Firestorm

Author: Michael Kloft

Length: 93'

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Sixty years after the fact, a new debate is underway over the reasons for the allied air war against the Third Reich. The book, “The Inferno“, by Joerg Friedrich is currently a best seller. Were the relentless aerial attacks on German cities necessary tactics in the prosecution of war that resulted in unavoidable civilian casualties, or were they meaningless acts of revenge by the British and Americans, as Joerg Friedrich asserts? SPIEGEL TV correspondent Michael Kloft documents the history of the air campaign, using film material never before made public and stirring interviews with witnesses. He questioned former bomber pilots in Britain and the U.S.A. as well as survivors of the carpet-bombing of Braunschweig on October 14, 1944. And, last but not least, the debate continues, with Joerg Friedrich and British historian Richard Overy.

year of production: 2003