{"id":3598,"date":"2013-03-29T06:25:11","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T04:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.military-history.us\/?p=3598"},"modified":"2013-03-25T13:34:05","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T11:34:05","slug":"book-review-dresden-a-survivors-story-by-victor-gregg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/2013\/03\/book-review-dresden-a-survivors-story-by-victor-gregg\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Dresden: A Survivor’s Story by Victor Gregg"},"content":{"rendered":"

[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Victor Gregg’s\u00c2\u00a0Dresden: A Survivor’s Story<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>is a short work describing the author’s experience as \u00c2\u00a0POW who got caught in Dresden in\u00c2\u00a0February, 1945 when the Allies bombed the city in what would become known as the Firebombing of Dresden. \u00c2\u00a0The attack essentially\u00c2\u00a0destroyed\u00c2\u00a0the city center and killed an estimated 25,000\u00c2\u00a0German’s. \u00c2\u00a0Wikipedia has a pretty good article on the attacks<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0that also discusses the controversy surrounding them that has grown up since the war. \u00c2\u00a0To\u00c2\u00a0sum up the controversy, general anti-war people claim they were a crime and so do Neo-Nazi’s. \u00c2\u00a0Both claim that Dresden was not a legitimate military target or that if it was the bombing did not hit\u00c2\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

Back to the book. \u00c2\u00a0Dresden: A Survivor’s<\/a><\/em> Story<\/a>, is the story of what one man saw and did just before, during, and just after the bombing. \u00c2\u00a0Printed the book would only amount to roughly 40 pages. \u00c2\u00a0It is an engaging tale and the author writes with a witty sarcasm that keeps the narrative flowing. \u00c2\u00a0The events he relates surrounding the Dresden\u00c2\u00a0bombing\u00c2\u00a0seem fantastical but are probably accurate\u00c2\u00a0representations\u00c2\u00a0of what actually\u00c2\u00a0happened. \u00c2\u00a0There is no doubt that the bombing of Dresden and it’s aftereffect were horrific. \u00c2\u00a0Mr. Gregg’s narrative reflects this. \u00c2\u00a0The only part of the book I take exception to is the afterword which I felt was a poorly written attempted rationale for why the Firebombing\u00c2\u00a0of Dresden was a war-crime. \u00c2\u00a0I leave it to the individual reader to research it on\u00c2\u00a0their\u00c2\u00a0own and make the decision of whether a war-crime (A term I object to)<\/em> occurred or not.<\/p>\n

Editorializing:<\/strong> Personally, I find the whole talk of war crimes to be farcical. \u00c2\u00a0It would be comical if so many people did not take the notion so\u00c2\u00a0seriously. \u00c2\u00a0The term and the associated crimes against humanity, genocide, etc. Have been so\u00c2\u00a0misused\u00c2\u00a0that they no longer have meaning. \u00c2\u00a0The traditional Laws of War<\/span> stood the Western World in good stead for centuries and nothing that was done in WWII seems to me to have\u00c2\u00a0mitigated\u00c2\u00a0against their use. \u00c2\u00a0What has happened in the last hundred years is a Quixotic attempt to civilize war, an activity that is inherently uncivilized. \u00c2\u00a0The right of the victors would have sufficed perfectly to put the perpetrators of the\u00c2\u00a0holocaust\u00c2\u00a0against a wall but for some reason, the West felt the need for legalized vengeance. \u00c2\u00a0Their invention of these crimes has subsequently turned around and bit them ever since. \u00c2\u00a0There was no need to justify the destruction of Dresden, it was an\u00c2\u00a0enemy\u00c2\u00a0city and thus subject to attack. \u00c2\u00a0The severity of said attack was and is irrelevant. \u00c2\u00a0There is no such concept of proportionality in warfare, nor should their be. \u00c2\u00a0Warfare\u00c2\u00a0is doing what you think you need to do to compel your enemy to submit; no more and no less.<\/em><\/p>\n

Overall this is a well written work of personal reflection. \u00c2\u00a0I recommend it for people that would\u00c2\u00a0like\u00c2\u00a0a description of what it was like to be in\u00c2\u00a0Dresden\u00c2\u00a0during and immediately after the bombing. \u00c2\u00a0There is no great amount of detail here but it gives a good general description of what living through such an event was like.<\/p>\n