouse blazes."
By 1941, Chief of the Air Staff Sir Charles Portal acknowledged that the approach of the RAF towards German targets was to change – the idea of precision bombing turned into area bombing. The targets were now large city centres, although generally, the industry lay on the peripheries of these urban areas. The intention now was to create wider social havoc, explains McKay. The US president was informed of the intensified strategy; there were no objections from America, and none from the Soviet Union either.

Air Chief Marshal Harris never had any doubts about the area bombing strategy, even as the Royal Air Force was being pushed by others in the Air Ministry to aim for more specific targets: synthetic-oil plants and refineries, and ball-bearing factories. According to him, their idea was too optimistic: reaching and pinpointing such targets was one thing, but damaging them so severely that they would be permanently out of commission was another. So many other factors – "cloud cover, flak, defensive fighters" – meant that such highly specific missions would carry the double risk of a low success rate and high mortality among British airmen, reasoned he.
In 1944, with D-Day and the invasion of Europe underway, there were many other senior Allied figures who shared Harris' opinion. "The administrative machinery that held the Nazi empire together continued to function, but now – with the Allies and the Soviets pushing from opposite directions through towns, across heaths and through forests – here was a chance to launch a different sort of mission," relays McKay. The target would be the city of Berlin and all of its people. The code name for this proposed mission was Operation Thunderclap. ("The term ‘thunderclap’ implies a moment of pure shock or fright, as opposed to damage. . . . But there is also the distant resonance of divine intervention: the angered gods sending forth punishing storms," explains the author.)
Winston Churchill, meanwhile, was impatient to hear more of the possibilities. He wondered if a vast raid on Berlin was possible. And – asked he – "what of these other cities in the east of the country?" This is when Dresden, as well as Chemnitz and Leipzig, were added to the hit list. In Paris, at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), the HQ of the US and British in Europe, RAF Air Marshal Arthur Tedder (Eisenhower’s deputy) drew up a memo concerning joint American and British air attacks on east-German cities. Although more about concentrating on bombing transport links, power plants and telephone exchanges, in reality this meant essentially the same as Sir Arthur Harris’s approach: the annihilation of the entire target city. Soon Harris received these orders, with the list of potential objectives, and in airbases around the country, British, American, and Australian pilots began preparing to again "fly deep into the darkness of Germany." When bomber pilot William Topper and his colleagues were briefed for Dresden, which they knew to be "a lovely city . . . full of refugees and art treasures," they were told it had been the Russians who asked for it because Germans, allegedly, were sending vast quantities of supplies through the city to the eastern front.

Sinclair McKay pays little attention to the logistics of the raid itself, but he masterfully invokes the depths of human suffering and paints an amazing sketch of the picturesque Dresden, with its "fairy-tale architecture" and "exquisite galleries", a city that did not deserve to see any of the horrible things that occurred when 796 bomber planes flew over it and, in the words of one young witness, "opened the gates of hell."
Dresden was suffused with music, an art perhaps "too sacred for the [Nazi] regime to defile," describes McKay, and the city was famous internationally for opera. There was also a widespread fondness for trees: a rich variety were grown all over the city. Rudi Warnatsch, a boy living with his mother in a residential block, recalled vividly that "the larger part of the courtyard was taken up with a cultivated garden. A magnificent chestnut tree and a linden tree were to be found there."
First and foremost, Dresden was a city of science – just half a mile south of the central railway station there were laboratories where men were conducting a wide variety of experiments with cathode rays and thermionic valves. Here, in 1895, the first mouthwash was produced, the result of a heretofore unsuccessful former department store assistant called Karl August Lingner going into partnership with his old friend Richard Seifert, a chemist. People at that time were swilling their mouths with "anything from vinegar to brandy," but scientists had been examining the processes of tooth decay, and Lingner and Seifert’s new idea of making the liquid antiseptic was sensational, narrates McKay. The product was called Odol; it became a household item not only in Germany but across the continent and in Britain too.

Dresden's attackers were young men, who despite being granted extraordinary power, didn't feel like avengers at all – they were undertaking a mission where both the advantageous weather conditions and the lack of any meaningful defence meant that their target was wholly vulnerable beneath them. For them, this was just another fear-filled night, and the city was just another target.
For the Dresdeners hiding in the cellars, on the other hand, the fear and "the nausea of claustrophobia" were increasingly difficult to suppress. Gisela Reichelt, sitting in an ill-lit basement to the south of the railway station, had not just her own fear to cope with; her mother seemed absolutely paralysed, and the ten-year-old girl had no idea what to do. In other cellars, mothers sat on bare chairs, "staring into the eyes of strangers." There were other women, heads back, eyes closed. One witness recalled desperately trying to wake her mother, who was proving very hard to rouse. A cry of "The fire is burning here!" at last seemed to startle her, and they moved to another place. "Already there were uncountable numbers in that maze of cellars whose sleep had become death, either through suffocation or heart failure," graphically depicts McCay the unfathomable extent of civilian suffering.
What the citizens did not know yet was that this was only the beginning. The civic authorities were unintentionally cruel when they told the people emerging from the cellars that the worst was over. In fact, there was no immediate prospect for peace – at roughly the same time the initial wave of 244 bombers were beginning their flight back to England, the next wave, very much larger, of 552 bombers were already reaching up into the dark over England crossing the Channel to the continent.

Sinclair McKay doesn't overlook the moral side of the attack, showing that lies were often the way to lull heavy conscience. While for Harris it was almost too obvious that "the destruction of Dresden has fatally weakened the German war effort and is now enabling Allied soldiers to advance into the heart of Germany," and the attack was strategically justified, some eminent American figures, such as Telford Taylor, one of the prosecutors at Nuremberg, were preyed on by the issue of morality for the rest of their lives. "What Sir Arthur Harris’s purpose was, I do not know, but the British told the doubters that there was a German armoured division in or near Dresden blocking the Soviet advance from the east, and that the Russians wanted an aerial attack to clear their way," wrote he. "However, the British decoders had produced information that the German armoured division was not at Dresden but in Bohemia many miles to the south."

Dresden: The Fire and the Darkness is a brilliant history of the bomb raid that razed a whole city and took tens of thousand of human lives. McKay's style is highly evocative, rich, and compelling; his research is meticulous, and his eye for curious details impressive. Interesting and important, albeit hard-to-read (because of its subject), book.

[Jill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply a fantastic book which I highly recommend. Full review to follow.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a WOW book. I will post a review in a few days.
Well, here it is.
I knew about the bombing of Dresden. And that was about it.
This book will go back to the days and years before the Bombing of Dresden, 1945.
What a great place that must have been. It seemed to have everything one could have asked for.
Then the bombing changed everything. Everything.
When the war ended the culture really never came back as it once was.
I enjoyed reading this book since it tells us what Dresden was like before, during and after the war.

[Rupert Hague-Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very balanced account of the RAF and USAF air raids on Dresden in February 1945. I knew very little about the raids on Dresden, other than they were controversial. McKay’s book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand why the raids took place. His book covers the prewar period and the many cultural aspects of Dresden as a city of art, music, porcelain and fine architecture. The impact of the Nazi regime and the Nazi’s obsession with controlling the arts are also vividly portrayed. What I hadn’t appreciated is that there were three separate bombing raids over the night and day of 13/14 February. The RAF bombed the city twice on the night of 13 February with the USAF bombing it the following day. McKay describes how many civilians were killed out on the streets by the second raid when they emerged from their cellars following the “all clear” from the first raid. McKay really brings to life what it must have been like to have been on the ground in Dresden that night - the heat of the fires from the incinderary bombs turning the roads into burning molten tar. About 25,000 civilians were killed in the raids - many asphyxiated in their cellars by the lack of oxygen created by the fires. The perspective of the airmen is also covered. This book is not for the squeamish. McKay describes vividly how people on the ground were burnt alive and how the gunner turrets of the bomber planes often had to be “hosed out” of human remains on return to base, when the gunners had been killed on a raid.

The moral dilemma of the senior Air Force staff directing the raids is also covered well - the USAF favouring daylight precision target bombing and the RAF night time area bombing. McKay covers the controversial views of Sir Arthur Harris well and provides a balanced perspective of his decision to target Dresden in view of its position as a key transport link for the Eastern Front.

