With Christmas now out of the way and with so much dross on TV, I have now read your recommended book Baza,
Dresden: Fire and the Darkness by Sinclair McKay, Penguin Books 2020.
This work on the subject of the 13th/14th February, 1945 air raids finely describes in much detail, and through the expected prime witness accounts given to a respected historian, the full blown experiences, with the extreme horrors encountered given by them, of life in Dresden before, during and post the event. McKay correctly discusses the many military reasons and moral positions of the raids, and although he comes close to supporting the idea, with great references, that these acts boarded on being "Terror raids" and without true justification, he wisely concludes that this is what comes from the "Total War" that Hitler self proclaimed and promulgated. The whole situation must be considered from a wider prospective when laying down accusations of guilt, with all the tragic and very costly events of the whole war being taken into account, not least and including the Coventry raid by the Luftwaffe in 1940.
My position is currently unchanged; this raid was understandable and justified when considered in
context - that crucial consideration when reading history - of the then contemporary situation.
I will now re-read as promised the book I studied at uni 12 years ago:
Dresden: Tuesday 13th February 1945 Frederick Taylor Bloomsbury Publishing 2005, and re-appraise my conclusion after that.
Back to reading Baza................!!