TARGET DRESDEN by Cooper, Alan W

Bromley, 1995, Independent Books, UK first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, , 6 1/2 X 9 1/2, FINE/FINE CONDITION, 256 pages, numerous illus & maps, appendices. ............................................................ Published fifty Years after the raid on Dresden, Alan Cooper's new book is the result of over two year's research into the operation by Bomber Command which continues to raise so much controversy. The book is compiled from archive records and from the personal accounts of the men who flew the operation, setting it in the framework of the development of air warfare tactics.Target - Dresden is both a detailed treatise on the development of the bomber and an account of this raid which has, in the intervening years, become so notorious. From the Zeppelin to the Lancaster and from Coventry to Dresden, Alan Cooper describes the evolution of air bombardment tactics, coupled with the rise of the aeroplane to become the most powerful weapon of war.Was Dresden a legitimate target? Was it undefended? Was the Luftwaffe finished? Was the whole operation too severe for such a late stage in the War? These are just a few of the questions which have been put since that night in February 1945. Individual conclusions can be drawn from facts recorded in Target - Dresden.