Hellstorm Page #3

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The thousands of small fires would join together

to form one huge blaze, creating an

intense vortex of wind and flames.

Kate Hoffmeister: I struggled to run

against the wind in the middle of the

street. We couldnt go on across

because the asphalt had melted. There

were people on the roadway, some already dead,

some still lying alive but stuck in the asphalt.

They were on their hands

and knees screaming.

Some miraculously survived the inferno,

reaching safety in rivers, canals and parks.

Thousands more, however, did not. When the raids

finally ended and the firestorms began to recede,

rescue workers rushed to free

those still trapped underground.

When would-be rescuers finally broke through

to buried bunkers they often found scenes

of unimaginable horror. In cellars suffering

direct hits, walls were awash in blood,

with bone, brains and body

parts splattered everywhere.

Rescuers who entered some bunkers found

floors covered, in up to a foot of greasy fat,

the victims rendered

down into a dark liquid.

When word first filtered through to the outside

world of the butchery being visited upon the

women and children of Germany by the Royal Air

Force, critics of these war crimes spoke out

Author Vera Brittain: The ruthless mass bombing

of congested cities is as great a threat to

the integrity of the human spirit as anything

which has yet occurred on this planet. There

is no military or political advantage

which can justify this blasphemy.

Although it was considered treasonous for members

of the RAF to criticize the bombing campaign

the conscience of some was overwhelmed

by the hell being unleashed upon Germany.

RAF Aviator:
There were people down there being

fried to death in melted asphalt in the roads,

they were being burnt up and we were

shuffling incendiary bombs into this holocaust.

I felt terribly sorry for the people

in that fire I was helping to stoke up.

As a symbol of the Third Reich, and as the most

obvious example of Germanys will to fight on,

more bombs were devoted to

Berlin than any other German city.

It is another place, however, that has become most

widely associated with the terror campaign waged

against Germany

- Dresden.

Since Dresden had suffered only two small raids

in the five years of war, many assumed that the

citys salvation was due to its irreplaceable

treasures - ornate palaces, world-renowned

museums and art galleries, its

towering, centuries-old cathedrals.

Others surmised that since Dresden had almost no heavy industry

- and what little it did have

had no bearing on the war

- the enemy simply did not deem the city a viable target.

To some, the twenty-six thousand Allied POWs interned

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