An excellent book - a measured and balanced analysis of a controversial subject. I would have given it 5 stars but for one issue. McKay uses a lot of personalities in his book and I found it hard to keep moving from one to the other. I was also disappointed that he did not finish the story of what happened to Victor Gregg - a British POW from Arnhem, unluckily in Dresden the night of the raids, who had been condemned to death the day before the raids for sabotaging soap production. I know Gregg survived since he has written his own account “Rifleman” but one doesn’t hear how he survived the raids.

[Rennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two pages into reading this I had to pause and Google the author, like WHO writes like this? It’s such beautiful, rich history writing, descriptive and often poetic. Turns out I’d read another of his books a few years ago, a historical true crime, which isn’t really my thing, but it was so well written that I still remember it for that.

This one is the same - the writing is totally captivating and he brings this history very much to life from multiple perspectives. Sinclair makes it feel like you’re there, whether you want to be or not (you don’t; however bad you thought this was, it’s worse). The perspectives include Victor Klemperer’s, the famous Jewish diarist who survived and chronicled the war from Dresden, creating incredibly valuable records, and Kurt Vonnegut (whose baby face is pictured in one of the photo inserts in his military uniform, I never knew he was THAT young when he served and was a POW in Dresden!)

Among all the stories here we even get a little glimpse of Vladimir Putin during his stint in the KGB in the city in the 80s (only 15 years before he would become president, Sinclair points out, and egads he worked fast).

I liked that he also briefly addressed the question of whether the bombing of Dresden constituted a war crime. This is a thorny ethical issue but I find perspectives on it interesting and thought he summed up the arguments and sides quite well, although I’d like to read something more in-depth about it.

The look at Dresden’s rebuilding and impression of what it’s like today was moving. All of it was, really. So good!

[Tomasz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Przyznam, że nigdy nie byłem pasjonatem historii, a zwłaszcza tej dotyczącej wojen. Tym bardziej zaskoczony jestem, że „Drezno” tak bardzo mnie zaangażowało i spodobało mi się na tyle, że już dziś mogę stwierdzić, że będzie to jedna z najlepszych książek przeczytanych przeze mnie w 2022. Bardzo rzetelna i dobrze udokumentowana, pełna relacji naocznych świadków bombardowania, razem z rozbudowanym kontekstem politycznym oraz opisem odbudowy miasta. Mistrzostwo pod względem narracyjnym, polecam nawet jeżeli myślicie, że to nie jest tytuł dla was.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Когато в ранната 2006 г. слязох на Дрезденската гара с идеята да разгледам старата част, нямах никаква представа за отминалите разрушения, а само възхитените разкази на родителите ми за Цвингера и Зелените сводове. Първо обаче (неволно) се озовах пред наскоро възстановената Фрауенкирхе - историята на разрушението и беше описана в дълга поредица табла, и я чух за първи път. Хората, които бързаха за служба, допълниха някои подробности и дори ентусиазирано ме издърпаха към галерията, откъдето посетители можеха да гледат службата и проповедта. Беше крайно смиряващо. Музиката отекваше меко, а последвалата я проповед и досега отеква в спомените ми с простота, яснота и човечност.

Уникален ли е Дрезден? По-уникален от Александрийската библиотека, подпалена от римляните или от Константинопол, подложен на погром както от кръстоносците, така и от войските на Мехмед Завоевателя? По-изстрадал от Ленинград, Нанкин, Хирошима и Нагасаки? По-разкостен от всички онези градове, паднали във вражески ръце през средновековието и подложени на стандартната процедура от наградното тридневно плячкосване, преди редът да се възстанови? По-невинен и заслужаваш съчувствие от Аушвиц, Дахау и Берген-Белзен? Не. Изобщо. Дрезден е просто един от дългата върволица примери за варварството на войната. Една от много звезди из алеята на страданието - ако Холивуд реши да основе такава, сигурно ще се простре до Луната.

Това, разбира се, не е утеха за загиналите и оцелелите в Ада на 13 и 14 февруари 1945 г. Нито е оправдание за наредилите три (!) поредни бомбени вълни - поне една от които е била напълно, нелепо, криминално излишна. Не е особено оправдание и за бомбардиращите. Дългът си е дълг, убийството на жени и деца - убийство. Двете често вървят заедно. И ако ги е мъчила съвестта, било е с основание. Макар преценката вреди-ползи да има смисъл в случая, колкото и жестоко да звучи.

Оправданието на бомбардировъчното командване е било, че ударът е съкратил конфликта, т.к. Нацистка Германия все още се е съпротивлявала. Само че дори и при такива удари вероятно не е имало нужда от цели три рейда. Трудно е да се разсъждава със задна дата, но е факт, че насилието от един момент има засмукващо мултиплициращ ефект, който се изплъзва от контрол. Въпросът трябвало ли е, няма ясен отговор. От днешна гледна точка - не е трябвало, цялата война не е трябвало да се случва.

Патриотизмът и дългът не освобождават от отговорност бомбардиращите. Възрастта, общественото положение и полът не освобождават от отговорност от съучастие в нацизма бомбардираните. Единственият отговор е да не се допуска повторение - нито за загиналите, нито за палачите, нито за издалите заповедите. И службите във Фрауенкирхе да продължат. Маккей с кинематографския си стил посредством спомени на очевидци, сред които военопленникът Кърт Вонегът и завърналият се Ерих Кестнер, е добър помощник, пресъздавайки Дрезден като цяла епоха и панорама от съдби, научни и артистични постижения, тровена от пипалата на нацизма.

⭐️4,5 звезди⭐️

[Jonny · Rating 3 out of 5]

"a letter to the newspaper the following week was sent by E. Birkin of London SW6. Birkin was a Holocaust survivor: I with many other inmates of concentration camps was trudging across Europe before the advancing Russians when we saw the flames of Dresden and the ruins of the city. It made us realize that the end was near. The morale of our guards, and of the German people whom we met, visibly deteriorated and their attitude to us, once at last they realized that Hitler’s promises were false, improved remarkably. Also, it gave us renewed hope and strength to survive the last months of the war. In fact, that very night, we toasted our allies with soup."

A meticulously researched, well written account of Operation Thunderclap, the joint RAF-USAAF attack on the city of Dresden in mid- February 1945.

The book weaves a path from the pre- war history of Dresden, nearly and subtly (perhaps a little too subtle, but maybe more on that later) peeling back the myths surrounding the city peddled at the time and in the Cold War blame game - indeed one of the cities leading employers and industries, Zeiss-Ikon, would I'm sure be of special interest to the bomber crews (who wouldn't want a pop at an industry producing gunsights fitted to the very fighters that had been cutting swathes through your friends?).

The actual raids are followed through eye witness accounts, both under the bombs and in the air, and in the case of the attacks going in on the night are quite forensic in the detail of the fall of bombs and their effect (there you go, you've been warned). The USAAF attack the day after is somewhat more shaky sketchily detailed, although this may well be down to the fact that the victims probably had a bit much on their plates by this time.

As with Frederick Taylor's Dresden: Tuesday, 13 February, 1945 the subsequent furore over the raid, is an important part of the book; this book goes into the controversy in a little more detail.

"When Goebbels used the phrase ‘terror bombing’, it had no international traction; when, however, on 16 February it was deployed in what seemed to be ill-thought-out error by an American Associated Press reporter called Howard Cowan, it suddenly and unexpectedly acquired heft. Cowan, in Paris at SHAEF, had been at a press conference given by Air Commodore C. M. Grierson of the RAF. Grierson had spoken of how the purpose of targeting Dresden and other such cities was to create administrative chaos, and also to disrupt German transport links and communications. But that concept of targeting not specific factories or plants but the city itself, in such a way as to create insurmountable difficulties for the civic authorities, seemed to be a bland way of expressing the more ruthless truth. Grierson was asked about refugees; he sought to emphasize the railways and roads, and the proximity of the Soviet forces. But the indelible impression was left that refugees and civilians would form a part of this engineered chaos, blocking these roads in vast, panicked numbers. And the journalist Cowan, with enthusiasm, summarized the approach in his report’s introduction, by stating: ‘Allied air commanders have made the long-awaited decision to adopt deliberate terror bombing of German population centres as a ruthless expedient to hasten Hitler’s doom.’"

