Quotes from Robin Cross

Harris himself was not the villain of Dresden. The decision to mount the raids, and those on Berlin, Leipzig and Chemnitz, was taken by the combined US, Russian and British Chiefs of Staff, fully supported by Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill. It was Harris's duty to execute their orders. Nor was Harris the architect of area bombing, a policy already in place when, in 1942, he became C-in-C of Bomber Command.

Photographs of the event show the grim-faced German officers creaking their way across the windy heath in their long leather overcoats, escorted by mild-looking British counterparts who seem like bank managers in uniform.