Cresson Henry Kearny ( / ˈ k ɑːr n i / ; ( 1914-01-07 ) January 7, 1914 – ( 2003-12-18 ) December 18, 2003) wrote several survival -related books based primarily on research performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory .
99-469: Nuclear War Survival Skills or NWSS , by Cresson Kearny , is a civil defense manual. It contains information gleaned from research performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the Cold War , as well as from Kearny's extensive jungle living and international travels. Nuclear War Survival Skills aims to provide a general audience with advice on how to survive conditions likely to be encountered in
198-574: A Rhodes Scholarship and went on to earn two degrees in geology at the University of Oxford . During the Sudeten Crisis he acted as a courier for an underground group helping anti-Nazis escape from Czechoslovakia . Following graduation from Oxford, Kearny joined a Royal Geographical Society expedition in the Peruvian Andes . He then worked as an exploration geologist for Standard Oil in
297-420: A demolition specialist in southern China in 1944. As Japanese forces threatened to overwhelm Chinese defenses in southeast China, he walked night and day to escape capture. After contracting a serious viral disease during that campaign , he was bedridden for many months and partially crippled for several years. After a long convalescence, he retired from active duty with the U.S. Army. In 1961 he took
396-507: A munitions storage depot. The USAF report also states that two of Dresden's traffic routes were of military importance: north-south from Germany to Czechoslovakia , and east–west along the central European uplands . The city was at the junction of the Berlin - Prague - Vienna railway line, as well as the Munich - Breslau , and Hamburg - Leipzig lines. Colonel Harold E. Cook, a US POW held in
495-570: A synthetic oil plant in Magdeburg . Another 84 bombers would attack Wesel . The bomber groups were protected by 784 North American P-51 Mustangs of the Eighth Air Force's VIII Fighter Command , 316 of which covered the Dresden attack – a total of almost 2,100 Eighth Army Air Force aircraft over Saxony during 14 February. The smoke plume over Dresden by now reached 15,000 ft (4,600 m) and
594-475: A "high priority". Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris , AOC-in-C Bomber Command , nicknamed "Bomber Harris", was known as an ardent supporter of area bombing ; when asked for his view, he proposed a simultaneous attack on Chemnitz , Leipzig and Dresden. That evening Churchill asked the Secretary of State for Air , Sir Archibald Sinclair , what plans had been drawn up to carry out these proposals. Marshal of
693-596: A Mosquito, gave the order to the Lancasters: "Controller to Plate Rack Force: Come in and bomb glow of red target indicators as planned. Bomb the glow of red TIs as planned". The first bombs were released at 22:13, the last at 22:28, the Lancasters delivering 881.1 tons of bombs, 57% high explosive, 43% incendiaries. The fan-shaped area that was bombed was 1.25 mi (2.01 km) long, and at its extreme about 1.75 mi (2.82 km) wide. The shape and total devastation of
792-673: A Western plan, but the Soviets were told in advance about the operation. According to the RAF at the time, Dresden was Germany's seventh-largest city and the largest remaining unbombed, built-up area. Taylor writes that an official 1942 guide to the city described it as "one of the foremost industrial locations of the Reich " and in 1944 the German Army High Command 's Weapons Office listed 127 medium-to-large factories and workshops that were supplying
891-468: A block. Between 01:21 and 01:45, 529 Lancasters dropped more than 1,800 tons of bombs. On the morning of 14 February 431 United States Army Air Force bombers of the Eighth Air Force 's 1st Bombardment Division were scheduled to bomb Dresden near midday, and the 457 aircraft of 3rd Bombardment Division were to follow to bomb Chemnitz , while the 375 bombers of the 2nd Bombardment Division would bomb
990-510: A book on the history of development of specialized equipment for use by military forces in jungle regions, and Will Civil Defense Work? Bombing of Dresden This is an accepted version of this page The bombing of Dresden was a joint British and American aerial bombing attack on the city of Dresden , the capital of the German state of Saxony , during World War II . In four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy bombers of
1089-479: A faint light that shows only the shapes of nearby people and things can make the difference between an endurable situation, and a black ordeal." Plans for an expedient cooking-oil powered lamp are included. Topics covered include: Clean Water and Food; Control of Insects; Prevention of Skin Diseases ; Disposal of Human Wastes; Disposal of Dead Bodies; and Prevention of Respiratory Diseases . Where There Is No Doctor
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#17330851343821188-504: A falsified casualty figure of 200,000, and death tolls as high as 500,000 have been claimed. These inflated figures were disseminated in the West for decades, notably by David Irving , a Holocaust denier , who in 1966 announced that the documentation he had worked from had been forged and that the real figures supported the 25,000 number. Early in 1945, the German offensive known as the Battle of
1287-589: A position doing civil defense research with the Hudson Institute . In 1964 he joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory civil defense project. During the Vietnam War , Kearny served as a civilian advisor to the U.S. Army, making several trips to the theater of operations. Much of the supporting research that went into his most famous work, Nuclear War Survival Skills (NWSS), was conducted during
