An unusual but moving image

**wizardman** · 09-09-2014, 12:16 PM

Im not too sure about that Larry..I have spoken to a number of Pilots from ww2 through to Vietnam and even one ww1 Pilot, and many of them believe that to be more myth than reality..I think WE would like them to retain that humanity,but my research has always found it to be an equally ruthless bloody war in the air (though nothing can compare to the industrial brutality of the SS)..The images as have been posted here may have more to do with the perception of how the Homefront views the war as opposed to frontline mentality...Richthofen's funeral on the other hand was a Celebrity event even then

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 09-09-2014 12:16 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Glenn66** · 09-09-2014, 12:19 PM

Perhaps also a public relations exercise to maintain or smooth strained relations with the Jersey civilian population?

**Slade** · 09-09-2014, 03:39 PM

Powerful images with humanity on display

As Gunny pointed out its always moving to see respect given to ones adversary. Thank you for sharing these images!

**Slade** · 09-09-2014, 03:42 PM

by Glenn66

Perhaps also a public relations exercise to maintain or smooth strained relations with the Jersey civilian population?

Whatever the reasons It is still good that it was done. As far as how the individuals performing it felt... I'm sure their feeling were as varied as each man!

**StefanM** · 09-09-2014, 04:29 PM

by Larry C

The Fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe..never associated themselves with the ruthlessness of the SS. Nice to see these

No Ruthlessness? Luftwaffe myth-making...unless we disassociate them from the bombing of civilian Warsaw during the Siege of September 1939, which also included the deliberate targeting of the "Jewish Quarter" of old Warsaw with the Luftwaffe dive-bombing and strafing civilians in the street during Yom Kippur. Approximately 20,000 people died in the bombings and siege of Warsaw - September 1939 - alone.

Below the iconic siege of Warsaw photo of Kazimiera Mika, a ten-year-old Polish girl, mourning the death of her older sister, who was killed in a field near Jana Ostroroga Street in Warsaw during a German air raid by Luftwaffe.

Photo by Julien Bryan, Warsaw, September 1939.

American Photographer/ journalist Julien Bryan described the scene: "As we drove by a small field at the edge of town we were just a few minutes too late to witness a tragic event, the most incredible of all. Seven women had been digging potatoes in a field. There was no flour in their district, and they were desperate for food. Suddenly two German planes appeared from nowhere and dropped two bombs only two hundred yards away on a small home. Two women in the house were killed. The potato diggers dropped flat upon the ground, hoping to be unnoticed. After the bombers had gone, the women returned to their work. They had to have food.

But the Nazi fliers were not satisfied with their work. In a few minutes they came back and swooped down to within two hundred feet of the ground, this time raking the field with machine-gun fire. Two of the seven women were killed. The other five escaped somehow.

While I was photographing the bodies, a little ten-year old girl came running up and stood transfixed by one of the dead. The woman was her older sister. The child had never before seen death and couldn't understand why her sister would not speak to her...

The child looked at us in bewilderment. I threw my arm about her and held her tightly, trying to comfort her. She cried. So did I and the two Polish officers who were with me..." [Source: Bryan, Julien. "Warsaw: 1939 Siege; 1959 Warsaw Revisited."]

The Luftwaffe pilots' put their training of April 1937, at Guernica to good affect over Warsaw. The list of the Luftwaffe pilot's disassociated ruthlessness could go on.

**Slade** · 09-09-2014, 04:38 PM

War and especially World War is ruthless. That goes for anyone involved. Nobody is innocent as war is not innocent. Its evil and wrong and mean, as it should be. This Is why wars are stupid and shouldn't happen. However if they must happen I say let them be as brutal as possible so the end can come quickly. Not like nowadays were war is a highly compartmentalized money train that never seems to end. And those who are affected by it are completely passed over by the masses who don't really realize or understand that we have been at war for the past 13 years.