The fire and the darkness The bombing of Dresden, 1945

Sinclair McKay

Book - 2020

Narrative nonfiction account of the history of the Dresden Bombing, one of the most devastating attacks of World War II. Looks at the life of the city in the days before the attack, tracks each moment of the bombing, and considers the long period of reconstruction and recovery. reconstruction of this unthinkable terror from the points of view of the ordinary civilians: Margot Hille, an apprentice brewery worker; Gisela Reichelt, a ten-year-old schoolgirl; boys conscripted into the Hitler Youth; choristers of the Kreuzkirche choir; artists, shop assistants, and classical musicians, as well as the Nazi officials stationed there.

Saved in:

2nd Floor Show me where

940.54213/McKay
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor 940.54213/McKay Checked In
Subjects
Genres
Creative nonfiction
Published
New York, NY : St. Martin's Press 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Sinclair McKay (author)
Edition
First U.S. edition
Physical Description
xxv, 369, 24 pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781250258014
  • List of Illustrations
  • Maps
  • Preface: The City in Time
  • Part 1. The Approaching Fury
  • 1. The Days Before
  • 2. In the Forests of the Gauleiter
  • 3. The Dethroning of Reason
  • 4. Art and Degeneracy
  • 5. The Glass Man and the Physicists
  • 6. 'A Sort of Little London'
  • 7. The Science of Doomsday
  • 8. The Correct Atmospheric Conditions
  • 9. Hosing Out
  • 10. The Devil Will Get No Rest
  • Part 2. Schreckensnacht
  • 11. The Day of Darkness
  • 12. Five Minutes Before the Sirens
  • 13. Into the Abyss
  • 14. Shadows and Light
  • 15. 10.03 p.m.
  • 16. The Burning Eyes
  • 17. Midnight
  • 18. The Second Wave
  • 19. From Among the Dead
  • 20. The Third Wave
  • Part 3. Aftershock
  • 21. Dead Men and Dreamers
  • 22. The Radiant Tombs
  • 23. The Meanings of Terror
  • 24. The Music of the Dead
  • 25. Recoil
  • 26. 'The Stalinist Style'
  • 27. Beauty and Remembrance
  • Acknowledgements
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

The horrific bombing of Dresden, Germany, February 13--14, 1945, is a frequently visited subject among popular historians, but McKay's study is among the most valuable of the works resulting from this fascination with the controversial attack. More than just a history of the assault itself--the first bomb does not fall until about halfway through the book--McKay seeks to place the British and American attacks in a much broader context. As a result, the book also serves as a history of the city of Dresden from the 18th century through the post-war Soviet occupation. A firm believer that history is collective biography, the author introduces readers to scores of historical figures who played a role, however tangential, in the events at the center of the book. The Germans who suffered under the Allied onslaught and the American and British airmen who dropped the bombs on Dresden appear in the text, and so do such cultural icons as Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Wagner, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Richly layered details add nuance to this popular history of the highest order. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through upper-division undergraduates. --RUSSEL WILLIAM LEMMONS, Jacksonville State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

