Ruth MottramJun 25, 2023

Reading #Slaughterhouse5 on the beach in #Copenhagen, where we've taken refuge from the #heat is a bit of a mindbender, must be said...

Perhaps #Europe needs these kind of reminders though, our lives are maybe too comfortable?
#Drought #ClimateDiary #Ukraine
#SummerReading #SummerReadingChallenge

https://fediscience.org/@Ruth_Mottram/110601339802856723

Ruth Mottram (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Well. That's my summer reading sorted. How's everyone else doing? #SummerReading #Bookstodon #Shelfie #summerReadingChallenge

FediScience.org
Show threadRuth MottramJun 26, 2023

I fell down a bit of a #wikipedia rabbit hole reading up on #Dresden after finishing #Slaughterhouse5 yesterday. I'd always assumed the #Firestorm was almost accidental, but they knew *exactly* what they were doing.

And they'd already practiced on #Hamburg.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Hamburg_in_World_War_II

Bombing of Hamburg in World War II - Wikipedia

Show threadRuth Mottram

I consider myself well-informed and I know Hamburg well and now I wonder how I'd missed the ~37,000 people killed by allied bombers in 1943?
Many of the bodies were never identified.
In some cellars they could only work out how many had died by the quantity of ash on the floor.

Europe is a graveyard

Jun 26, 2023 at 8:02amWeb
Show threadRuth MottramJun 26, 2023
And this was nothing compared to the great losses in Japan.
The #Tokyo #Firebombing probably led to as many dead as #Hiroshima... An estimated 100,000 people killed and a million homeless. What a disaster.
Show threadLoukas (They/Them) 🏳️‍⚧️Jun 26, 2023
@Ruth_Mottram so criminal and so forgotten. They even killed 15,000 people in Caen in bombing preparation for D-Day.
Show threadChrono MatthiasJun 26, 2023

@Ruth_Mottram This is my source for the Hamburg aerial #WWII photos of Hamburg. Yes Tokyo bombing is also online.
https://catalog.archives.gov/search?availableOnline=true&q=tokyo%20bombing&typeOfMaterials=Photographs%20and%20other%20Graphic%20Materials

#nowar nowhere

National Archives NextGen Catalog

The online portal to the records held at the National Archives, and information about those records.

Show threadChrono MatthiasJun 26, 2023
@Ruth_Mottram New old WWII map :: Tokyo bombing https://mprove.de/chrono?m=SUjx217xm7539&s=1
Chronoscope World 3D

mprove.de
Show threadPepijnJun 26, 2023

If you want to read more about the ww2 firebombing of Hamburg this book provides a broad historical account. It includes accounts from both the victims as well as the soldiers in the planes.

"Inferno: The Fiery Destruction of Hamburg, 1943" by Keith Lowe

@Ruth_Mottram

Show threadRhymerJun 26, 2023

@Pepijn @Ruth_Mottram

@chronohh has just tooted about a mapping work of #Hamburg aerials of the time:
https://norden.social/users/chronohh/statuses/110609255055924626
https://mprove.de/chrono?m=NA204902932&o=0.9&d=1&s=1&c=-2,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,a

Chrono Matthias (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image air raid over #Hamburg #WWII #Chronolink animation https://mprove.de/chrono?m=NA204902932&o=0.9&d=1&s=1&c=-2,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,w,a

norden.social
Show threadRuth MottramJun 26, 2023
@rhymer @Pepijn @chronohh huh, I did not know about #Chronoscope before - what a fascinating site.
Show threadMatthias MProveJun 26, 2023
@Ruth_Mottram @rhymer @Pepijn @chronohh My pleasure 🥰 https://mprove.de/chronolab/index.html
Chrono Research Lab @mprove

mprove.de
Show threadChrono MatthiasJun 26, 2023

@Ruth_Mottram @rhymer @Pepijn 🖖
5 min quick tour of Chronoscope World

[youtube] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38ltIdCvTTU

[no tracking] https://piped.video/watch?v=38ltIdCvTTU

Chronoscope World Overview

YouTube
Show threadTobias MerkendorfJun 26, 2023

@Ruth_Mottram the bombing campaign is still very much present in many if not most cities of Germany.

There is a graveyard with bombing victims age 3 to 90 directly behind our back yard (and one with slave workers and POWs executed in April 1945 nearby).

Also every project that involves excavation of some sort needs probing for duds.

It is very common for whole quarters to be evacuated for bomb defusal.

Show threadRuth MottramJun 26, 2023
@t_mkdf I regularly run through one of the graveyards in CPH where a few thousand German civilian refugees are buried - also ranging in age. I think I read about 20,000 died in the aftermath in Denmark alone - mainly from disease and malnutrition in refugee camps here as there wasn't enough food + medicine to go around or doctors to treat them..
Show threadRuth MottramJun 26, 2023
@t_mkdf I was discussing this with colleagues at a meeting (Germans Swedes Danes Estonians, Ukrainians + Belgians...)
The Belgian guy was telling me that he had given up metal detecting because all he found was shrapnel and bullets and debris left behind both wars. He was worried he'd accidentally dig up something and kill himself... The Germans were so used to being evacuated it was part of normal life practically.
Europe is really quite a mad place when you think about
Show threadTobias MerkendorfJun 26, 2023
@Ruth_Mottram we are living on a pile of history. And not everything is nice. And quite a lot gruesome.