[Jon]

Thanks for the sensible responses from everyone, no heated arguments here.
I agree that when you look at the facts, Dresden full of refugees from other cities and the East, the fact that Dresden was probably one of the few places left in Germany that was still able to be burned as it had not as yet received any major raids, little Flak allowing low accurate bombing, the comments on higher than 40,000 dead are certainly possible.
The evidence for the City being an Atomic bomb target look to come mainly from the German Propoganda side however it also points at the fierce German counter offensive in the Ardennes as shocking the Allies into realising the war may drag on into and past 1945, when the bomb would have been usable. As the book states, it is fair to assume that had Germany continued to be capable of holding back the ground offensive the first Atomic attack of the War could well have been against Germany.

Again thanks for a well balanced and mature discussion on this subject.