Gunther Stedtfeld and strafing of civilians

[Ju88G1]

That is easy, Csaba
- a taxi becomes a German staff car
- an old age home with the flag flying becomes a German headquarter
- a farmer in the field becomes a German gun emplacement
- two guys in a row boat fishing becomes a German mine sweeper
- a train becomes a troop train
- a street in a village filled with civilians becomes German troops on the march
- a kid on a bike becomes a German kurier on a motor bike
- a painter on a roof becomes a German Flak emplacement
- a fishing wessel becomes a German E-boat/minesweeper/cruiser !

Thats the 'rewriting' that pilots used when attacking civilians in Denmark

Carsten

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

A image and a testemony comes to my mind now.

The image are scenes from gun cameras of american planes straffing civilians when attacking Japan. Those images are seen on several documentarys, some in color.

The testemony comes from a Brazilian pilot that fought in Italy. In a DVD released in Brasil he talks abour a little red car he attacked in a road. He says he flew around the car several times and then fired at till it blew ( Can´t imagine the impact of 8 gun´s at one in a little car... ). In the documentary he says to be regretful in attacking the car.

A former Blohm und Voss worker, sorry don´t remember the name now ( he wrote a book released by Monogram Publications years ago) also mentions the straffing of civilians in Germany by american planes.

So, in the heat of the battle, decisions must be taken in a very short time and sometimes we can´t blame the pilots or other soldiers for wrong decisions. It´s always easy to comment those facts years after... My thinking do not applies for deliberate attacks but talking about war is always very confliting. You can´t fire your guns on civilians but can drop tons of bombs on them...

[Ju88G1]

Hi Sergio
I understand pilots who are attacking targets that they do not know is 'out of bounds' Errors are made in a time of war. I fully understand the pilots of 20th FG who attacked trains in Denmark the 27th of August 1944. They had just attacked hundreds of trains in France. They attacked a number of civilian Danish trains and nobody is blaming them. Not even the train driver who's foot they shot off!
I do not understand the pilots of 55th FG who attacked trains in Denmark the 7th of January 1945. They knew that they were over Denmark and falsified the pilot reports when they came home. They attacked trains in an area that was declaired 'out of bounds' and claimed after they came home that they attacked trains in the area of Hamburg (several hundred miles away). They knew where they were. They did not attack military targets during the mission even though that there were plenty. And there was no reason to attack the people trying to seek shelter from the bullits by running over the frozen fields. These pilots had a great time shooting up Danish civilians even though there were several German air fields close by that were packed with air planes.
I do not understand Bob Braham that did quite a few ranger missions to Denmark and who almost every time shot up civilian targets. He knew what he was shooting up - and he did not shoot down the number of planes that he claimed. Quite a few danes think that Braham was a war criminal. By the way, Braham did not attack military targets on the ground in Denmark - he normally attacked traffic out in the country side far from anything that could only smell of German military.

Carsten

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

Well Carsten, as I posted "My thinking do not applies for deliberate attacks". The ones you mentions here belongs to this "category", unfortunately.