Of cities destroyed in WWII, Dresden, where British and American air attacks that killed about 25,000 people, has attracted extensive authorial attention. Whether the event's prominence derives from the target's rich architectural and artistic heritage, or debate about the attack's moral justification, its narrative of horror can be luridly riveting when written well. Best-selling McKay (The Secret Lives of Codebreakers, 2012) does so. Sketching Dresden's landmarks built over centuries, he conveys the charm the city exerted on inhabitants and visitors alike. Setting the stage for February 13, 1945, McKay describes how various Dresdeners scrambled for air raid shelters as sirens wailed, and how they survived the ensuing apocalyptic conflagration. Conversely, McKay recounts the background to the RAF's bombing campaign against Germany, and why he considers the RAF officer in charge, Arthur Harris, to be controversial. More sympathetic to RAF air crew, he underscores their risks flying the Lancaster bomber as he builds up to their experience of carrying out the Dresden mission. Concluding with Dresden's prolonged postwar reconstruction, McKay rounds out a high-quality rendition of the actuality and symbolism of Dresden's devastation.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Historian McKay (The Secret Lives of Codebreakers) portrays Dresden before, during, and immediately after its February 1945 destruction by Allied bombers in this vivid and exhaustive narrative. McKay profiles Dresden residents, including Viktor Kemperer, a philology professor and Jewish convert to Christianity, and 15-year-old Winfried Bielss, a member of the Hitler Youth, and sketches the city's favored status among British and American socialites, which locals hoped would keep them safe from attack. On the night of February 13, however, nearly 800 Royal Air Force bombers took off from England for Dresden; their objective, according to McKay, was to "create an atmosphere of panic" among the population, which included thousands of refugees fleeing the Red Army's advance into northern Germany. The planes carried 4,000-pound "Blockbuster" bombs and incendiary devices intended to spark fires in the wreckage. Drawing from memoirs, letters, and diaries, McKay describes people huddling in cellars, many of which collapsed or became suffocating from heat, smoke, and lack of oxygen, and emerging to find burning corpses, melting roads, and an estimated mile-high conflagration in the city center. An estimated 25,000 people died in three waves of Allied attacks over two days. McKay's extensive research and animated prose capture the terror and tragedy of the bombing. Readers won't soon forget this devastating account. (Feb.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

February 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the fire-bombing of Dresden, one of the most controversial Allied actions of World War II. Lasting two days, the bombing killed an estimated 25,000 to 35,000 civilians, many of who were fleeing the onslaught of the Soviet Army. MacKay's (The Secret Lives of Codebreakers) engrossing account of Dresden's citizens, in the moments before, during, and after the bombings, describe a community trying to manage everyday life in Nazi Germany until a cataclysm interrupted its routine. Included are personal narratives describing the stories of Allied prisoners of war, the accounts of the few remaining Jews, and the experiences of British and American air crews. Most of these crew members had not flown so far over enemy territory; for them, it was another risky mission and extremely fear-filled flight. VERDICT Well researched, powerfully written, and balanced, this book will let the reader decide whether the bombing of Dresden was a war crime or a calculated step to bring a long and bloody war to an end. For all interested in military history and World War II.--Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A history of the 1945 bombing that made Dresden "a totem to the obscenity of total war."On the evening of Feb. 13, 1945, writes British literary critic McKay (The Scotland Yard Puzzle Book, 2019, etc.), British bombers unleashed a savage attack on the Nazi-controlled city of Dresden, killing some 25,000 people and turning the "Florence on the Elbe," as the elegant cultural center was known, into "a burnt and bloody wilderness." The bombing was the focus of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, based on his experiences during the historic firestorm as a prisoner of war. After describing life in Dresden before the bombing, McKay re-creates the nighttime attack in the words of residents as well as German officials, Allied commanders and bomb crews, and many others. "No one could ever imagine that our city would be the victim of a cruel and senseless bombing," says Gisela Reichelt, who was 10 at the time. Hers was among many eyewitness accounts McKay examined in the city's archives. Like others, she dismissed the nighttime air-raid alarmsthey had always proven falsethat preceded the dropping of nearly 4,000 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices. Payloads from hundreds of planes set the city on fire, tore buildings apart, and dismembered people in shelters. With good weather and few Nazi defenses, young airmen pursuing "just another target" found Dresden was "theirs to incinerate." McKay's harrowing narrative conjures the "satanic music" of passing aircraft and the burning of corpses whose stench was still recalled years later, all set against the daily malevolence of life under the Gestapo. Many immediately questioned the morality of bombing a city of limited strategic importance (it was a rail transport hub). American planes engaged in subsequent Dresden raids. The city, including its baroque churches and concert halls, has since been restored.A full and powerful account of warfare that ignored the distinction between military and civilian objectives. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.