1386-420: A prolonged food crisis [Basic foods for post-nuclear attack use]". He died in 2003. In a New York Times obituary, his daughter Stephanie commented: "Throughout his life he believed in being prepared for trouble." Kearny's most notable work is Nuclear War Survival Skills (NWSS). It describes civil defense research to determine the methods for ordinary citizens to build effective expedient shelters in
1485-518: A short period of time. It includes " MacGyver -like" plans for the Kearny air pump (KAP), Kearny fallout meter (KFM) and blast doors designed to be published in a newspaper prior to an attack. This book is in the public domain and is available for purchase, as well as free download online, from the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine . His other works include Jungle Snafus ... and Remedies ,
1584-415: A strategy that purposely leaves its citizens unprotected hostages to its enemies." Thus, "The emphasis in this book is on survival preparations that can be made in the last few days of a worsening crisis." The first chapter aims to give background information to dispel various demoralizing myths and reaffirm the potential survivability and reality of nuclear weapons. "An all-out nuclear war between Russia and
1683-495: A synthetic oil plant in Böhlen , 60 mi (97 km) from Dresden, while 71 de Havilland Mosquito medium bombers attacked Magdeburg with small numbers of Mosquitos carrying out nuisance raids on Bonn , Misburg near Hanover and Nuremberg . When Polish crews of the designated squadrons were preparing for the mission, the terms of the Yalta agreement were made known to them. There
1782-607: A total of at least 21,895 buried bodies from the Dresden raids, including those cremated on the Altmarkt . Between 100,000 and 200,000 refugees fleeing westward from advancing Soviet forces were in the city at the time of the bombing. Exact figures are unknown, but reliable estimates were calculated based on train arrivals, foot traffic, and the extent to which emergency accommodation had to be organised. The city authorities did not distinguish between residents and refugees when establishing casualty numbers and "took great pains to count all
1881-451: A woman. I can see her to this day and shall never forget it. She carries a bundle in her arms. It is a baby. She runs, she falls, and the child flies in an arc into the fire. Suddenly, I saw people again, right in front of me. They scream and gesticulate with their hands, and then—to my utter horror and amazement—I see how one after the other they simply seem to let themselves drop to the ground. (Today I know that these unfortunate people were
1980-420: Is a crisis situation, meat should be cooked until very well done. Reviews the best dose-rate meters and dosimeters available in 1987 and details the Kearny fallout meter , a "Homemakeable dose-rate meter", which can be built from a correctly scaled copy of the plans, such as those provided in hardcopies of the book; photocopies and printouts of digital copies may not be to scale. "Under wartime conditions, even
2079-724: Is an introduction which explains that even the fruition of the Strategic Defense Initiative program would not make "self-help civil defense" obsolete. A comparison is made of the civil defense preparations of Switzerland, Russia, and the United States, where it is concluded that: "Switzerland has the best civil defense system"; "The rulers of the Soviet Union... continue to prepare the Russians to fight, survive, and win all types of wars"; and that "the United States has advocated...
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#17330851343822178-603: Is closer than 10 miles from the nearest probable target, you need not evacuate to avoid blast and fire dangers." Evacuation relevant to fallout radiation risk is thoroughly discussed, where it is noted that most available fallout risk-area maps are inaccurate, outdated, and misleading. Provides information on fallout protection and basic structures; complete designs for "6 types of earth-covered expedient shelters " are provided in Appendix A. Barrier shielding: 3 feet of earth (91 centimeters) will absorb about 99.99% of all gamma rays. If
2277-619: Is credited to Kearny, along with improvements to many other items of tropical gear, such as the Panama-soled jungle boot and the M1942 Machete . In recognition of his service, he was soon promoted to major and awarded the Legion of Merit . In 1943, he married May Willacy Eskridge of San Antonio . Kearny later volunteered for duty with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where he served as
2376-437: Is going to be done". In response to Churchill's inquiry, Sinclair approached Bottomley, who asked Harris to undertake attacks on Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz as soon as moonlight and weather permitted, "with the particular object of exploiting the confused conditions which are likely to exist in the above-mentioned cities during the successful Russian advance". This allowed Sinclair to inform Churchill on 27 January of
2475-724: Is recommended to supplement to this chapter. Excerpts are provided, along with additional information specific to the health effects of radiation and the use of potassium iodide . Improvised furniture is discussed, including a hammock made from bedsheets, and a hanging chair made from the hammock. The basic principles of thermal insulation are explained; ideas for expedient cold- and wet-weather clothing are provided. A list of recommended preparations are given for: shelter, shelter ventilation, water, food, fallout meters, sanitation, medicines, light, communications, etc. Considerations for permanent fallout shelters are given, with emphasis on maximizing habitability and minimizing cost. Details
