Dresden was one of the more spectacular examples of a major
incineration of an essentially non-combatant city. It happened early in 1945. The fire bombings killed more people than expected.
![](http://www.enberg.nu/chapel/dresden4.jpg)
Kurt Vonnegut writes about it in his fictional account of his own experience in Slaughterhouse Five. He was a POW held in an icebox, which is how he survived.