Over two days and nights in February 1945, American and British bombers dropped 2,400 tons of high explosives and 1,500 tons of incendiary bombs on the German city of Dresden.
The barrage turned the cultural jewel of Saxony into a hellish inferno. A firestorm raged across the city, generating hurricane-force winds and temperatures near 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Civilians sheltering in basements suffocated as the city above them was consumed by flame.
When the fires were finally extinguished, an estimated 25,000 people had died and the baroque city center had been reduced to rubble.
A few months later, the war in Europe ended. Under Soviet occupation, the survivors began the daunting task of cleaning and rebuilding their city.
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