2574-466: Is stated to praise and borrow from Nuclear War Survival Skills . The BAS article backhandedly compliments NWSS on its inclusion of features such as "elaborate diagrams for building shelter; testing for radiation with homemade meters; providing for ventilation; filtration of water and sanitation," but goes on to say that the basic flaw with NWSS and the other books reviewed is that they deal only with short-term survival, and sidestep putting heavy thought into
2673-405: Is the increased carbon monoxide. This poses an even greater threat in shelters that rely on ventilation. If a fire occurs in a shelter, occupants should move to a room where ventilation from other rooms could be cut off. When building a shelter, Dr. A. Broido suggests putting the intake vent as far from combustible materials as possible. The importance of water to basic survival is discussed, with
2772-669: The Coventry Blitz , when loss of this crucial infrastructure had supposedly longer-lasting effects than attacks on war plants. During the Yalta Conference on 4 February, the Deputy Chief of the Soviet General Staff, General Aleksei Antonov , raised the issue of hampering the reinforcement of German troops from the western front by paralyzing the junctions of Berlin and Leipzig with aerial bombardment. In response, Portal, who
2871-459: The Friedrichstadt marshaling yard the night before the attacks, later said that "I saw with my own eyes that Dresden was an armed camp: thousands of German troops, tanks and artillery and miles of freight cars loaded with supplies supporting and transporting German logistics towards the east to meet the Russians". An RAF memo issued to airmen on the night of the attack gave some reasoning for
2970-564: The Orinoco jungles of Venezuela , where he became familiar with equipment and tools of the native inhabitants of the region. He later used the information gained from this experience to develop specialized jungle equipment for U.S. military forces. In 1940, Kearny went on active duty as an infantry reserve lieutenant in the United States Army . Recognized for his knowledge of jungle travel and use of specialized tools and equipment, Kearny
3069-658: The Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. The bombing and the resulting firestorm destroyed more than 1,600 acres (6.5 km ) of the city centre. Up to 25,000 people were killed. Three more USAAF air raids followed, two occurring on 2 March aimed at the city's railway marshalling yard and one smaller raid on 17 April aimed at industrial areas. Postwar discussions about whether
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3168-551: The 1970s. Including a study on how the US might be affected by a potential nuclear war from the Sino-Soviet split , specifically focusing on the question; what would be the severity and how might the US deal with contamination of CONUS milk supplies that might result from the "trans- pacific " nuclear fallout that would originate over China. Along with other more long-term survival publications such as "Maintaining nutritional adequacy during
3267-528: The Air Staff's agreement that, "subject to the overriding claims" on other targets under the Pointblank Directive , strikes against communications in these cities to disrupt civilian evacuation from the east and troop movement from the west would be made. On 31 January, Bottomley sent Portal a message saying a heavy attack on Dresden and other cities "will cause great confusion in civilian evacuation from
3366-771: The Bulge had been exhausted, as was the Luftwaffe 's failed New Year's Day attack . The Red Army had launched its Silesian Offensives into pre-war German territory. The German army was retreating on all fronts, but still resisting. On 8 February 1945, the Red Army crossed the Oder River , with positions just 70 km (43 mi) from Berlin . A special British Joint Intelligence Subcommittee report, German Strategy and Capacity to Resist , prepared for Winston Churchill 's eyes only, predicted that Germany might collapse as early as mid-April if
3465-429: The Dresden operation as the justified bombing of a strategic target, which United States Air Force reports, declassified decades later, noted as a major rail transport and communication centre, housing 110 factories and 50,000 workers supporting the German war effort. Several researchers later asserted that not all communications infrastructure was targeted, and neither were the extensive industrial areas located outside
3564-457: The Friedrichstadt district west of the city centre, as the area was not obscured by smoke and cloud. The 303rd group arrived over Dresden two minutes after the 379th and found their view obscured by clouds, so they bombed Dresden using H2X radar. The groups that followed the 303rd (92nd, 306th, 379th, 384th and 457th) also found Dresden obscured by clouds, and they too used H2X. H2X aiming caused
3663-518: The German military and police. He asserted in Dresden im Luftkrieg (1977) that only a few tales of civilians being strafed were reliable in detail, and all were related to the daylight attack on 14 February. He concluded that some memory of eyewitnesses was real, but that it had misinterpreted the firing in a dogfight as deliberately aimed at people on the ground. In 2000, historian Helmut Schnatz found an explicit order to RAF pilots not to strafe civilians on
