Sinclair McKay is the author of more than a dozen books. The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945 was published in 2020. It is the 21st book I completed reading in 2023.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to minor scenes of violence, I categorize this book as PG.

It was mid-February of 1945 when British and American bombers targeted Dresden. The first half of this book paints a vivid picture of life in Dresden in the years before the attack. The author touches on the artistic, musical, and scientific achievements of the city. Dresden was a sophisticated and international city. It was full of beautiful architecture and historical buildings. The stories of a variety of Germans are recorded. Old and young. Workers and artists. Civilian and Nazi officials.

One wave of bombers after another hit the city between 13 and 15 February. Nearly 1300 heavy bombers of the RAF and US Air Force participated in the attack. They dropped nearly 4000 tons of bombs and incendiary devices on the city. The author describes the attack and aftermath from the resident’s experiences. The aftermath of the raid and the rebuilding efforts while Dresden was part of East Germany is described.

The firebombing of both German and Japanese cities raised controversy at the time. The debate continues on the ethics of the raids. With the war rapidly approaching an end, was the raid justified?

I enjoyed the 12.5 hours I spent reading this 386-page WWII history. This book is very readable and gives a different perspective on the war. I like the chosen cover art. I give this book a rating of 4 out of 5.

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Absorbing. Compelling. Riveting. Those are just some of the words that spring to mind over this well-written, well-researched book about the Feb 13, 1945 firebombing of Dresden, Germany.

I learned so much about pre-bombing Dresden and, of course, about how the bombing itself played out, and what has happened there since then.

A masterful work of narrative nonfiction which really brought the horror of that night to life. Highly recommended!!

For those that love history, you are going to really enjoy this book! Dive into the bombing of Dresden, and gain more insight into why and how it was planned, and carried out. I truly enjoyed reading through this one!

This book gave an incredible look at the events that led to the bombing of Dresden by the Allies in 1945. Sinclair McKay portrays the perspective of the Allies who are planning the bombing, along with the pilots who lead the bombing and most dramatically, the live of those who were living in Dresden. This a recommended read for anyone interested in the highly overlooked event in history.

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: <i>‘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.</i>

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

<i>"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.</i>

In <i>Operation Thunderclap</i>, 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. "

<i> "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."</i>

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.

The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945 was an interesting read and I am giving it four and a half stars.

An in depth lok at the bombing of Dresden.Very well researched and written brings us into the action the moment in history.I found it a very eye opening read,#netgalley#st.martinsbooks

THE FIRE AND THE DARKNESS

I started this review initially with detailed descriptions of the beauty of Dresden before the war. Before the bombings. I described the city with all its fine architecture, artistic values, technological advances, and manufacturing innovations. It’s varied population of refined cosmopolitan society, radical artists and university students, Jewish citizens, refugees, and prisoners. German traditions. But then I stopped.

The destruction of beauty and culture sickens me. The killing of so many people who worked so hard and for so long to create something magnificent. The annihilation of people going about their daily business. Their homes. Their shops. Their parks. Their streets. Flowers and trees and animals all gone. All because some people wanted to rule the world, no matter what.

The Fire and The Darkness shows the good and bad of Dresden before the attacks, describes the horrors of the bombings, and explains the aftermath, including the physical rebuilding of the city as well as discussions of political and moral implications of the attacks. There are many personal perspectives from Dresden citizenry as well members of the RAF, USAAF, and military leaders. It is well written and includes a bibliography, notes, and an index. Photos and maps are to be added in the final edition.

It does a fabulous job.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Sinclair McKay, and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book appears to have been written to counter the history of the Nazi blitz on England. It provides a detailed and emotional description of a firebombing raid on Germany and its aftermath. It is in the spirit of "Hiroshima, Mon Amour." I am an eager reader of everything I can find about WWII, but I found this book to be a little weak.

