The Fire and the Darkness
An "evocative and poignant" narrative history of the Dresden Bombing, one of the most devastating attacks of WWII ( Foreign Affairs). On February 13, 1945, British bombers began their merciless attack on the German city of Dresden. The first contingent killed people and destroyed buildings, roads, and other structures. The second rained down fire, turning the streets into a blast furnace, the shelters into ovens, and whipping up a molten hurricane in which scores of noncombatants were burned, baked, or suffocated to death. Early the next day, American bombers finished off what was left. Beginning with life in the city days before the attack, Sinclair McKay's The Fire and the Darkness offers