3762-468: The German radar system was also degraded, lowering the warning time to prepare for air attacks. The RAF also had an advantage over the Germans in the field of electronic radar countermeasures. Of 796 British bombers that participated in the raid, six were lost, three of those hit by bombs dropped by aircraft flying over them. On the following day, only a single US bomber was shot down, as the large escort force
3861-541: The Germans could see that a large enemy bomber formation—or what they called " ein dicker Hund " (lit: a fat dog, a "major thing")—was approaching somewhere in the east. At 21:39 the Reich Air Defence Leadership issued an enemy aircraft warning for Dresden, although at that point it was thought Leipzig might be the target. At 21:59 the Local Air Raid Leadership confirmed that the bombers were in
3960-604: The Royal Air Force Sir Charles Portal , the Chief of the Air Staff , answered: "We should use available effort in one big attack on Berlin and attacks on Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz, or any other cities where a severe blitz will not only cause confusion in the evacuation from the East, but will also hamper the movement of troops from the West." He mentioned that aircraft diverted to such raids should not be taken away from
4059-522: The Soviets on the Eastern Front could shorten the war. A large scale aerial attack on Berlin and other eastern cities was examined under the code name Operation Thunderclap in mid-1944, but was shelved on 16 August. This was later reexamined, and the decision made to pursue a more limited operation. The Soviet Army continued its push towards the Reich despite severe losses, which they sought to minimize in
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4158-517: The Soviets overran its eastern defences. Alternatively, the report warned that the Germans might hold out until November if they could prevent the Soviets from taking Silesia . Despite the post-war assessment, there were serious doubts in Allied intelligence as to how well the war was going for them, with fears of a "Nazi redoubt " being established, or of the Russian advance faltering. Hence, any assistance to
4257-414: The United States would... be far from the end of human life on earth." Myths listed include: " Fallout radiation from a nuclear war would poison the air and all parts of the environment. It would kill everyone."; "Fallout radiation penetrates everything; there is no escaping its deadly effects."; and "Unsurvivable " nuclear winter " surely will follow a nuclear war." This chapter provides information on
4356-430: The area of Dresden- Pirna . Taylor writes the city was largely undefended; a night fighter force of ten Messerschmitt Bf 110 Gs at Klotzsche airfield was scrambled, but it took them half an hour to get into an attack position. At 22:03 the Local Air Raid Leadership issued the first definitive warning: "Warning! Warning! Warning! The lead aircraft of the major enemy bomber forces have changed course and are now approaching
4455-493: The area was created by the bombers of No. 5 Group flying over the head of the fan ( Ostragehege stadium) on prearranged compass bearings and releasing their bombs at different prearranged times. The second attack, three hours later, was by Lancaster aircraft of 1 , 3 , 6 and 8 Groups , 8 Group being the Pathfinders. By now, the thousands of fires from the burning city could be seen more than 60 mi (97 km) away on
4554-404: The army with materiel . Nonetheless, according to some historians, the contribution of Dresden to the German war effort may not have been as significant as the planners thought. The US Air Force Historical Division wrote a report, which remained classified until December 1978, in response to international concern about the bombing. It said that there were 110 factories and 50,000 workers in
4653-475: The attack are to hit the enemy where he will feel it most, behind an already partially collapsed front, to prevent the use of the city in the way of further advance, and incidentally to show the Russians when they arrive what Bomber Command can do. In the raid, major industrial areas in the suburbs, which stretched for miles, were not targeted. According to historian Donald Miller , "the economic disruption would have been far greater had Bomber Command targeted
4752-539: The attacks were justified made the event a moral cause célèbre of the war. Nazi Germany's desperate struggle to maintain resistance in the closing months of the war is widely understood today, but Allied intelligence assessments at the time painted a different picture. There was uncertainty over whether the Soviets could sustain their advance on Germany, and rumours of the establishment of a Nazi redoubt in Southern Germany were taken too seriously. The Allies saw
4851-529: The bombings was rapid. According to the official German report Tagesbefehl (Order of the Day) no. 47 ("TB47") issued on 22 March, the number of dead recovered by that date was 20,204, including 6,865 who were cremated on the Altmarkt square, and they expected the total number of deaths to be about 25,000. Another report on 3 April put the number of corpses recovered at 22,096. Three municipal and 17 rural cemeteries outside Dresden recorded up to 30 April 1945
4950-471: The city area". Some 10,000 fled to the great open space of the Grosse Garten, the magnificent royal park of Dresden, nearly 1.5 square miles (3.9 km ) in all. Here they were caught by the second raid, which started without an air-raid warning, at 1:22 a.m. At 11:30 a.m., the third wave of bombers, the two hundred eleven American Flying Fortresses, began their attack. To my left I suddenly see
