Title: Under the bombs
First published: 1986
Description: During World War II, British and American planes dropped a total of almost 1,700,000 tons of bombs on German cities. Together there bombers flew a total of more than 2,600,000. The effect of these raids on German production and the number of German deaths they caused were not so great as had been anticipated. But the invasion of private homes and public buildings by the end of the war was evident everywhere in Germany. 
Beneath these bombs lived and worked the German civilians who kept factories operating, trains running, streetcars in service, and food supplies at least minimally available almost until the day when Allied troops entered the streets of their cities. Throughout the bombing the fears of sudden death multiplied and doubts of eventual victory became more common, yet basic discipline was maintained and trails were met with exemplary fortitude.
This was in part the work of a Nazi bureaucracy which continued to cope with the problems occasioned by the bombing until the end. In spite of the fact that the ideological support of that bureaucracy lost much of its appeal as the bombs took their toll. In the long run it was the traditional stubbornness, the vital strength of the German population, that sustained it through these days of peril and suffering. 
This book shows what it was like to live "under the bombs," to face death and then emerge to new life, to see to preserve a "home" in the midst of chaos, to find enough food to survive another day, and to cherish small pleasures. It underscores wartime hardships suffered by the Germans that have been only vaguely realized by those on the Allied side.