This is what I know (IIRC) about the firebombing of Dresden.
No military targets (factories, plants, installations) in the city, a fact known to everyone on both sides. Because of this, city never bombed before and packed with hundreds of thousands of refugees from the east fleeing the advancing soviet armies in addition to its 600,000 inhabitants. Firebombed by thousands of British and American bombers in multiple waves Feb 13 & 14 1945 (ten weeks before German surrender). Temperatures reached a thousand degrees centigrade, and the city burned for a week. Civilian deaths impossible to calculate, estimated between 135,000 and 300,000.
Utter devastation, massive loss of life, terror. No militarily significant targets.
Giovanni