The raid is also placed in the context of the progress of the war at the time; it was requested by the Soviets to disrupt supply and troop movements to the Eastern Front, as mentioned above, like the remainder of Nazi occupied Germany at the time the town was on a war footing, and, for me at least, most importantly there is at least an attempt (this is where the subtlety aspect comes in) to point out that this was a joint operation - although Thundeclap was the deathblow to public opinion on the Bomber Command crews who had prosecuted the war against this odious regime from beginning to end, in appalling conditions and with a casualty rate near unthinkable in a citizen force, the USAAF crews were actually operating in much the same way:

"by the winter of 1944, and the Battle of the Bulge, some layers of fastidiousness had been stripped away from the USAAF. Though there was still the conviction, in contrast to Bomber Command, that a mass raid carried out over a city in broad daylight would allow for very specific targeting, there were now occasions when the city itself would be the target. The reason was this: it seemed – bafflingly to many in senior command – that the Germans, who ought to have been on the edge of collapse, were somehow managing to regroup. That they were largely spent was clear to see, yet the Nazi leadership seemed to have inspired a terrible tenacity in those forces they still had. There were senior American commanders who feared that the war could go on for another year. This meant that the targeting of certain German cities had a practical purpose other than simple Vergeltung, or retribution. In the early days of February 1945, US bombers launched a daylight attack on Berlin: it did not aim for factories or railways but for the city centre itself. Broadly, General Carl Spaatz, who had overall control, and General Ira Eaker, who oversaw all squadrons, tried to resist the gravitational pull exerted by Bomber Command when it came to targeting civilian districts. As the American ambassador to Tokyo had put it a few years previously: ‘Facilis descensus averni est’ – the descent into Hell is easy.16 None the less, like their British partners, they believed that the most effective way to decapitate resurgent German forces was ever more ferocious attacks from the air."

"And on the other side of the world, the American conflict with Japan brought a night of bombing that in terms of scale and suffering dwarfed Dresden: the 10 March attack on Tokyo. In the space of two and a half hours B-29 bombers poured fire on the city, with Japanese defensive fighters and the fire services down below powerless to beat back the fury. The Americans had taken careful note of the natural catastrophe of 1923: the earthquakes and tsunami that had summoned the whirling tornadoes of fire known as ‘dragon twists’; the bombers, which started flying over at around midnight, now created their own inferno. The sector of the city that lay in their sights was home to just over a million people. Families sought vain refuge anywhere: canals, rivers, temples. The roaring firestorm rose and fathers, mothers, children were burned alive where they stood as the seething sky turned bronze. It was said afterwards that American pilots had to pull oxygen masks on quickly as they flew over, not for lack of air, but because of the pervasive stench of roasting flesh. Curiously, though, this raid and others like it seemed not to spark the same introspection that the European campaign was inspiring; instead, it seemed to many that General Curtis LeMay’s bombers in that part of the world were simply seeking to bring an early end to hostilities in order to avoid more bloodshed – an argument that would be made more forcefully in the months to come with an even more terrible and history-changing raid."

That the raid was a tragedy is not up for discussion - that it was also a tragedy of circumstances beyond the simple release of incendiaries and high explosive; freak weather conditions and the corruption of the Nazi elite being only two are arguable, but not indefensible. This is probably best read, to my mind, with the aforementioned book by Taylor; they do compliment and fill in each other's gaps. It's a mid three, but the amount to which certain issues are only danced around made me knock it back a little.

"In England, not long after the war, Sir Arthur Harris was invited to give a talk in the Devon market town of Honiton, near where he had gone to school. The speech he gave, the notes of which are now among his papers, had a tone of defiance, and indeed compassion, for his airmen and the station crews. He placed special emphasis upon the vast sacrifice made by those flying through the relentless flak who had to fight ‘with their heads’ rather than their bodies.13 They had shortened the war, he said, and by so doing saved uncountable lives. Out of 125,000 aircrew, some 55,573 had died: Harris made sure these statistics were known."

[Chris Steeden · Rating 3 out of 5]

McKay starts off by looking at Dresden and some of its inhabitants before the bombing that started on 13-Feb-1945 that would eventually lead to 25,000 people being killed and Dresden flattened. McKay points out that other German cities like Pforzheim, Hamburg, Cologne and more were also bombarded at different times and these were just as, or even more, devastating. ‘…in 1942, Joseph Stalin had told Winston Churchill that British bombers should be targeting German houses as well as German industry.’

He builds up a well-researched picture of Dresden through its people, buildings, business companies, art, music and technical innovation. To be honest this all rather caught me by surprise. I did not expect this at all. Especially as it takes up a fair chunk of the book. When I say well-researched, I really mean incredibly researched. The detail is astounding but a little dry in its delivery. It wasn’t a book that I was rushing back to. It’s a terrible thing to say but I just wanted a little action.

Then the action hits and the slow build up hits with a bang; ‘One soldier cycling down the street was blown off his bicycle and in that split second of detonation his limbs were neatly removed, his torso coming to rest on the road. The bellowing fire of the explosions instantly charred anyone in their path and burned off all their clothing, leaving them both dead and naked.’ We experience the bombing not from those in the air dropping the bombs, but those on the ground. This marks this book out as being different from others I have read.

Then we have the fall-out in Britain after the bombing and the morality of it and the re-building of Dresden. A fantastically researched book delivered in an original way. For some reason I could not get fully engaged which is why, for me, it is a three star and not a four or a five.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite history subject is World War II, preferably told through the experiences of individuals. Naturally, that meant I would be interested in Sinclair McKay’s book about the bombing of Dresden, experienced through Dresdeners, POWs held in the city, refugees fleeing from the advancing Red Army, and members of the Allied air forces who participated in the bombing raids.

McKay introduces us to Dresden, a jewel box of a city of about 350,000 (in 1945) in southern Germany. It had largely escaped bombing, and by February 1945 its residents had convinced themselves that its sheer beauty would protect it from being a target. Its Nazi Gauleiter, Martin Mutschmann, refused even to have fortified bomb shelters built or retrofitted—though he had a fortified shelter built under the home he had stolen from a Jewish family.

At the same time, Allied war planners debated how best to bring the war in Europe to an end. The biggest debate was between those who favored targeted bombing of strategic sites and those who argued that “area bombing,” basically leveling entire cities, would cause the collapse of the Third Reich.

In the first half of the book, McKay presents sketches of the various characters who will be involved in the story. Some of the most striking descriptions are of the few Jews left in the city, including the famous memoirist Werner Klemperer, who spent the day before the bombing began being forced to deliver transport orders to other Jews. Author Kurt Vonnegut was a prisoner of war in Dresden, sent with his fellow POWs to shelter in an underground abattoir during the raids. His experience inspired his famous Slaughterhouse Five. McKay’s also provides in-depth descriptions of how bombers were staffed and the wrenching experiences of bombing crews.

While reading the first half of the book, it’s hard not to feel tense, on edge, knowing the furious attack that is soon to be visited upon Dresden. The tension becomes excruciating as McKay ticks off his characters and where they are just before the air raid sirens go off and, as the sirens wail, notes the trains of refugees and wounded soldiers that are pulling in to Dresden’s rail station.

The sirens began to wail at 9:45pm, and the bombs started dropping at 10:03. In just 15 minutes, 244 RAF bombers dropped 880 tons of bombs, a mix of high-explosive devices and incendiaries. The high explosives broke open buildings, most in the old center of the city, and the exposed contents were fuel for the incendiaries. In minutes, the city was engulfed in firestorms. Most of the approximately 25,000 deaths came as a result of this first attack. Still, three hours later, the RAF sent in a second wave of bombers, and the next day the American Army Air Force attacked twice more.

The deaths were horrifying and often macabre. I won’t repeat any of the descriptions here. It’s affecting to read of the Dresdeners McKay focuses on escaping death and trying to find friends and relatives.

The bombing of Dresden is highly controversial, as you might imagine. Some argue that it was a crime against humanity and its planners should have been charged with war crimes. McKay doesn’t take a position, but he doesn’t shy away from discussion of the moral issues. Toward the end of the book, he writes “[T]owards the end of a six-year conflict, with millions dead, all sides exhausted, could it be that these city bombings were not vengeful or consciously merciless, but ever more desperate reflexive attacks launched to simply make the other side stop?

McKay discusses the postwar history of Dresden, ending with praise for its restoration and the annual remembrance events. He made me want very much to visit.

This is a stunning piece of history. McKay is not as fluid and lively a writer as Erik Larson (whose most recent book, The Splendid and the Vile, I had read just before this one), but this is a memorable and well executed history.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having enjoyed books by Sinclair McKay before, I was delighted to receive a copy of his latest, for review. This is a detailed – but certainly not dry – account of the bombing of Dresden on the 13th February, 1945, shortly before the end of the war in Europe.

