Slaughter House five

The Dresden bombing took place between February 13 and February 15th 1945. The allied forces bombed the German city of Dresden (The capital of the German state Saxony) for 3 days dropping almost 4 thousands tons of firebombs on the city. The incident is considered by many to have been unjustified, and it's the most significant smudge on the reputation of the allies. The reason the bombing was considered to be unjustified is because it did not specifically attempt to bomb factories and railroads, instead it carpeted the whole city with explosives, completely razing the cities center to the ground. The allies’ justification for the bombing is that the city was generally a center of industry and the bombing was sure to destroy the important rail lines which ran directly through the city. The city of Dresden today estimates the death toll at approximately 25 thousand. Dresden has, for hundreds of years, been the center of Germany culturally. For example the Semperoper, an Opera House founded by Saxon kings in 1548, has premiered such masterpieces as Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" and continues to produce Opera's today. Also
http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/hittinghome/hittinghomepg9.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/3123512/Dresden-bombing-death-toll-lower-than-thought.html
http://www.semperoper.de/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/feb/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview2