I've not seen this picture before. German civilian at Dresden being burned in pyre after the February 14/15 bombing raid. So many were killed that they could not be buried quickly enough. War is so sad.
really JW yes it is quite a common pic in many of the general ww2 pubs. reminds me of Hamburg as well as some of the after the battle Berlin raids..........yes terrible. Pforzheim comes to mind as well in 45.
The loss of civilian life is naturally enough one of the more horrendeous aspects of war. All i ask is we remember that there are photo's of equal horror relating to for example London or Coventry. Its all bad. Secondly the targets chosen were legitamate targets, yes even Dresden which was a marshaling point for German units travelling from the eastern front towards the aproaching Americans. The area bombing campaign was the only effective way the Allies had at their disposal to assault German war production. If you cant hit the factories to stop them, then stop the workers from going there and the factory stops anyway. This is why i am such a vocal admirer of Ralph Chochrane C in C 5grp RAF and Geoffory De Haviland who created a precision bombing tool. Oh and a special mention to " The Talking Bomb" who created the Stabilizing Automatic Bomb Sight which allowed 617 to acheive the amazing results for which they became famous. All war is hell.
Photos like this, show that war is hell. How could anyone wish they could go back and "live" during WWII, or any war for that matter?
You both are on the mark. Reminder to all, this is not a thread to discuss the legitimacy of the area bombing, Dresden or any other bombing campaign or mission. It was simply showing of a picture that bothered me greatly. If you want to discuss any the aforementions subjects, find that thread and let 'er rip.
Having just picked up a copy of Alexander Mckee's, Dresden the devils tinderbox i can add that a minimum of 35,000 people lost thier lives during the raid and this picture clearly illustrates why war is such hell.
Try hitting the link directly, Musso. http://www.anselm.edu/academic/history/hdubrulle/warandrevolution/graphics/Paintings%202004/Air%20War%20Dresden%20Pyre.jpg
That image will stay with me for a long time. Very sad. I hope they died from something other than flame.
What a horrifying picture Jeff. It is truly troubling, and some thing I will not forget. It is sad that civilians must always be caught in the cross fire, but unfortunately inevitable. Richard, you hit the nail right on the head. No words can ever describe the cruelties of war such as this horrible picture, and others like it.
It is unlikely they died from flames, most likely these are victims of the oxygen being used by the firestorm, and they simply suffocated in their cellars when the oxygen was sucked up and burned up. Now while all deaths on these scales are lamentable, they can be sort of understood in the concept of "total war" of the time where death was such an easily dealt out thing. The photos which disturb myself even more are those of the industrial distribution of death on those who were only killed because of who they were, or weren't.
Any photo that shows what war is truly like is troublesome. Some of us have "photos" like this, the concentration camps, the results of saturation bombing etc forever embedded in our memories and in order to keep them there we don't talk about the war per se. Rather we live by the old cliche "let sleeping dogs lie"!! Sgtleo