In 1945, Dresden had a veneer of normality, but, beneath the surface, there was a deep sense of unease. However, for most of the inhabitants, the disquiet was more about the approaching Russian army than fear of being bombed. With the war coming to an end, it was hoped that Dresden had escaped the worse of the bombing campaign. Although Germans were aware of the destruction of cities like Hamburg, they tried to tell each other that it was unlikely the city would be bombed now due to the beauty of the city, or because of secret agreements. They were proved to be very wrong…

In this book, McKay has walked a careful line between reporting what happened and telling the human stories from both sides, but not blaming those involved in the bombing. Even at the time, there was some hostility towards the airmen and their role in the conflict. While the RAF fighters were viewed as romantic figures, those manning the bombers were seen as involved in a more, ‘industrial form of warfare.’ With the war obviously coming to a close, there were questions about the destruction of cities and the killing of civilians, but Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris of Bomber Command, never showed a flicker of doubt about the campaign.

What the author does so well, in this book, is to tell the story of what happened from the human angle. Some of those involved were well known, such as diarist Victor Klemperer. Others include workers, a surgeon, schoolchildren and others caught up in those events. It explains what the city of Dresden was like before the night of 13th February, during that long, long, night and the aftermath. McKay gives great background and juggles the various characters seamlessly. This has made me keen not only to read Klemperer’s diaries (for the few remaining Jews in the city, like Klemperer, as well as prisoners and slave labourers, many rejoiced at the sense of retribution, even while in personal danger, or used the chaos to escape) but also the later mysteries of Miles Tripp, a young airman who later became an author. I love the way that books lead you to other books and this was, certainly, one of those books.

Engrossing, emotional, and gripping. This is a fantastic read, which takes you through the unleashing of a terrible air power. From circus tents, through hospitals, church crypts, and in the back of bombers, this is an unforgettable and moving book, which I am pleased that I read. I received a copy from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bombing of Dresden (one of my favorite cities) has been told many times. This book focuses on the background and experiences of a variety of individuals, some quite well-known such as Kurt Vonnegut of Slaughterhouse-Five fame. The publisher's blurb makes it sound as if the fire-bombing of Dresden was unique. It wasn't. Firebombing was a deliberate campaign to destroy the citizenry and their morale. The Germans tried it, the Americans under LeMay utilized it extensively in Japan before the A-bomb, and the British bomber command under Harris made no bones about it (see Bomber Command by Max Hastings.)

The ethical debate over this practice was not new. It had been discussed during the 1920's and it was known as "terror bombing." The idea was to overwhelm the fire-fighting capabilities of the city demoralize the population, and thus force capitulation. Civilian casualties were considered perfectly justifiable as the girls in the factory manufacturing shells were just as much combatants as soldiers in the field. Killing them in their homes prevented them going to work.

The physics of these infernos was only beginning to be understood, especially following the horrible fire in Wisconsin in 1871 near Peshtigo. Dry conditions and wind and multiple fires combined to create what was called a "fire whirl." The air became so super-heated (the wall of flames was a mile high, some 2,000 degrees Celsius) that it was hot enough to melt sand into glass. It created its own weather system included tornadoes of flame. It became known as the Peshtigo Paradigm, and that's what the war planners wanted.

Following an earthquake and tsunami near Tokyo in 1923 a similar fire happened spreading over many miles. Flames reached skyscraper heights, boiling water in the river.

A western trader called Otis Poole observed: ‘Over everything had settled a thick white dust. And through the yellow fog of dust, still in the air, a copper coloured sun shone upon this silent havoc in sickly reality.’ 18 The death toll was prodigious, in the region of 156,000 lives, though once again it was difficult to be exact when so often, all that remained were fragments of jewelry and headless naked husks.

The goal of military strategists had always been to find the super weapon that would make winning "easy," and force rapid surrender. Dresden was just the latest in a series of terror bombings. It had become a war fought by physicists as well as soldiers. Not to mention meteorologists. The atmospheric conditions for fire-bombing had to be correct.

Freeman Dyson was a statistician for Bomber Command. His first job was to analyze the statistics of the planes that had not returned. He and his colleagues faced the bitter truth of the matter: experience made absolutely no difference to chances of staying alive. A crew that had flown 29 sorties deep into the heart of enemy territory was every bit as likely to become a flashing orange fireball as the crew that was just starting out. By the time they reached thirty sorties, this crew would have only a 25 per cent expectation of survival. McKay provides eyewitness accounts of not just the victims but the airmen as well

"In part, they knew because of the newly adjusted nature of the bombs: as well as high explosives and sticks of incendiaries, here were weapons that deployed burning corrosion: bombs with jellied petroleum and magnesium Unleashed on bricks and mortar, these would create fires that could not be extinguished, but this was also true of human flesh. Anyone touched by these searing substances would find no escape, not even by jumping in rivers or canals.

In Operation Thunderclap, the attack on Berlin, there was an underlying assumption that the virus of Nazism lay deep within the flesh of German society as a whole; this was no longer simply a military force to be vanquished but an entire people. "

"The gesture was human (and possibly widespread – there were accusations of explosives being deliberately offloaded in the North Sea), but the fact remained that few bombs that night were going to land harmlessly. This second wave was to bring with it many more 4,000lb ‘Cookies’ and other varieties of explosives and incendiaries: in total, an additional 1,800 tons of bombs were to be dropped by the second wave, and many in areas that were not yet glowing with that lethal light."

We see not just the horror of the raids but also the resilience of the people. It's a tragic story, well told, scary and emblematic of how the nature of war has changed technologically. My thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for the review copy. It affected my opinion not a whit.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sinclair McKayn "Dresden 1945 - Täystuho" (Minerva, 2020) on vaikuttava tietokirja, joka käsittelee itäisessä Saksassa sijaitsevan Dresdenin kaupungin pommitusta helmikuussa 1945, aivan toisen maailmansodan loppuvaiheessa. Ilmapuolustusta ei käytännössä ollut lainkaan. Liittoutuneiden suorittamat kolme pommitusaaltoa muuttivat kauniin ja historiallisesti merkittävän kulttuurikaupungin helvetiksi maan päällä.

Lentopommituksissa saksalaiskaupunki raunioitui pahemman kerran, hirvittävä määrä siviilejä menetti kotinsa ja omaisuuteensa ja nykyarvion mukaan noin 25 000 ihmistä sai surmansa. Voi myös miettiä, kuinka moni joutui kantamaan elinikäisiä arpia sielussaan jouduttuaan todistamaan tulimyrskyssä toinen toistaan painajaismaisempia näkyjä. En itse usko, että olisin jaksanut moista selväjärkisenä kestää - jo pelkkä tapahtumista lukeminen tuntui välillä ahdistavalta.

Lukijaa kuljetetetaan halki palavan kaupungin niin, että tämä tuntee olevansa itsekin mukana todistamassa hirmunäytelmää yhdessä juutalaisen professorin, kahden koulupojan, iäkkään pariskunnan, kansallissosialistisen tyttöjärjestön jäsenen ja monen muun kanssa. Selviytyjien kertomukset ovat toinen toistaan kauheampia, eikä kirjaa tosiaan voi suositella kaikkein herkimmille. Pommi-infernon keskellä koettiin myös täysin absurdeja hetkiä; eräs henkiinjäänyt muistelee kohdanneensa raunioiden keskellä vapaana kävelevän kirahvin.

Kurt Vonnegut lienee teoksessa esiintyvistä henkilöistä tunnetuin. Sotavankina pommituksen kokenut amerikkalainen tallensi kokemuksensa esikoisromaaniinsa Teurastamo 5, joka tietyllä tavalla teki Dresdenistä toisten maailmansodan pommitusten symbolin - vaikka Hampuri, Tokio ja monet muut kaupungit kärsivät samalla tavalla.

"Dresden 1945" pyrkii käsittelemään pommituksia myös liittoutuneitten näkökulmasta. Englantilaiset ja amerikkalaiset pommikonemiehistöt kärsivät valtavia tappioita. Hirveitä asioita tapahtui myös taivaalla. Natsismin kukistamisen katsottiin vaativan myös rankkoja tekoja, mutta toisaalta osa englantilaista kirkonmiehistä ja poliitikoista nousi myös vastustamaan pommituksia.