5049-511: The city centre. Critics of the bombing argue that Dresden was a cultural landmark with little strategic significance, and that the attacks were indiscriminate area bombing and were not proportionate to military gains . Some claim that the raid was a war crime . Nazi propaganda exaggerated the death toll of the bombing and its status as mass murder , and many in the German far-right have referred to it as "Dresden's Holocaust of bombs". In
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#17330851343825148-529: The city supporting the German war effort at the time of the raid. According to the report, there were aircraft components factories; a poison gas factory (Chemische Fabrik Goye and Company); an anti-aircraft and field gun factory (Lehman); an optical goods factory ( Zeiss Ikon AG); and factories producing electrical and X-ray apparatus ( Koch & Sterzel [ de ] AG); gears and differentials (Saxoniswerke); and electric gauges (Gebrüder Bassler). The report also mentioned barracks, hutted camps, and
5247-436: The corner. "Some shelters will become dangerously hot in a few hours." The Kearny air pump (for which a design is included in the appendix) is recommended, with natural ventilation considered typically inadequate, and electric pumps considered unreliable and prone to heating the air. Filters are considered unnecessary, "the hazards from fallout particles carried into shelters by unfiltered ventilating air are minor compared to
5346-410: The current primary tasks of destroying oil production facilities , jet aircraft factories, and submarine yards . Churchill was not satisfied with this answer and on 26 January pressed Sinclair for a plan of operations: "I asked [last night] whether Berlin, and no doubt other large cities in east Germany, should not now be considered especially attractive targets ... Pray, report to me tomorrow what
5445-452: The dangers from inadequate ventilation." Fire is considered the third most dangerous hazard, after direct blast effects and fallout radiation. It is noted that during the Bombing of Dresden , "Most casualties were caused by the inhalation of hot gases and carbon monoxide" Fire is the third largest worry in a nuclear attack, behind initial blast and fallout radiation. The biggest killer in fires
5544-485: The dead, identified and unidentified". This was largely achievable because most of the dead succumbed to suffocation; in only four places were recovered remains so badly burned that it was impossible to ascertain the number of victims. The uncertainty this introduced is thought to amount to no more than 100 people. 35,000 people were registered with the authorities as missing after the raids, around 10,000 were later found alive. A further 1,858 bodies were discovered during
5643-443: The decades since the war, large variations in the claimed death toll have led to controversy, though the numbers themselves are no longer a major point of contention among historians. City authorities at the time estimated that there were as many as 25,000 victims, a figure that subsequent investigations supported, including a 2010 study commissioned by the city council. In March 1945, the German government ordered its press to publish
5742-541: The east and hamper movement of reinforcements from other fronts". British historian Frederick Taylor mentions a further memo sent to the Chiefs of Staff Committee by Air Marshal Sir Douglas Evill on 1 February, in which Evill states interfering with mass civilian movements was a key factor in the decision to bomb the city centre. Attacking main railway junctions, telephone systems, city administration and utilities would result in "chaos". Britain had ostensibly learned this after
5841-550: The event of a nuclear catastrophe , as well as encouraging optimism in the face of such a catastrophe by asserting the survivability of a nuclear war . The 2022 edition is entitled "Nuclear War Survival Skills Updated and Expanded 2022 Edition Regarding Ukraine Russia and the World: The Best Book on Any Nuclear Incident Ever ... New Methods and Tools As New Threat Emerge". The main chapters are preceded by forewords from Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner . Following this
5940-492: The final phase of the war. On 5 January 1945, two North American B-25 Mitchell bombers dropped 300,000 leaflets over Dresden with the "Appeal of 50 German generals to the German army and people". On 22 January 1945, the RAF director of bomber operations, Air Commodore Sydney Bufton , sent Deputy Chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Sir Norman Bottomley a minute suggesting that if Thunderclap
6039-610: The ground – the second wave had been able to see the initial fires from a distance of over 90 mi (140 km). The Pathfinders therefore decided to expand the target, dropping flares on either side of the firestorm, including the Hauptbahnhof , the main train station, and the Großer Garten , a large park, both of which had escaped damage during the first raid. The German sirens sounded again at 01:05, but these were small hand-held sirens that were heard within only
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#17330851343826138-477: The groups to bomb with a wide dispersal over the Dresden area. The last group to attack Dresden was the 306th, and they finished by 12:30. No evidence of strafing of civilians has ever been found, although a March 1945 article in the Nazi-run weekly newspaper Das Reich claimed this had occurred. Historian Götz Bergander, an eyewitness to the raids, found no reports on strafing for 13–15 February by any pilots or
