During the final months of World War II, the Allies wanted to pull off a dramatic move that might hasten the end of the conflict. After a series of highly secretive meetings, they decided to focus their combined military might on one of Germany’s most beautiful and historic cities.

In February 1945, three successive waves of British and U.S. aircraft pummeled the largely undefended city of Dresden. After thousands of tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs fell from the skies, the city lay in ruins and tens of thousands of people, almost all of them civilians, lie dead.

Even after the passage of more than half a century, the necessity and effectiveness of the Allied bombing campaign is still being debated by scholars and historians.

Marshall DeBruhl, an internationally renowned writer, meticulously examines the campaign in his new book, “Firestorm.” Using new research and contemporary reports -- as well as eyewitness accounts of the devastation -- he recreates the drama and sheer horror of the bombing.

Although Dresden was celebrated as a bastion of civilization and high culture, it was also the center of an extensive and vital

transportation network.

That is one of the main reasons why the city was such an attractive target. At the time of the attack, Dresden had at least 110 factories and industrial enterprises that employed 50,000 workers. Scattered around the city were aircraft-component factories, a poison-gas factory, and anti-aircraft and field gun factory.

DeBruhl examines how Nazi and Allied philosophies evolved prior to Dresden as he details many of architects and prime movers of strategic bombing and aerial warfare, including aviation pioneer Billy Mitchell, RAF air marshal Arthur Harris and Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goring.”

Books reviewed in this column are available online or at your local bookstore.

(c) 2006 King Features Synd., Inc.