Niin, oliko pommitus sotilaallisesti perusteltavissa oleva toimenpide vai sotarikokseen verrattavissa oleva terroripommitus? Muutamista tehtaistaan ja ratapihastaan huolimatta Dresden ei ollut erityisen merkityksellinen kohde, eikä ilmahyökkäys saanut kansalaisia nousemaan natsihallintoa vastaan. Englantilainen pommitusilmavoimien komentaja Arthur Harris ei kuitenkaan osoittanut koskaan minkäänlaista katumusta, totesipa vaan sodassa sattuvan ikäviä juttuja. Niin se käy, kuten Vonnegut sanoisi.

Dresdenin pommitusta muistellaan edelleen vuosittain muun muassa ihmisketjuin, musiikkiesityksin ja kirkonkelloja soittamalla. Vaikka natseja sympatiseeraava äärioikeisto on yrittänyt omia muistamista itselleen, niin leijonanosan mielestä tapahtumien tarkoituksena on kertoa yleisemmin sodan julmuudesta ja mielettömyydestä. Jotain kertonee sekin, että nykyisin Dresden ja saksalaisten ilmahyökkäyksistä pahoin kärsinyt Coventry ovat ystävyyskaupunkeja, jotka tekevät paljon yhteistyötä muun muassa historiallisen muistitiedon keräämiseksi ja jakamiseksi.

Vuoden vaikuttavimpia lukukokemuksia!

[Sonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

― “It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”
― William Tecumseh Sherman

― “Dresden has been rebuilt, slowly, and not without difficulties and conflicts. The minutely detailed restorations have been married with sensitive modern landscaping, so that the new buildings on the market squares are not immediately obvious. But the curious thing is that despite the miraculous reconstruction, we can still somehow see the ruins.”
― Sinclair McKay, Dresden: The Fire and the Darkness

World War II was the largest and most violent military conflict in human history. Worldwide casualty estimates vary widely. Estimated battle deaths for military personnel are generally placed at nearly 15 million. The estimated number of civilian deaths vary widely, but are generally estimated to be approximately 45 million. These numbers stagger the imagination. Many of these civilians died during bombing raids on cities: London, Coventry, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, Yokohama, Hamburg, Berlin, Belgrade, Warsaw, and many more. From March to August 1945, the U.S. firebombing of 67 Japanese cities killed 350,000 civilians.

World War II involved sustained strategic bombing of railways, cities, industrial districts, and even civilian housing. Strategic bombing as a military strategy is distinct from close air support of ground forces. During World War II, many military strategists believed that air forces could win major victories by attacking industrial and political infrastructure, rather than purely military targets. Some campaigns deliberately targeted civilian populations in order to terrorize them and disrupt their usual activities. As the war progressed, both the Axis and the Allies increased bombing significantly. Most German cities had been flattened by 1945, and many left higher proportionate death rates and degrees of destruction. Yet the bombing attack on Dresden, Germany, stands among the most controversial Allied actions of World War II.

British and American bombers attacked the city of Dresden in four raids between February 13 and 15, 1945 using high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices. Thousands of small fires merged into a powerful firestorm that literally sucked oxygen, structures and people into its flames. The combination of the bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed approximately 2½ square miles of the historic city center and killed nearly 25,000 people. Because there were an unknown number of refugees in Dresden at the time of the attack, it is impossible to know exactly how many civilians perished. Allied bombers had reduced one of Europe’s most elegant cities to rubble.

The city’s destruction sparked a bitter debate over whether the attack was justified. Often referred to as “Florence on the Elbe,” Dresden was well known for its architecturally significant buildings, major art collections, and picturesque landscapes. It was regarded as one the world’s most beautiful cities. Critics argued that Dresden was neither important to German wartime production nor a major industrial center.

Author Sinclair McKay has considerable descriptive gifts, which he uses to give the reader a vivid account of the horrors of the bombings and the resulting firestorm. Yet before he describes the bombing raids, he provides a history of the city of Dresden. In fact, this descriptive introduction takes up the first half of the book. He follows his account of the bombing and the lives involved, he ends the book with an effective summary of the controversy surrounding the bombing. He also describes the eventual rebuilding of the city. Personally, I would have preferred a little less space devoted to the history of the city prior to its destruction.

[Dorin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Am anticipat greșit ce urma să citesc când am deschis volumul de față. Mă așteptam la un studiu istoric, care să întoarcă pe toate fețele campania Aliaților de bombardamente strategice, cu accent pe Dresda, ca fiind cel mai vizibil capitol, despre care s-a vorbit cel mai mult. Nu a fost așa. Am citit o poveste, ca un roman construit atent prin tehnici literare. Are multe personaje, multe fire narative, multiple perspective. Nu ar fi neapărat un lucru rău – faptul că bombardarea Dresdei este adusă publicului într-un mod mai ușor de digerat –, dar ceea ce-și propune (sau nu-și propune autorul), precum și felul în care o face sunt problematice.

Sunt aproape 500 de pagini prin care autorul rescrie mărturii. Identifică oameni care au scris despre zilele de 13-15 februarie 1945 (dar și cele ulterioare) în jurnale, memorii, interviuri mai târzii și le fură poveștile. Citează extrem de rar (unele citări sunt foarte penibile, două-trei cuvinte care nu aduc nimic în plus, parcă doar de dragul de a pune și niște ghilimele pe undeva). O istorie bazată pe memorii și surse orale ar trebui să se axeze mai mult pe ceea ce spun oamenii, pentru autenticitate, în schimb autorul rescrie tot ce i se pare relevant, împletind lucrurile știute cu speculații și propria imaginație. Ne bazăm pe imaginația lui pentru a ne spune ce (probabil) simțeau unii sau alții în diferite momente și la ce (probabil) se gândeau în anumite momente, când vedeam anumite lucruri.

Personajele sunt diverse. Avem oameni din Dresda, de diferite vârste, din diferite pături sociale, atât nemți, cât și evrei. Avem piloți britanici și americani. Avem chiar și prizonieri de război în Dresda. Autorul se oprește câte un pic peste fiecare, schimbând după câteva paragrafe sau pagini perspectiva, sărind în altă parte.

În primele 200 de pagini, McKay ne desenează o imagine idilică și idealizată a Dresdei dinainte de bombardamente. Ne povestește cum a înflorit aici arta plastică și muzică. Cum oamenii colecționau porțelanuri. Cum își petreceau timpul liber și ce credeau străinii despre Dresda, care era, după spusele lui, un fel de leagăn al culturii europene. Nu neg că așa stăteau lucrurile, chiar sunt sigur că așa arăta Dresda în deceniile premergătoare războiului, dar faptul că autorul se axează atât de mult pe acest aspect mi se pare exagerat și, deși el nu o spune explicit, devine clar în care tabără se află (a fost bombardamentul asupra Dresdei crimă de război sau o acțiune necesară). Chiar începe să fie plictisitor de la un punct.

Urmează cam 150 de pagini despre bombardamente, deși primele vreo 50 încearcă să ne introducă în atmosfera acelor clipe înainte să sune alarma. Personajele fug dintr-o parte în alta. Vedem bombardamentele – sau mai degrabă urmările lor – prin ochii lor. Ce gândesc, unde merg, ce stricăciuni văd, ce decid să facă în momentele de groază.
A treia parte este despre ce a urmat: refugiați, reconstrucție, dezbateri asupra legalității (doar menționate), memorie etc.

Pentru o carte atât de consistentă, abordarea mi se pare superficială. Autorul nu intră aproape deloc în dezbaterile filosofice, legale, morale. Le menționează, într-adevăr, dar observăm că dezvoltarea argumentelor părților nu este deloc scopul lui.

Campania de bombardamente a Aliaților a stârnit multe controverse și în timpul războiului, dar și după. La sfârșitul războiului, s-a și evitat să se vorbească despre ea. Dar la momentul desfășurării ei, existau argumente puternice care au motivat-o. Dacă la început, bombardierele se concentrau asupra obiectivelor strategice, la un moment dat s-au luat în considerare și obiective civile – o bombardare nediscriminatorie – pentru slăbirea moralului. Dezbaterile morale și etice care au urmat sunt din cauza faptului că efectele nu au putut fi măsurate. În cazul bombelor atomice, de exemplu, care au folosit un argument similar, s-a văzut că au pus punct războiului din Pacific (la momentul respectiv, americanii estimau că și-au salvat sute de mii de soldați, care ar fi participat la o invazie convențională a Japoniei). În cazul Dresdei (dar și a altor orașe, pentru că au existat orașe germane bombardate cu o rată a distrugerii mai mare și mai tragică), nu s-au văzut efecte imediate. Păcat că această carte nu intră în aceste dezbateri, ci doar re-povestește niște mărturii.