6237-399: The high-explosive bombs ranging in weight from 500 to 4,000 lb (230 to 1,810 kg) —the two-ton "cookies" , also known as "blockbusters", because they could destroy an entire large building or street. The high explosives were intended to rupture water mains and blow off roofs, doors, and windows to expose the interiors of the buildings and create an air flow to feed the fires caused by
6336-418: The immediate effects of thermonuclear explosions, and peoples' likely reactions to them, in an attempt to lessen the terror and confusion that would be prevalent after an unexpected nuclear attack. "Some people would think the end of the world was upon them if they happened to be in an area downwind from surface bursts of nuclear weapons that sucked millions of tons of pulverized earth into the air." Illustrates
6435-554: The incendiaries that followed. The Lancasters crossed into France near the Somme , then into Germany just north of Cologne . At 22:00 hours, the force heading for Böhlen split away from Plate Rack, which turned south-east toward the Elbe. By this time, ten of the Lancasters were out of service, leaving 244 to continue to Dresden. The sirens started sounding in Dresden at 21:51 (CET). The 'Master Bomber' Wing Commander Maurice Smith, flying in
6534-529: The limitations of the National Warning System ( NAWAS ) and the Attack Warning Signal sirens, concluding that "In an all-out attack, the early explosions would give sufficient warning for most people to reach nearby shelter in time." Due to the replacement of large warheads on inaccurate missiles with smaller warheads on more accurate missiles, "you may logically conclude that unless your home
6633-407: The long-term ramifications of nuclear conflict for the continued survival of both their assiduous readers and the balance of the human race. Nuclear War Survival Skills was released into the public domain by the author , and is available in digital format for free from several sources online. In the printed form, a modest charge will generally be incurred. Originally released September 1979, it
6732-841: The old town and the inner eastern suburbs had been engulfed in a single fire that had destroyed almost 12,000 dwellings. The same report said that the raids had destroyed the Wehrmacht 's main command post in the Taschenbergpalais , 63 administration buildings, the railways, 19 military hospitals, 19 ships and barges, and a number of less significant military facilities. The destruction also encompassed 640 shops, 64 warehouses, 39 schools, 31 stores, 31 large hotels, 26 public houses/bars, 26 insurance buildings, 24 banks, 19 postal facilities, 19 hospitals and private clinics including auxiliary, overflow hospitals, 18 cinemas, 11 churches and 6 chapels, 5 consulates, 4 tram facilities, 3 theatres, 2 market halls,
6831-594: The potential fallout dangers to the United States of a limited nuclear exchange between other countries. In an article sharply critical of the whole genre, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Vol 39, 1983) characterizes the volume as being one of the two more "substantial" books on surviving nuclear war out of the four reviewed. The other "substantial" book, Life After Doomsday: A Survivalist Guide to Nuclear War and Other Major Disasters by Bruce D. Clayton , itself
6930-460: The previous raid, their ordnance was scattered over a wide area. Dresden's air defences had been depleted as anti-aircraft guns were requistioned for use against the Red Army in the east, and the city lost its last massive flak battery in January 1945. The Luftwaffe was largely ineffective, with planes that were unsafe to fly due to lack of parts and maintenance and a critical shortage of aviation fuel;
7029-579: The raid: Dresden, the seventh largest city in Germany and not much smaller than Manchester is also the largest unbombed builtup area the enemy has got. In the midst of winter with refugees pouring westward and troops to be rested, roofs are at a premium, not only to give shelter to workers, refugees, and troops alike, but to house the administrative services displaced from other areas. At one time well known for its china , Dresden has developed into an industrial city of first-class importance ... The intentions of
7128-498: The reader more options especially in pre-crisis preparation. Cresson Kearny Kearny attended Texas Military Institute in the 1930s, where he became the commanding officer of the cadet corps, a champion runner and rifle shot, and valedictorian of his class. He attended Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania before earning a degree in civil engineering at Princeton University , graduating summa cum laude in 1937. He won
7227-421: The recommendation that four to five quarts (3.78 to 4.73 liters) of drinking water per day per person is essential as a minimum. Methods of storing, transporting, and purifying water are also explained, with plastic-lined earthen storage pits recommended for storing large quantities. A basic diet, vegetarian and consisting only of bulk staples , is presented, along with basic nutrition facts and special advice for
7326-412: The reconstruction of Dresden between the end of the war and 1966. Since 1989, despite extensive excavation for new buildings, no new war-related bodies have been found. Seeking to establish a definitive casualty figure, in part to address propagandisation of the bombing by far-right groups, the Dresden city council in 2005 authorised an independent Historians' Commission ( Historikerkommission ) to conduct