Powerful, disturbing, necessary. Great research--this book takes you into the heart of the horrific experience of the enemy-- or civilian enemies. One that often gets to be told.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunty to read and review this book. After any war it is the winners who write the history of it and that always show the losers to be the bad guys in the conflict. 'Fire and Darkness' shows very clearly that had the same actions concerning Dresden been done by the losers then the British and American air commanders would have been quite likely convicted of crimes against humanity. The story is written in a detailed and flowing manner that envelops the reader during the build-up and aftermath of the attack. As with most well written historical descriptions of specific events the author gives comprehensive accounts of the main players and events surrounding Dresden.

This is more than just a historical account of a battle during wartime. This book gives an account of all of the different viewpoints and actions that led up to the bombing of Dresden. The writer demonstrates how ordinary people can become so jaded/racist or nonchalant about what is happening to others, how military leaders can make decisions that are strategic and discount the individual lives that are lost, and how misplaced persons pull together and persevere. I had to read this book in pieces because it broke my heart to know that all that was written actually occurred. However, it is a complete and concise account of this portion of the war and is incredibly well written. I recommend this book to all who enjoy historical accounts and war stories.

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I have always heard about the fire-bombing of Dresden, but the even never got more than a chapter (at best) or so in all the books I read. After reading The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945 by Sinclair McKay I realized how devastating, and what a huge operation, it must have been.

The raid took place in 13 February 1945, I never realized the scale of it 244 bombers dripping 880 tons of bombs. The attack was done in waves, even though the majority of the damage was, as expected, on the first wave. Two waves were by the Royal Air Force (RAF), one of the waves was 120 miles long, the other two were done in daylight by the American Army Air Corps.

The citizens of Dresden were sure they were mostly safe due to the historical nature of the city and its treasures. However, it was more important to the British High Command to make a point and try to demoralize the German population, even though the bombing seemed to have to opposite effect.
It also didn’t help that Dresden enthusiastically embraced the Nazi anti-Semitic and racial ideology and laws.

The author spends the first half of the book introducing the readers to the people he follows. Residents of Dresden, both prominent and regular citizens as well as Werner Klemperer who stayed in the Jewish area (having been forced the day before the bombing to deliver transport orders to other Jews) and POW Kurt Vonnegut who would go on to fictionalize his experiences in Slaughterhouse-Five. The author also follows the bomber crews and the terrifying experiences they had in the European skies.

The author does not shy away from the controversy surrounding the bombing. Was it necessary? Was it a war crime? A crime against humanity? How did the people who ordered the bombing as well as those executing the orders deal with the morality of it?
Mr. McCay does not take sides, but let his subjects speak for themselves. He does observe that maybe, after years of war and millions and millions dead, maybe the bombing of cities was done simply to make the other side stop.

This is a very interesting and lively read, Mr. McKay writes with passion and care. The author creates a memorable, fascinating, and easy to understand narrative about a complicated subject with his still being revisited these days.The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945 by Sinclair McKay tells about the extensive barraging of the city by the Allies during World War II using firsthand accounts of those in the air and on the ground. Mr. McKay is an author and reporter from England.

If you think WAR is ugly, this book will convince you that it is more than that; it's pure filth. This is not the story of bombing a city during wartime. This is the story about a city that was the byword for excellence in the arts and innovations of its time and how that city was razed to the ground because the weapons that can do so exited and generated the impulse to use them. I think the world needs more books that examine obscure historical moments or reexamines and revises famous ones.

The book did not restrict itself into technical details; it ingeniously encompassed the psychological aspects of both the city dwellers and the bombers. The target of the RAF Commander in Chief's ruthlessness, who believed in area-bombing, was not only civilian dwellers but his own pilots and bombers, whose moral compass disintegrated under pressure.

One caveat though was the real-life characters. Had this been a work of fiction, I would have objected harshly to the appearance of some characters early on, then, after many details and pages, I found them reappear after I forgot who they were and had to go back to remember their backstory. I understand the author's logic but it was still baffling at times. It's not easy to forget Kurt Vonnegut or Miles Tripp, but the rest seemed very forgettable with the deluge of details of the days leading up to February 13.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.