Faptul că am citit acest volum chiar în perioada când se comemorau 79 de ani de la bombardarea Dresdei este o coincidență (fericită? utilă?).

[Kamil Bryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tytuł “Drezno 1945. Ogień i mrok” jest lekko zwodniczy. Sięgając po książkę spodziewałem się, że czeka mnie 400 stron opisu samego bombardowania i jego skutków. Okazało się jednak, że dzieło Sinclaira McKaya oferuje nam o wiele więcej.

W początkowych rozdziałach to samo Drezno jest bohaterem, a czytelnik dowiaduje się o jego znaczeniu dla przedwojennej kultury i nauki nie tylko Niemiec, ale całej Europy. Przytoczone są wspomnienia samych mieszkańców i odwiedzających miasto, pełne zachwytu nad drezdeńską architekturą. McKay poświęca też sporo miejsca brytyjskim i amerykańskim załogom bombowców. Otrzymujemy zarówno kontekst historyczny i strategiczny bombardowań, jak i relacje i wspomnienia poszczególnych lotników.

Przebieg bombardowania śledzimy przede wszystkim z perspektywy drezdeńczyków. Relacje świadków przedstawiają drastyczny obraz tego, co działo się w bombardowanym mieście. Autor żongluje relacjami z różnych części Drezna, często sięga też do archiwum miejskiego, dzięki czemu mamy okazję zapoznać się zarówno z jednostkową, jak i bardziej ogólną perspektywą. McKay nie przebiera w środkach i nie bawi się w eufemizmy, pisze w sposób dosadny i nie stroni od naturalistycznych opisów, jest to zatem zdecydowanie niełatwa w odbiorze część książki.

Na ostatnią część składa się relacja z krótko- i długofalowych skutków alianckiego nalotu. Niezwykle ciekawie było przeczytać o tym, jak szybko narosły wokół zburzenia Drezna kontrowersje, o politycznych sporach po obu stronach Żelaznej Kurtyny, oraz jak sami drezdeńczycy radzili sobie z traumą i jak pamięć o tamtej nocy kultywowana jest do dziś.

McKay nie kryje swojego stosunku do opisywanych wydarzeń. Przez książkę często przewijają się nacechowane emocjonalnie przymiotniki, autor w pewnym momencie sam nazywa nalot “aktem bestialstwa”. Mimo to, McKay przytacza argumenty mające na celu usprawiedliwić decyzję o zbombardowaniu miasta, zamieszcza reakcje Żydów, pracowników przymusowych i jeńców wojennych, traktujących zniszczenie Drezna jako zapowiedź wyczekiwanego końca wojny. Nie odczułem, że próbuje mi się narzucić jakiś pogląd, a lekturę zakończyłem usatysfakcjonowany wielością poruszonych i przytoczonych niuansów.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have spent the entire past weekend submerged in reading this book about the Allied bombing of Dresden in February 1945. Luckily for my kids we have all been under the weather so no one complained about me spending the entire weekend with my face in a book).

I was born in Britain, and spent the first 10 years of my life there, living not too far from Coventry (one of the cities that was crushed by the Germans during the Blitz). I heard stories of German bombings and devastation from family members who had lived through it, it’s part of our history. But the Allied bombing of German towns and cities is also part of our history, and I think it’s important that we talk about, and understand what happened there.

The Fire and the Darkness is a deeply researched and superbly well written account of the city of Dresden, before, during, and after it was annihilated by the Allies. This is a book of nonfiction, but it reads like fiction, beautifully blending fact into the stories of people who were there on the ground and in the sky. I was able to imagine the beauty of pre-1945 Dresden in my mind, and live through the terror and the horrors of the bombing campaign with the citizens of Dresden as I read.

I really appreciated how the author does not shy away from posing ethical questions about the bombings, looks deeply into the reasons for the bombings through different sources, without providing excuses and/or blame. I personally don’t think there is any justification for mass murder in any shape or form, and I think it’s easy to overlook the tragedies that the German population endured in the last year or so of WW2 because of the amount of atrocities that were committed in the name of Nazism. I think Sinclair McKay takes the perfect approach in this book by providing the reader with an overall view of where, why, and how; and he does not shy away from stating hard truths.

It was interesting to delve deep into the workings of the city, especially as I wasn’t very clued into how Dresden situated itself inside Nazi Germany. The detailed background of the city and the residents was very helpful in creating insight into Dresden at the time of the bombings. I also learnt so much about the ins and outs of bombings, the decisions that were made, the actual destruction that they caused, and how they were engineered to cause mass destruction (the idea of being stuck behind a fire tornado gave me nightmares, I can only imagine how terrifying it must be to be stuck there with nowhere to go).

The narrative is structured in a way that the build-up to the bombing is terrifying: there are cold, hard facts mixed with personal background stories of people who were on the ground and in the air, and the first half of the book contains this build-up. It creates a canvas on which the reader only has to imagine the scene that is to unfold as the masses of Lancasters arrive on the horizon along the Elbe. I felt on edge most of the first part of the book, just waiting for the inevitable to happen. The descriptions of the bombing are also terrifying - definitely not for the faint of heart, but still a must read in terms of understanding the utter devastation and loss of life caused.

What we do know now though, is that the real evil in Germany often managed to survive, and some participants even prospered after the war, sometimes hiding in plain sight. The “collateral damage”, or “spillage” as they used to call it, in places like Dresden, was mainly civilians who may or may not have toed the party line out of conviction and/or fear. In my opinion this amplifies the horrors of the bombings even more. In the end what did it really accomplish? (I think the same questions are completely viable for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and any more recent drone attacks and/or bombing campaigns that leave death and destruction in their wake.)

I think the only issue that I may have had with this book, and it’s really a non-issue: the length. There were parts that I had to plough through a bit because I knew that if I put the book down then I may not be in a rush to pick it up again (some of the burrowing down into the history of the city, while relevant, lost my interest a little). I’m glad I continued though, this book is a deep mine of important information that I think we should all be aware of. Cities in different countries around the world are still being bombed to oblivion today (Syria comes immediately to mind but there are others), and warfare from the air is still something that I think brings up many of the ethical questions that we should still be posing ourselves today.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five in the late 80s/early 90s. At that time i was completely disinterested in the field of study we call history. I read that novel again recently, maybe for the third or fourth time and it mentioned Irving's Destruction of Dresden (1963). I couldn't find that anywhere soon so as i waited for a library copy of this book to become available, i read Hersey's Hiroshima. In other words, i finally wanted to learn about the historical events.

I think McKay wants readers to think of Hersey's Hiroshima while reading his book about Dresden. His style is as journalistic as Hersey's and he also humanizes the people (not merely "enemies" or "victims") who were bombed. McKay also, however, humanizes the people who ordered and carried out the bombing.

McKay sums up with the following:

War creates its own nauseous gravity, and towards the end of a six-year conflict, with millions dead, all sides exhausted, could it be that these city bombings [Dresden etc] were not vengeful or consciously merciless, but ever more desperate reflexive attacks launched to make the other side simply stop? Just as it cannot be assumed that individuals always act with perfect rationality, so the same must be said for entire organizations acting with one will. Much as the Frauenkirche and its dome and its might stones were (and are) held in place by unseen counterbalancing geometric forces, so war might be viewed as analogous to the dislocation of society's fine balance; that any conflict of such duration and scale will in the end create repercussions that start to chip away at the foundations of sanity itself, and in so doing reveal the inherent delicacy of civilization. The question after all this time is this: given the unalterable horror of 25,000 people being killed in one night, and given that the bombing was unquestionably an atrocity, intended or not, is there anything at all to be gained now in terms of solace or restitution by pursuing legally precise accusations [ie, was it a war crime?]?

I sense privilege in "anything at all to be gained now." As such, i think McKay undercuts himself at the very end by claiming there are only two possible ways to talk about the bombing of Dresden (or Hiroshima etc), namely, it was acceptable because X or it was a war crime because Not-X.

In actuality, though, i propose that when accusations of war crimes are being made, the accused have a moral duty to admit that they did something morally wrong, especially when they know that it was morally wrong. Alas, English/American culture teaches us never to admit wrongdoing unless there's "anything at all to be gained" by doing so.

