Analysis of the Sources collected

All the sources refer to the air bombings over the industrial city of Terni, in Umbria, bombed by the Anglo-Americans beginning on August 11th, 1943 through June 13th, 1944, when the city was liberated.
Photos: one picture of the Italian anti-aircraft artillery protecting the city; four photos of the debris of bombed buildings and neighbourhoods, among which the City Hall and a church; one picture of soldiers belonging to the British Eighth Army marching into Terni on June 13th, 1944. Behind the soldiers we can see a building not hit by the bombings and people waiting. This image depicts a scene in the outskirts of the city and does give a real sense of the centre of town and of the industrial areas, which had been mainly destroyed by the bombs and which had been left deserted due to the evacuations.
Interviews to witnesses: five witnesses, three men and two women. The witnesses talk about the physical destruction and the loss of human lives, as well as the devastating psychological effects of the air raids. What emerges from their stories is an inadequate preparation of the civilians to the war, the lack of an effective anti-aircraft artillery and shelters as well as the generalized under-estimation of the up coming danger, like in the case of the Centurini jute-factory, where its managing director did not allow the workers to go to the shelters after the alarm had gone off.
The stories of the bodies torn by the bombs and those of people picking up body parts along the streets are horrifying. Side by side to these cruel images there are also stories of those who were just children then and who had moments of joy while experiencing the massive evacuations and while familiarizing with a few retreating German troops.