What are the events that led up to the bombing of Dresden. What were the impacts of it? Are there any resources I can check out?

by Pandoras_Penny

I am doing an investigation on the bombing of Dresden for a school assignment, and it seems everything I find is heavily disputed. Investigations made by different countries say different thing (especially when it's about the body count). There are no document that I found that say what happened afterwards (who came to help). Plus, I am having a difficult time finding primary sources like accounts, or newspapers about it (is there a database with newspaper records I can search?).

So, I would be really helpful if I could get some background and insight about Dresden and some resources (databases, websites, books I can look into) to get me started.

I hope this doesn't seem like I'm asking you to do my home, I just want to get set on the right track.

P.S. are there any more readable pdfs of this???? http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110208-030.pdf

Domini_canes

If you can read German, there's this 2008 report from the city's investigation in 2008 (warning: pdf format) that puts the death count at 18,000.

mickey_brickss

Pretty sure there was a 'survey' of allied tactical bombings after the war that talks about Dresden and Hamburg.