Overall, i was glad i read this book as it provided the type of info i wanted to learn: what was it like in Dresden during and immediately after its complete destruction by Allied bombers. (I skimmed or skipped almost all of the chapter about life in Soviet Dresden. Seemed like it ought to be in a different book.)

Recommended for history buffs and people (like me) who don't know diddly.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's taken me almost three months to read this. Not because it was boring, or I wasn't interested in the subject, or I had too much else to do and just didn't have the time. I just couldn't bring myself to read more than a chapter or two at a time, then put it down again for a few days or a week or two before I could bear to continue. It's hardly the first brutally graphic account of wartime horrors I've read, but somehow I found this one particularly hard to stomach. Perhaps it's just the fact that it hit particularly close to home, because Dresden is a city I love and have lived in for a handful of short but wonderful, memorable years, a city that remains close to my heart and always will. McKay's excellent, meticulously researched and painstakingly reconstructed account of the night of 13 February 1945 all too vividly brings to life the sheer horror, panic, despair and devastation experienced by those on the ground. It also discusses the controversies surrounding the bombing raids of that night, the justifications given and the condemnation from many quarters. Personally, I'm of the opinion that yes, everyone who orders the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians, whichever side of whichever war they are on, ought to be put on trial for war crimes - I'm not a fan of the "the end justifies the means" rationale. McKay comes down somewhere in the middle, presenting the arguments from both sides and leaving it at that, which I suppose is just as well if you want an unbiased, balanced account that leaves you free to make up your own mind on these issues.

[Verena Wachnitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as I was visiting the city. Very informative, an objective account based on various witnesses from the time, including of course Kurt Vonnegut - who went on to write about the bombing of Dresden in Slaughterhouse V, based on his experiences. A hard read at times as it does not shy away from describing the most horrendous consequences of the bombing for the population.

[Laura Walin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dresdenin pommitukset ovat itselleni linkittyneet aina Kurt Vonnegutin Teurastamo 5 -kirjaan, eli kosketukseni niihin on ollut kaunokirjallinen. Tämä teos tekee fiktion todeksi ja kuvaa - piinaavan tarkasti - millaista oli oll akaupungissa, johon kohdistui 18 tunnin aikana kolme massiivista ilmapommitusta jotka muuttivat kaupungin palavaksi pätsiksi.

Kirja on jaettu kolmeen osaan, jossa ensimmäisessä taustoitetaan pommitukseen johtaneita syitä, toisessa ollaan lähes reaaliaikaisissa tunnelmissa pommitusten keskellä ja kolmannessa kerrotaan mitä sitten tapahtui - aina nykypäivään saakka. Kirjan selkärankana ovat erilaisista dokumenteista koostetut nimettyjen ihmisten kokemukset ja kohtalot pommitusten aikana.

Valittu lähestymistapa on dramaturgisesti järisyttävä, ja itse pommistustekstiä on suorastaan vaikeaa lukea, niin intensiivistä se on. Henkilöitä on verraten paljon, eikä kaikista kerrota kovin paljoa, mutta tilanteen kauhistuttavuus on raakaa luettavaa. Ihminen on kyllä käsittämätön laji.

Kirjassa mielestäni vähän väistellään (mutta silti sivutaan) kysymystä siitä, oliko kysymyksessä sotarikos vai normaaliksi katsottavaa sotimista. Pieniä välähdyksiä saadaan myös siitä, miten itse pommittajat tuon yöntapahtumat kokivat. Kirjan loppu luo kuitenkin uskoa parempaan, sillä nyt, 75 vuotta pommitusten jälkeen Dresden on löytänyt oman loisteliaan itsensä ja entisten vihollisten välinen liennytys on tuonut yhteistyön repivän propagandan tilalle.

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was released for the 75th anniversary of the Dresden Bombing Raids of 1945. Then it struck me - Valentine’s Day. Dresden was bombed on the evening of February 13th and into February 14th. The US bombing raid on Dresden took place on Valentine’s Day.

Sinclair McKay provides a nearly minute by minute account of the lead-up to the bombing, the actual attacks, and the aftermath. To do this, he has reviewed the personal accounts of those who survived the attack and those who took part in the attach. He follows a series of personal characters through the fire bombing and ties it together with the more widely known accounts, such as Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five. The structure of the book will bring to mind John Hersey’s book Hiroshima. This is a terrifying account and one wonders how anyone managed to survive these attacks - as well as the other fire bombing attacks of WW2.

Apart from the use of the atomic bomb, the Dresden raids were arguably the most controversial of the war. Were they necessary? Was the fire-bombing of central cities based on military necessity or did it constitute terror bombing. This ties into the controversies about Bomber Harris and Bomber Command throughout the war. The Dresden raids were controversial when they took place, the remained controversial during the Cold War, and they remain controversial under a unified Germany. McKay’s wonderful book covers all of this, even while maintaining his narrative. He is especially good at comparing and contrasting the perspectives of the air crews with the people on the ground in alternating chapters. It recalls the old Doonesbury cartoon about bombing in the Vietnam War where the people in the plane suspect that all is not as beautiful on the ground as it is from the air. As part of the story of the rebuilding, the story of the Frauenkirche is amazing and makes me want to visit the next time I go to Germany. To see what the completely rebuilt church looks like, there is a video on YouTube of a choral presentation of the first part of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio that showcases the church as much as the choir and the music. (https://youtu.be/DlwcZT1XVss)

The writing is well done. The stories are compelling. McKay provides lots of photos.

With all of the 75th anniversaries of the War, this was bound to come around. If you are interested in the Strategic Bombing war, this is a fine book to read.

[Kasia M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dwie perspektywy - angielskich lotników i mieszkańców Drezna, poparte, dobrym researchem i dynamicznie poprowadzona narracja. To przepis na książkę, którą raczej trudno odłożyć. U mnie lektura trwała dość długo, bo zaczęłam “Drezno…” w połowie lutego 2022, a to nie był dobry czas na czytanie wojennych książek. Dokończyłam w ramach końcoworocznych porządków i oprócz tego, że już zaczęłam rozmyślać czy lepiej wybrać się do Drezna latem czy zimą, to będę pewnie sporo o tym temacie rozmyślać w najbliższych dniach (mam nadzieję, że pomoże mi w tym Sebald, którego właśnie zaczęłam).
Mam kłopot z podsumowującym rozdziałem. Po części ze względu na nieco uproszczoną, żeby nie powiedzieć libkową opinię o odbudowie Drezna w okresie NRD. Nie oczekiwałam głębokiej analizy, bo książka nie o tym, natomiast nie jest to po prostu opis wyzwań związanych z odbudową utrzymany na wysokim poziomie ogólności. Czuć tutaj nieco zimnowojenny powiew negatywnego nastawienia do każdego przedsięwzięcia z logiem DDR.
Dużo więcej wątpliwości budzi we mnie próba wsadzenia przypisania odpowiedzialności, choćby nominalnej, za śmierć 25 tysięcy osób do szuflady z plakietką “Nikomu to dzisiaj nie pomoże”, a wszystko to w imię skupienia się na teraźniejszości i budowaniu lepszego jutra. Od trzech fal nalotów dywanowych na Drezno minęło 75 lat, przyszłość jest teraz i takie podejście oznacza, że autor po prostu nie chce odpowiedzieć na pytanie, jak ocenia te wydarzenia.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Czy już w styczniu trafiłam na jedną z najlepszych książek jakie dane mi będzie przeczytać w tym roku? Być może, a nawet więcej - to wielce prawdopodobne.
W “Dreźnie 1945” Sinclair McKay z iście kronikarskim zacięciem opisuje jedną z najmniej chlubnych alianckich operacji II wojny światowej - bombardowanie niemieckiego miasta Drezna i jego ludności cywilnej. Brytyjski dziennikarz i autor książek historycznych nie ogranicza się jednak wyłącznie do odtworzenia samych nalotów - chociaż i te opisane są z najwyższą skrupulatnością. Największą siłą tego reportażu jest to, co bardzo często w suchych, podręcznikowych opracowaniach tego typu pomijane - a mianowicie całe tło wydarzeń oraz kontekst historyczny, polityczny, społeczny i kulturowy. Imponująco i z rozmachem, w niezwykle plastyczny, iście fotograficzny sposób McKay odmalowuje przedwojenne Drezno. Czytając opisy nie trudno sobie wyobrazić dlaczego miasto to było określane europejską stolicą kultury, sztuki i fajansu, a światowa śmietanka towarzyska uznawała je za coś, co dziś nazwalibyśmy miejscówką obowiązkową do odhaczenia w trakcie zagranicznych wojaży. Dzięki zabiegowi pokazania Drezna poprzez swoich bohaterów - ówczesnych mieszkańców - zarówno dzieci jak i dorosłych, kobiety i mężczyzn, Niemców i Żydów czy osoby jeszcze innych narodowości, a także i wysoko postawionych nazistów McKay angażuje czytelnika w snutą historię i losy miasta. Na przykładach konkretnych Drezdeńczyków w pasjonujących opisach architektury, malarstwa czy przemysłu lalkarskiego przemyca mnóstwo faktów i mało znanej ogólnie wiedzy. Clou wydarzeń czyli same naloty i poprzedzające je przygotowania również są nader rzetelnie opisane, a oddanie głosu lotnikom pozwala poznać spojrzenie z drugiej strony, przybliżyć przeżycia wewnętrzne aliantów, uświadomić czytelnikowi że i ich gnębiły wątpliwości, a nieraz ciągnęły się za nimi długoletnie traumy. Opis kilkudziesięciu minut poprzedzających bombardowanie Drezna to istne mistrzostwo narracji i suspensu! Zdolności do wykreowania tak potężnej i intensywnej atmosfery niepokoju i napięcia mogliby dziennikarzowi pozazdrościć czołowi pisarze thrillerów. “Drezno 1945” pod tym względem to dzieło Hitchcocka reportażu historycznego! Ostatnie parę rozdziałów McKay poświęca zaprezentowaniu konsekwencji nalotów, postrzegania, odbioru i ewentualnej krytyki bombardowań przez strony uczestniczące, jak i inne państwa. Czy był to niezaprzeczalny akt terroru jak twierdzą jedni? Czy może konieczny krok znacząco przybliżający III Rzeszę do kapitulacji i dający kres rządom Hitlera? Czy jest jedna właściwa odpowiedz? Niech czytelnik sam wyciągnie wnioski po lekturze monumentalnej pozycji McKay’a.
“Drezno 1945. Ogień i mrok” to zatopiona w mroku i dymie, skąpana w ogniu duszna i klaustrofobiczna lektura. Sinclair McKay stworzył reportaż totalny. To pozycja jak najbardziej godna polecenia - fascynująco napisana, w najwyższym stopniu rzetelna - doskonale udokumentowana licznymi źródłami historycznymi, oraz bogata w fotografie pokazujące Drezno na przestrzeni lat.

