The firebombing of Dresden by the Allies in February 1945 killed at least 35,000 people and destroyed one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, which has never - in spite of some devoted restoration - recovered its previous profile. In military terms the bombing had some rationale, but by that time the war plainly had been won and Dresden's massive civilian casualties, plus the destruction of housing, were politically indefensible as well as a source of postwar problems and bitterness. After a war which had produced unprecedented barbarities, to add another major atrocity to the already fearsome list was no solution, and no pointer either to a peaceful future. McKee's book is rigorously fair-minded and does not take the easy option of moral denunciation of the Allies, who were divided among themselves and still had a war to fight.