7425-404: The shelter is not fully enclosed, a person is at risk of scattering gamma rays. These scattering gamma rays are known as "skyshine". Geometry Shielding reduces radiation exposure by increasing the distance from a person and the gamma particles. An effective way to create this is implementing turns into a shelter, as this makes it more difficult for gamma particles to scatter and hit a person around
7524-580: The size of small children, pieces of arms and legs, dead people, whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro, burnt coaches filled with civilian refugees, dead rescuers and soldiers, many were calling and looking for their children and families, and fire everywhere, everywhere fire, and all the time the hot wind of the firestorm threw people back into the burning houses they were trying to escape from." "I cannot forget these terrible details. I can never forget them." The sirens started sounding in Dresden at 21:51 (CET). Frederick Taylor writes that
7623-511: The streets and buildings. It was then that we realized we were trapped in a locked cage that stood every chance of becoming a mass grave. There were few public air raid shelters . The largest, beneath the main railway station, housed 6,000 refugees. As a result, most people took shelter in cellars, but one of the air raid precautions the city had taken was to remove thick cellar walls between rows of buildings and replace them with thin partitions that could be knocked through in an emergency. The idea
7722-419: The suburban areas where most of Dresden's manufacturing might was concentrated". In his biography of Attlee and Churchill, Leo McKinstry wrote: "When Churchill arrived at Yalta on 4 February 1945, the first question that Stalin put to him was: 'Why haven't you bombed Dresden?' His enquiry reflected the importance that the Soviet Union attached to an attack on the city, following intelligence reports that Germany
7821-510: The target for the bombers to aim at. The attack was to centre on the Ostragehege sports stadium, next to the city's medieval Altstadt (old town), with its congested and highly combustible timbered buildings. The main bomber force, called Plate Rack , took off shortly after the Pathfinders. This group of 254 Lancasters carried 500 tons of high explosives and 375 tons of incendiaries ("fire bombs"). There were 200,000 incendiaries in all, with
7920-401: The very young, very old, and sick. "And because of the remarkable productivity of American agriculture, there usually would be enough grain and beans in storage to supply surviving Americans with sufficient food for at least a year following a heavy nuclear attack. Take precaution when eating meat. Areas with enough fallout to make animals sick, become a high-risk area for contaminated meat. If it
8019-468: The vicinity. The official historical commission collected 103 detailed eyewitness accounts and let the local bomb disposal services search according to their assertions. They found no bullets or fragments that would have been used by planes of the Dresden raids. On 15 February, the 1st Bombardment Division's primary target—the Böhlen synthetic oil plant near Leipzig —was obscured by clouds, so its groups diverted to their secondary target, Dresden. Dresden
8118-404: The victims of lack of oxygen.) They fainted and then burnt to cinders. Insane fear grips me and from then on I repeat one simple sentence to myself continuously: "I don't want to burn to death". I do not know how many people I fell over. I know only one thing: that I must not burn. Suddenly, the sirens stopped. Then flares filled the night sky with blinding light, dripping burning phosphorus onto
8217-413: The way back from Dresden. He also reconstructed timelines with the result that strafing would have been almost impossible due to lack of time and fuel. Frederick Taylor in Dresden (2004), basing most of his analysis on the work of Bergander and Schnatz, concludes that no strafing took place, although some stray bullets from aerial dogfights may have hit the ground and been mistaken for strafing by those in
8316-754: The zoo, the waterworks, and 5 other cultural buildings. Almost 200 factories were damaged, 136 seriously (including several of the Zeiss Ikon precision optical engineering works), 28 with medium to serious damage, and 35 with light damage. An RAF assessment showed that 23 per cent of the industrial buildings and 56 per cent of the non-industrial buildings, not counting residential buildings, had been seriously damaged. Around 78,000 dwellings had been completely destroyed; 27,700 were uninhabitable, and 64,500 damaged but readily repairable. During his post-war interrogation, Albert Speer , Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production , said that Dresden's industrial recovery from
8415-468: Was a common mix when the USAAF anticipated cloudy conditions over the target. 316 B-17 Flying Fortresses bombed Dresden, dropping 771 tons of bombs. The remaining 115 bombers from the stream of 431 misidentified their targets. Sixty bombed Prague , dropping 153 tons of bombs, while others bombed Brüx and Pilsen . The 379th bombardment group started to bomb Dresden at 12:17, aiming at marshalling yards in
8514-563: Was a group of Lancasters from Bomber Command's 83 Squadron , No. 5 Group , acting as the Pathfinders , or flare force, whose job it was to find Dresden and drop magnesium parachute flares, known to the Germans as "Christmas trees", to mark and light up Dresden for the aircraft that would mark the target itself. The next set of aircraft to leave England were twin-engined Mosquito marker planes, which would identify target areas and drop 1,000-pound (450 kg) target indicators (TIs) that marked
