The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945

by Sinclair McKay

Overview

A gripping work of narrative nonfiction recounting the history of the Dresden Bombing, one of the most devastating attacks of World War II.

On February 13th, 1945 at 10:03 PM, British bombers began one of the most devastating attacks of WWII: the bombing 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 the citizens of Dresden were burned, baked, or suffocated to death.

Early the next day, American bombers finished off what was left. Sinclair McKay’s The Fire and the Darkness is a pulse-pounding work of history that 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. The Fire and the Darkness is powered by McKay’s 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.

What happened that night in Dresden was calculated annihilation in a war that was almost over. Sinclair McKay’s brilliant work takes a complex, human, view of this terrible night and its aftermath in a gripping book that will be remembered long after the last page is turned.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250258014
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/04/2020
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	262,074
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

SINCLAIR MCKAY is the bestselling author of The Secret Lives of Codebreakers (published in the UK as The Secret Life of Bletchley Park) and The Secret Listeners for Aurum, as well as several other books. Sinclair is a literary critic for the Telegraph and The Spectator and for three years was a judge of the Encore Prize, awarded annually for best second novel. He lives in the shadow of Canary Wharf in east London.

Table of Contents

Part One: The Approaching Fury

Chapter 1: The Days Before

Chapter 2: In the Forests of the Gauleiter

Chapter 3: The Dethroning of Reason

Chapter 4: Art and Degeneracy

Chapter 5: The Glass Man and the Physicists

Chapter 6: "A Sort of Little London"

Chapter 7: The Science of Doomsday

Chapter 8: The Correct Atmospheric Conditions

Chapter 9: Hosing Out

Chapter 10: The Devil Will Get No Rest

Part Two: Schreckensnacht

Chapter 11: The Day of Darkness

Chapter 12: Five Minutes Before the Sirens

Chapter 13: Into the abyss

Chapter 14: Shadows and Light

Chapter 15: 10:03 PM

Chapter 16: The Burning Eyes

Chapter 17: Midnight

Chapter 18: The Second Wave

Chapter 19: From Among the Dead

Chapter 20: The Third Wave

Part Three: Aftershock

Chapter 21: Dead Men and Dreamers

Chapter 22: The Radiant Tombs

Chapter 23: The Meanings of Terror

Chapter 24: The Music of the Dead

Chapter 25: Recoil

Chapter 26: "The Stalinist Style"

Chapter 27: Beauty and Remembrance

Editorial Reviews

12/02/2019

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.)

Publishers Weekly

"Disturbing and compelling in equal measure. Sinclair McKay brings a dark subject vividly to life."

—Keith Lowe, author of Savage Continent and The Fear and the Freedom

"A full and powerful account of warfare that ignored the distinction between military and civilian objectives."

—Kirkus Reviews

“There have been many books on the bombing of Dresden . . . but Sinclair McKay’s account is a worthy addition. Eschewing easy moralising, he prefers to reflect on Dresden’s intensely moving annual ceremony of remembrance and the episode’s place in collective memory. Above all, he rejoices in the modern city’s resurrection.” —The Economist

"Engrossing . . . well-researched, powerfully written, and balanced. For all interested in military history and World War II." —Library Journal (starred review)

"McKay’s extensive research and animated prose capture the terror and tragedy of the bombing. Readers won’t soon forget this devastating account." —Publishers Weekly

"Mr. McKay’s rich narrative and descriptive gifts provide us with an elegant yet unflinching account of that terrible night... to be recommended as a very readable and finely crafted addition to the literature on one of modern history’s most morally fraught military operations." —Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

★ 01/01/2020

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

Library Journal

2019-11-19
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 alarms—they had always proven false—that 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.

Kirkus Reviews

Narrator Leighton Pugh gives a masterful narration of this account of the bombing of Dresden, Germany, by Allied Forces in February 1945. McKay’s work looks at the city and people of Dresden before and during the war, and his account of the bombing is a personal account told by those who survived it. Pugh’s voice has a stentorian quality that may remind some of listening to a documentary from the BBC. Although seemingly dispassionate, he is expertly expressive and has superbly clear and precise pronunciation. His language training is ably displayed in his delivery of German names and places. Despite the horrific nature of this account, Pugh is the perfect voice to bring it to listeners. M.T.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile