Imperial War Museums;..... Imperial War Museums via Military History Matters
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| Louisa Puller captures an area of total devastation north of St Paul's Cathedral after intense aerial bombardment in the winter of 1940-1941. |
"The German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, conducted aerial raids against Britain between May 1940 and the early part of 1945. The most intense period, known as the Blitz, came between May 1940 and September 1941.
"Though the Blitz saw towns and cities across Britain subjected to bombing raids by the Luftwaffe, London received the heaviest and most sustained assault, with 57 consecutive night raids.
"The War Artists’ Advisory Committee was set up in 1939 to compile a documentary record of the war. As the bombs rained down on the capital, the WAAC and its artists were eager to get to work documenting the scenes that played out night after night.
"Some of the WAAC artists even served in the Auxiliary Fire Service - their understanding of the work evident in their art." . . . More...
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| A man and woman asleep under blankets in the tube tunnel, Liverpool Street Underground Station Shelter, November 1940. Photograph by Bill Brandt. |
A Parachute Bomb | Imperial War Museums
"image: a night time view across the Thames, showing the dark silhouettes of shipping and equipment against the glowing red sky opposite. Just above the buildings on the other side of the river there is a parachute bomb descending, about to explode.
Matvyn Wright, working for the Auxiliary Fire Service, witnessed with his colleagues the extraordinary strange silhouettes and falling forms of the Thames Blitz; here he captured the fear of waiting and destruction. The bomb almost appears to be held up by the crane-like structures of the barge. In reality, this is a fragile snapshot before the inevitable explosion, with the fire crew poised to respond."
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A Parachute Bomb Image: IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 1355) |
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