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.

Bombing Dresden Posed a Moral Dilemma for the Allies

Dresden was a cosmopolitan city filled with glorious buildings, home to the arts and music, and with a rich history. At the end of WWII, Dresdeners thought they would be spared. The city wasn’t a high value target from a military perspective, and it was renowned for its cultural significance. However, on February 13, 1945 that changed. The British and Americans agreed on one of the most devastating bombings of the war. After the war this decision was hotly debated.

Sinclair McKay builds the picture of Dresden prior to the bombing. The early chapters detail the art and architecture, the boys choir, and other cultural landmarks. He also discusses the plight of the citizens at the end of the war. Many were starving, had no good place to live, and were ill. The plight of the Jews was particularly dreadful. The had lost their homes, treasures, and relatives. Now they were hoping to not lose their lives.

After the scenes depicting the beauty of Dresden, the descriptions following the bombing are devastating. The streets were aflame. People were burned alive or suffocated in their shelters. Finally, the book ends with the reconstruction of the city and the friendship between Coventry, England and Dresden. It was a pleasing ending to the tale of tragedy.

Throughout the book, the author introduces us to the real people who were affected by the war from Jews to Hitler Youth to the Nazis who governed the city. Their stories made the tragedy real. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy history, particularly that of WWII.

I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.

I knew that Dresden was bombed in the war, but didn’t know much about it. This book is very well researched and sheds a lot of light on the firestorm bombing of this city near the end of the war. Over 20,000 people were killed and the city was gutted. Was this a retaliation for the bombing of Coventry? Was it necessary? Or an exertion of power.?

Seventy-five years ago, the people of Dresden lived with the belief that their city would be safe from bombing because of its’ historical significance and its’ lack of importance as a target. That changed on February 13, 1945 with one of the most devastating attacks that Germany had seen. Sinclair McKay takes the reader through the rich history of artists and musicians who lived and worked there, but the tragedy truly comes to life when McKay introduces a number of the residents who lived through the darkest days. Victor Klemperer was a university professor who lost his position and his home because he was Jewish. Along with a small number of Jewish survivors, he is relegated to demeaning jobs to avoid deportation. Winfried Biels is a member of the Hitler Youth aiding refugees from the Soviet onslaught and Kurt Vonnegut, whose experiences as a POW at the time of the bombing became the basis of Slaughterhouse Five.

As life goes on in Dresden, McKay visits the war offices and airfields in Britain. While bombings were concentrated on rail yards, oil depots and armaments manufacturing, there was also an argument to bomb the cities in an effort to shatter the enemy’s will to fight. It was to become a moral dilemma that later preyed on Churchill’s mind. The actual bombings are told in heartbreaking detail, followed by survivors’ descriptions of the carnage and the incredible will to survive as fires raged. The reconstruction and life under Soviet occupation complete McKay’s history of Dresden.

One of my preferred genres is historical fiction and I have read numerous tales of WWII. While these can give you a sense of the events that occurred, a non-fiction account like The Fire and the Darkness puts you on the streets during the actual events and it will stay with you long after the book has ended. I would like to thank NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for providing this fascinating book in exchange for my review.

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.

Reading about the Dresden Firebombing of February 1945 is a painful and horrific encounter, as is reading about Hiroshima or Nagasaki, September 11 2001, the Holocaust or the history of lynching. Yet we as readers and thinking humans need to be aware of the evils of history as well as the glories. On the other hand, Dresden 's history also testifies to the invincibility of the human spirit, above and beyond the biological drive to survive. For biology alone cannot account for the city 's reconstruction nor for the impetus to record for posterity its tragedy, nor for those outside Dresden who strive to repair and to improve it. There is something in humanity that is propelled to rise above its frequent inhumanity and destruction.