From: wikien-l-bounces(a)Wikipedia.org
[mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Ray Saintonge
We should learn
about these and other tragedies and say
"NEVER AGAIN!"
I visited Dresden last summer.
I was thinking about Dresden this morning. I was skyping with a German
friend and he mentioned an upcoming visit to Dresden, which he described as
being a city full of history. I couldn't speak for a few moments because I
was thinking of what I knew of Dresden's history.
"The firebombing consisted of by-then standard methods; dropping large
amounts of high-explosive to blow off the roofs to expose the timbers within
buildings, followed by incendiary devices (fire-sticks) to ignite them and
then more high-explosives to hamper the efforts of the fire services. This
eventually created a self-sustaining firestorm with temperatures peaking at
over 1500°C. After the area caught fire, the air above the bombed area
became extremely hot and rose rapidly. Cold air then rushed in at ground
level from the outside and people were sucked into the fire."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II