8613-533: Was a huge uproar, since the Yalta agreement handed parts of Poland over to the Soviet Union. There was talk of mutiny among the Polish pilots, and their British officers removed their side arms. The Polish Government ordered the pilots to follow their orders and fly their missions over Dresden, which they did. The first of the British aircraft took off at around 17:20 hours CET for the 700-mile (1,100 km) journey. This
8712-413: Was able to prevent Luftwaffe day fighters from disrupting the attack. "It is not possible to describe! Explosion after explosion. It was beyond belief, worse than the blackest nightmare. So many people were horribly burnt and injured. It became more and more difficult to breathe. It was dark and all of us tried to leave this cellar with inconceivable panic. Dead and dying people were trampled upon, luggage
8811-415: Was also obscured by clouds, so the groups targeted the city using H2X. The first group to arrive over the target was the 401st, but it missed the city centre and bombed Dresden's southeastern suburbs, with bombs also landing on the nearby towns of Meissen and Pirna . The other groups all bombed Dresden between 12:00 and 12:10. They failed to hit the marshalling yards in the Friedrichstadt district and, as in
8910-413: Was clear, Chemnitz was the target. If both were obscured, they would bomb the centre of Dresden using H2X radar . The mix of bombs for the Dresden raid was about 40 per cent incendiaries—much closer to the RAF city-busting mix than the USAAF usually used in precision bombardment. Taylor compares this 40 per cent mix with the raid on Berlin on 3 February, where the ratio was 10 per cent incendiaries. This
9009-457: Was in Yalta, asked Bottomley to send him a list of objectives to discuss with the Soviets. Bottomley's list included oil plants, tank and aircraft factories and the cities of Berlin and Dresden. However, according to Richard Overy , the discussion with the Soviet Chief of Staff, Aleksei Antonov, recorded in the minutes, only mentions the bombing of Berlin and Leipzig. The bombing of Dresden was
9108-399: Was left or snatched up out of our hands by rescuers. The basket with our twins covered with wet cloths was snatched up out of my mother's hands and we were pushed upstairs by the people behind us. We saw the burning street, the falling ruins and the terrible firestorm. My mother covered us with wet blankets and coats she found in a water tub." "We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to
9207-433: Was left to RAF Bomber Command to carry out the first raid. It had been decided that the raid would be a double strike, in which a second wave of bombers would attack three hours after the first, just as the rescue teams were trying to put out the fires. As was standard practice, other raids were carried out that night to confuse German air defences . Three hundred and sixty heavy bombers ( Lancasters and Halifaxes ) bombed
9306-687: Was moving large numbers of troops towards the Breslau Front . Churchill assured Stalin that an Allied attack was imminent." The Dresden attack was to have begun with a USAAF Eighth Air Force bombing raid on 13 February 1945. The Eighth Air Force had already bombed the railway yards near the centre of the city twice in daytime raids: once on 7 October 1944 with 70 tons of high-explosive bombs killing more than 400, then again with 133 bombers on 16 January 1945, dropping 279 tons of high-explosives and 41 tons of incendiaries . On 13 February 1945, bad weather over Europe prevented any USAAF operations, and it
9405-421: Was plainly visible to the approaching raid. Primary sources disagree as to whether the aiming point was the marshalling yards near the centre of the city or the centre of the built-up urban area. The report by the 1st Bombardment Division's commander to his commander states that the targeting sequence was the centre of the built-up area in Dresden if the weather was clear. If clouds obscured Dresden but Chemnitz
9504-696: Was soon assigned to Panama as the Jungle Experiments Officer of the Panama Mobile Force, and was promoted to captain . In that capacity he was able to invent, improve, and/or field test much of the specialized jungle equipment and rations used by U.S. infantrymen in World War II . Adoption of the jungle field ration and the jungle hammock as standard equipment by the US Army in World War II
9603-418: Was that, as one building collapsed or filled with smoke, those sheltering in the basements could knock walls down and move into adjoining buildings. With the city on fire everywhere, those fleeing from one burning cellar simply ran into another, with the result that thousands of bodies were found piled up in houses at the ends of city blocks. A Dresden police report written shortly after the attacks reported that
9702-563: Was timed so that it appeared to be a coordinated air attack to aid the current Soviet offensive, then the effect of the bombing on German morale would be increased. On 25 January, the Joint Intelligence Committee supported the idea, as Ultra -based intelligence had indicated that dozens of German divisions deployed in the west were moving to reinforce the Eastern Front, and that interdiction of these troop movements should be
9801-518: Was updated and published in May 1987 with a significant addition on nuclear winter , consisting largely of detailing the shaky assumptions used by nuclear winter models . In 1999 a one-page addendum on radiation hormesis was added. In 2022 the book was updated by Steven Harris, who was mentored by Cresson Kearny. He did not change the original text but put update pages next to the relevant pages with newer 2022 tools and methods that did not exist in 1987 to give
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