PUBLISHED BY THE NEW ENGLISH LIBRARY LIMITED
In 1943, the city of Hamburg, the second largest in Nazi
Germany, had already sustained 137 air raids - but
with its well-organized civil defence system, it had been
well-trained and equipped to handle a bombing attack.
Then the bombers swooped again and in 90 minutes a
fire-storm was born. Searing, horrifying, uncontrollable,
a single gigantic fire roared 40,000 feet into the air,
winds of incredible velocity whipped flames through the
streets, and the air temperature reached 1,500 degrees.
More than 6,000 acres of buildings were gutted, three-quarters
of a million people were homeless and in the ruins of their city - which would continue
to burn for many weeks - lay 70,000 dead.
Why did the emergency measures of defence collapse?
What were the secret weapons that enabled the British
bombers to fly over unimpeded? What was the meaning of
'Gomorrah', and how did it accomplish its frightful
purpose?
Martin Caidin, consultant on civil defence and a leading
aviation writer, has examined official German and allied
sources to tell for the first time the full story of the
most shocking aerial bombardment of the war and
raises the question of how our cities would survive
today in case of nuclear attack.
(Note that Caidin has worked for US "intelligence":