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Title: Dresden : Tuesday, February 13, 1945 by Frederick Taylor ISBN: 0-06-000676-5 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.45 (11 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Read This Book and The Read The Irving Book
Comment: Taylor says 30-40 thousand dead and Irving claims upward of 500,000. I believe the numbers are somewhere in between, yet perhaps we are too fond of quantifying metrics. Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris perfected area bombing to specifically flatten German cities and kill as many German civilians as possible. The culmination of the firestorms of Hamburg, Luebeck and Cologne, was to be the leveling of Berlin in 1943. But with 10-12% losses in each raid on Berlin, Bomber Command could not sustain such a protracted campaign against determined German night-fighter resistance. By 1945, such fighter resistance had been broken and most military targets of any significance had already been devastated. The Dresden raid was supported by Churchill and was the brainchild of Harris. The Dresden raid was to be the epitome of the allied strategic bombing campaign against the civilian population of Germany, but the British prime minister had second thoughts afterwards, and a few weeks later, the Allies halted all area bombing against Germany. Taylor's description of the tactics and techniques employed to deliberately incinerate German cities is well worth the reading. Taylor's research should have also found that Bomber Harris was so successful at killing a large amount of the German population in the bomber campaign specifically designed to terrorize and demoralize the German population, he was thus instrumental in the development of the post WWII Nuclear tactic of mutual destruction of populations. The assertion that Dresden was a target of vital military significance that would have affected the outcome of WWII is preposterous. Germany was in full retreat on both fronts by the time Dresden was destroyed. There was nothing produced in Dresden that would have, or could have affected the outcome of the war. The 3 day raid, which used British bombers at night and US Bombers during the day was meant to do one thing, kill as many Germans as possible. I've read some reviews on this site that say the Germans deserved it, that they deserved to be burned to death in firestorms because of the crimes of the Nazis. This makes a strong emotional agrument, but the Taylor book does not address this point of view. Regardless, the fact remains that the city of Dresden and the people inside the city were chosen for deliberate and methodical destruction; the results of which are still being debated today.
Rating: 5
Summary: An unbiased account
Comment: Dresden is the first book that tells of its destruction in detail (and its consequences) more from the perspective of the Dresdeners by the RAF Bomber Command and USAF Eighth Air Force during the closing stages of World War II. Powerfully told, Frederick Taylor unearths a myriad of first-hand accounts from his painstaking research and weaves a narrative that both destroys many of the myths of that grew up from the firestorm, primarily from propaganda, but raises several questions. Was it a legitimate target? Could the wholesale obliteration of the city center have been avoided?
The British knew of the firestorm potential from its study of the destruction of Coventry in 1940, and the 1943 raid on Hamburg. Yet, Dresden remained a charmed, cultural city, devoid of military potential. Taylor shows us this was not entirely accurate-it was both a vital communications center, especially in the latter stages of the war as the Russian approached on the eastern front, and that increasingly it was a specialized industrial and armaments location. It also becomes painfully clear that unlike many other German cities, protection from air raids was sadly neglected. Some people have maintained that the Dresden firebombing was unique, but from reading the book I gathered it was not. Rather it was a case of things going "horribly right" instead of horribly wrong, as was the instance with many large-scale "city-busting" operations. Indeed, Dresden was not, perhaps the worst example of area bombing. Proportionally, the destruction of Pforzheim, which came later, was worse.
Ignore the first few chapters (unless you're a fan of more ancient history), and start with chapter 4. You will gradually become absorbed in the background of events leading up to the evening of February 13, 1945. The accounts of the bombing and the fire are riveting: I was unable to put the book down and lost half a night's sleep to find out the conclusion. And when you finish the book, you might feel like I did, saddened by the atrocity of war, appalled by this Sodom and Gomorrah-like carnage. It almost made me feel shamed to be a member of the human race.
In our current war with Iraq, we would do well to remember what's it like to be at the receiving end of "shock and awe," that the overwhelming number of casualties are not the enemy, but innocent civilians caught up under circumstances in which they have no control.
Rating: 3
Summary: Too chatty but interesting
Comment: This book deals too much with the personal lives of many of the Dresden residents. The reader is more interested in their descriptions of the event than their life stories. However, the author does a good job of demonstrating that this bombing was no different than any other WWII area bombing. A good portrait of Sir Arthur Harris, who tried to protect his nation as he knew best, and got far less credit than he deserved. British officers made far more mistakes than Harris and received more honor after the war.
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Title: The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans ISBN: 1594200041 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 05 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea by Robert K. Massie ISBN: 0679456716 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History by John M. Barry ISBN: 0670894737 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 05 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore ISBN: 1400042305 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942 by Christopher R. Browning, Jurgen Matthaus ISBN: 0803213271 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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