By glancing at the title of Barry Turner’s book Countdown to Victory: The Final European Campaigns of World War II, one would think that this is a complete coverage of the final months of the war in Europe. However, one would be wrong. Turner’s focus is more on the Western Front, with a smattering of the Eastern Front and a line or two about the Italian Front.
Although the book is not as comprehensive as I thought it would be, Turner does a fairly good job in explaining certain elements of the war. In his descriptions of various events during the last months of the war, he brings together accounts from all sides of the action. The Dresden bombings are vividly portrayed in the narratives of the aircrews that dropped the bombs and in the German civilians who shouldered the brunt of the incendiary attacks on their city. Although many people have been brought to believe that the Germans in World War II bore their hardships without emotion, it is hard to keep that perspective when one reads about the utter devastation on the people who lived through the bombings.