or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
19 used & new from £5.14
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War 2
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War 2 (Hardcover)

by Herman Knell (Author) "Wurzburg, a city of just over 100,000 inhabitants halfway between Frankfurt and Nurnberg, was the target of Allied bomber raids a number of times in..." (more)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Price: £18.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock but may require up to 2 additional days to deliver.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 3 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

10 new from £9.99 9 used from £5.14

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Among the Dead Cities: Is the Targeting of Civilians in War Ever Justified? by A.C. Grayling

To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War 2 + Among the Dead Cities: Is the Targeting of Civilians in War Ever Justified?
Price For Both: £25.96

One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Among the Dead Cities: Is the Targeting of Civilians in War Ever Justified?

Among the Dead Cities: Is the Targeting of Civilians in War Ever Justified?

by A.C. Grayling
4.2 out of 5 stars (6)  £6.97
Bomber Harris: His Life and Times

Bomber Harris: His Life and Times

by Henry Probert
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £9.99
Bomber Offensive (Pen & Sword Military Classics)

Bomber Offensive (Pen & Sword Military Classics)

by Sir Arthur Harris
4.0 out of 5 stars (1) 
Bomber Command (Pan Grand Strategy Series)

Bomber Command (Pan Grand Strategy Series)

by Sir Max Hastings
4.8 out of 5 stars (11)  £6.48
Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945 (Princeton Studies in International History and Politics)

Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945 (Princeton Studies in International History and Politics)

by Tami Davis Biddle
£20.85
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc (27 Feb 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0306811693
  • ISBN-13: 978-0306811692
  • Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 839,883 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

A German survivor of the Allied air campaign in World War II provides a unique and thought-provoking perspective on strategic, wide-area bombing. Herman Knell was nineteen and living in W rtzburg in March of 1945 when hundreds of Allied planes arrived overhead, unleashing a torrent of bombs on the city. W rtzburg's tightly packed medieval housing exploded in a firestorm, killing six thousand people in one night and destroying 92 percent of the city's structures. Despite the fact that W rtzburg had no strategic value, the city emerged from World War II second only to Dresden in material destruction inflicted from the air. The experience led Knell to years of research on the history, development, and effects of the strategy of area bombing. To Destroy a City is the result of the author's long and unrelenting investigation. His analysis of this form of warfare, which reached its zenith during World War II, covers the history and the development of wide-area bombing since 1914, examines its wartime effectiveness and the consequences. But the extra dimension that Knell's book offers is his firsthand experience of the tension, fear, tentative defiance, and, finally, utter catastrophe of being on the receiving end of overwhelming air power. For Americans, who fortunately did not experience bombing during the war, this is essential reading.


About the Author

Herman Knell emigrated to Canada aft er the war and became an engineer, publishing nume rous papers in his field. His research on this boo k began in 1984, drawing on sources throughout the world. He currently lives in West Vancouver, Brit ish Columbia.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Wurzburg, a city of just over 100,000 inhabitants halfway between Frankfurt and Nurnberg, was the target of Allied bomber raids a number of times in World War II. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
strategic bombing
laws of war
good german
atrocities

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War 2
33% buy the item featured on this page:
To Destroy a City: Strategic Bombing and Its Human Consequences in World War 2 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)
£18.99
Bomber Command (Pan Grand Strategy Series)
31% buy
Bomber Command (Pan Grand Strategy Series) 4.8 out of 5 stars (11)
£6.48
Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden 1945
15% buy
Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden 1945
£5.58
Among the Dead Cities: Is the Targeting of Civilians in War Ever Justified?
11% buy
Among the Dead Cities: Is the Targeting of Civilians in War Ever Justified? 4.2 out of 5 stars (6)
£6.97
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Unbiased study on a delicate topic, 28 April 2006
This study reveals to what extent all kinds of states, minor and larger, were engaged in developing weaponry for mass destruction. The author gives us an excellent study on the doctrine of air war which prevailed after WW I and diring WW II, and which eventually destroyed his hometown Würzburg - a town without military importance which nowadays, even as completely rebuilt, belongs to UNESCO's world heritage list. It was bombed, nihilistically, when the war was almost over and the Nazi regime almost beaten. Why? The author poses an interesting theory according to which the expensive bombs and aicraft on which the governments had so much invested, could not remain unused, nor could the aircraft stay idle without some 'reasonable' use. In other words, the war machine was like a massive vehicle which could not be easily stopped when it was no more needed.

No party of the WW II could resist the temptation of using aircraft agains non-combatant civilians, and the allied used it in a massive scale - first to 'demoralise' the enemy, later for sheer revenge. Eventually this same air war policy lead to the dropping of the atomic bombs to Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Carpet bombing was still in use in Vietnam and Cambodia. The author does not accuse the allied forces of committing a war crime but lets the reader draw his own conclusions.

There is no doubt that the allied fought for a just cause. Had the Nazis won the war, that would have been the end of civilzation in Europe. But to ponder whether the means of the Allied forces and the underlying motives of warfare were reasonable or just, would be crucial to get a more truthful insight of what really happened. The fate of civilians in WW II including (justly) also German civilians is a taboo which has to be unfold after over 60 years of these tragic events.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Perspective of the effects of Strategic Bombing, 12 Nov 2004
By A. J. Knell "Tony" (Wallasey, Merseyside United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book is a painstakingly researched account of the development of strategic bombing, motivated by the author's need to understand why his hometown of Wurzburg was bombed causing horrific civilian loss of life. It also poses the question, was the allied strategic campaign against cities a legitimate military action, or indeed a war crime?

The book is a compelling read but in my view does not adequately define the difference between the Allied defence of freedom from Nazi and Japanese ideology. That had initiated the racial genocide of millions in concentration camps, notably the Jews, cruelly brutalised slave labourers, and prisoners of war in Japanese hands, nor does it adequately consider to what extent the civil population supported these aims.

I share the same surname with the author ironically my family endured the German Blitz, and fought against the axis cause, truly exemplifying the futility of war.
My personnel view is the legitimacy of the conduct of the allies during the war and accepting many tragic mistakes were made, has been vindicated in the establishment of post war democracy, and lasting peace. This book provides a valuable reminder of the human cost to be paid when democracy fails.

Comment Comments (3) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject























i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.