DRESDEN PRELUDE. ANGLO-AMERICAN CITY AIRSTRIKE IN THE HISTORICAL RETROSPECTIVE

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Anglo-American airstrike against Dresden in February 13 through 15" 1945, and its consequences. Military, political and psychological aspects of the American and British highest command decision to strike the city are taken into consideration. Also, the author researches such military concepts like "bombing terror" or "carpet bombing", which were worked out in Britain and USA contemporaneously during the interwar period as well as the "firestorm technology" later tested by the Royal Air Force on Hamburg and Dresden. American Air Force has also used this "technology" during the airstrike against Tokyo in March 10th 1945. The article offers logical arguments and the evidence of eyewitnesses, which can seriously argue the statistics adopted today as official in Germany and other countries of the EU. The author uses the historical and political methodology to verify the introduced argumentation. Also some probable inconsistencies in the research of the western colleagues are offered for an academic discussion. Considering the heavy losses suffered by the civilians, the author compares the airstrike of Dresden to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, carried out in August 1945.