Cheshire.

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Dresden - - 1945 - - an attack, a destruction, an atrocity, made possible, to some degree, because of the efforts of this man, who, post-war, developed a well-deserved reputation as a HUMANITARIAN!!

Leonard Cheshire, VC. English aviator who pioneered the marking of targets slated for firebombing and saturation bombing. A technique, marking of targets for a fleet of bomber aircraft, a measure, among a host of measures, that doomed the city of Dresden to obliteration by the allied strategic air forces.

"Cheshire helped pioneer a new method of marking enemy targets for Bomber Command's 5 Group, flying in at a very low level in the face of strong defences"

Area bombardment as practiced by the British Bomber Command was highly reliant upon dedicated Pathfinder aircraft [Mosquitos] dropping marker incendiary ordnance on the target. Illuminate for the bomb aimers of the massed air fleets the target. An important factor in the northern European environment, replete with fog, cloud cover, inclement and fast changing weather, further complicated by hours of darkness. The mass destruction of German cities such as Dresden would not have been possible unless the Pathfinder marker aircraft were "on target"!




"Group Captain Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, VC . . . was a highly decorated British RAF pilot during the Second World War. Among the honours he received as a bomber pilot is the Victoria Cross . . . After the war, he became a charity worker, setting up Leonard Cheshire Disability and other philanthropic organisations."

Again, in the aftermath of the war, Cheshire, mind, body and soul, devoted himself to humanitarian endeavors, on behalf of the handicapped, disabled, and terminally ill. Was voted in the year 2000 one of the top fifty greatest Britons of all time!!

coolbert.