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[KB · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I've largely moved on from World War II. Not entirely, mind you, but my interests have been elsewhere for quite a few years now. Still, Sinclair McKay's book The Bombing of Dresden caught my attention and I am very glad I chose to read it.

One of the first things I noticed was McKay's writing style - it seemed wordy to me. But I was able to settle into it very quickly, and appreciated his descriptive flair for really bringing the story to life. McKay doesn't just throw us into the night of February 13, 1945 after some brief context. Instead we get a history of the city and get to see what life was like before the war and before the bombings. And his writing style only aided in presenting a solid picture to readers.

Dresden had been long celebrated for its beauty and quality of life, both by locals and visitors. It was also a centre for art, technology and innovation. In terms of bombing, other German cities would suffer before Dresden. But even before the war, many had concerns about the ethics in indiscriminately bombing cities and targeting civilians. By 1945, many seemed not to care to make the distinction between civilian and combatant - where was one to draw the line?

As a bombing target during the war, Dresden contained some factories and railway marshalling yards. But bombing was not precise and different types of bombs had begun to be used - ones that contained petroleum jelly that clung to whatever it stuck to. The bombing was to be carried out in three waves by both the British and the Americans, totaling around a thousand planes.

McKay takes readers through the bombing waves in a detailed and terrifying manner. He recounts how the oxygen needed to fuel the massive fires was suffocating people hiding in cellars and basements. This also created a strong wind, sucking people in. Shoes melted on the asphalt and dry clothing combusted. Although the aim was to create 'disruption and confusion' in a city packed with refugees, McKay notes that the reality of "corpses sitting in cellars with melted, fused organs" wasn't discussed. The decision makers were far, far from the city. However, I feel like I didn't get much of a sense in how the fires were put out or how long they burned for.

The rest of the book deals with the aftermath of the bombings and the rebuilding of the city under the Soviets. There is also some discussion on opinions of the bombings, but McKay does not provide a thorough look at this. He does trace this a little bit: he talks about the questioning of the morality and necessity of this type of bombing almost immediately after they occurred and how this line of thinking picked up steam as America headed into Vietnam. He also notes that a discussion of whether the bombings were war crimes obviously wouldn't fit in celebrating the Allies' victory and sacrifice. But he also plays a little bit of devil's advocate: perhaps the bombing was not 'vengeful' but was done out of desperation to stop the war. There's also the issue of acknowledging German suffering and how quickly this can move into neo-Nazi/right wing territory.

All in all, I thought McKay provided a detailed and fascinating account of those two days in February 1945. I would've liked to have seen more about the opinions of the bombings, especially now as we move further away from them. McKay's writing may come off as a bit too detailed or wordy, but this is an excellent book that shouldn't be missed if you have an interest in the topic.

[Caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un relato muy interesante sobre el devastador bombardeo de Dresde en febrero de 1945 por parte de aviones de la RAF y de USA.
En el primer capítulo se narra como quedó de destruida la ciudad después de los dos ataques llevados a cabo por los aliados.
Continua con la historia de la ciudad desde finales del siglo XVIII hasta el momento en que fue aniquilada, Dresde era una ciudad cosmopolita, sin problemas étnicos, los judíos formaban parte de la sociedad como cualquier ario y tenían puestos importantes en la investigación, en la universidad y en el mundo cultural, la llamada “Florencia del norte” era una ciudad que tenía la cultura y las artes, tanto la música, la pintura, la escultura, la famosa porcelana que producía obras muy hermosas y apreciadas, museos, catedrales, sinagogas y una arquitectura que hacía de la ciudad una de las más hermosas y famosas del norte de Alemania.
El autor traslada los comentarios sobre los bombardeos, el miedo, la muerte, la desolación que produjo en sus habitantes hablando con supervivientes, aquellos que en ese momento eran niños o adolescentes y transmite el horror que supuso la destrucción de su ciudad. Hablando también con los pilotos de los bombarderos, manejando documentación tanto de UK como de USA.
También cuenta las distintas versiones tanto de británicos como estadounidenses y su postura ante la desolación y las muertes de civiles.
Más adelante y con el Telón de Acero, Dresde quedó en la parte soviética y poco se hizo por restaurar la ciudad, sí por recobrar la normalidad en los suministros esenciales, pero se construyeron edificios nuevos para albergar a los que se habían quedado sin hogar, hasta despues de la caída del Telón de Acero no empezó Dresde a recobrar el esplendor del pasado, reconstruyendo palacios, catedrales, casas señoriales…
Es muy interesante lo que cuenta ya que no toma partido por ninguno, pero el mundo sí que lo hizo.

[Katedurie50 · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do you do justice to an immense topic like the bombing and destruction of Dresden? The author tackles this first by recreating things in enormous detail, from the precise locations of the damage and the firestorm, to the experiences of those involved. Second he has great empathy for both sides of the story; while no one could deny the greatest pathos lies in the immense suffering of those trapped in the city, its streets molten with the heat and its landmarks disintegrated, he is also aware that the bomber crews were very young, cold, exhausted, frightened and traumatised by having seen so much death in their peer group.
Was it a war crime? Almost certainly. Some of the second wave of bombers actually tried to drop the bombs elsewhere because they could see that the city was already destroyed. but as Sinclair McKay argues, war produces such conditions that decisions like the unnecessary bombing are made.
One vignette with which to finish: Eva Klemperer , Jewish, having been separated from her husband in the night and having taken refuge in an Aryan shelter, emerged in the morning desperate for a cigarette. She had a pack on her but no matches and looked around, moving towards something glowing. Then she realised it was a corpse.

[Rob Twinem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of controversy this powerful novel explores and examines the carpet bombing of Dresden, an outstanding medieval German city almost totally annihilated by the British and American bomber crews under the auspices of Arthur “bomber” Harris. It examines the events of that cold February night in 1945 from the accounts of not only the survivors on the ground but the bomber crews tasked with this mission of what could only be described as an operation of annihilation. The heart of this superbly researched book is the question...can such death and destruction ever be considered as acceptable behaviour whatever the cause or purpose?