World War II in Photographs
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
I 940
ABOVE
Lieutenant Karl-Heinz Thurz at
the controls of a Heinkel He 111 bomber.
102
1940
RIGHT
The camera guns of an RAF fighter
record the end of a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka.
BELOW
Spectators at the wreckage of a Dornier
Do 17, shot down on August 12. Between
July 10 and October 31 the Luftwaffe lost
some 1,294 aircraft to the RAF's about 788.
103
1940
The Blitz did not just hit London
and major provincial cities like
Bristol and Liverpool. Here Churchill
inspects bomb damage in little Ramsgate.
THE BLITZ
The Blitz - an abbreviation of blitzkrieg (lightning war) - was
the name given to German attacks on British cities in 1940-41.
London was bombed by accident on the night of August 24, and
the RAF responded by bombing Berlin the following night. In early
September, Goring unwisely shifted the Luftwaffe's main effort from
airfields to cities, and "Black Saturday", September 7, saw the first
major raid on London. When the Blitz ended in May 1941, over
43,000 civilians had been killed and great tracts of ancient cities and
industrial centres devastated: but popular resolve had not been broken.
OPPOSITE PAGE
On the night of December 29-30, the City of
London was devastated by incendiary bombs:
the Guildhall and eight Wren churches were
among the buildings destroyed. The survival of
St Paul's Cathedral was little short of miraculous,
and the photographs of it rising above the
ruins somehow typified London's spirit.
RIGHT
On November 13, German bombers struck
Coventry in the midlands, destroying not only
twelve armaments factories but also part of the
city centre and the 14th-Century cathedral.
105
1940
ABOVE
The phrase "fires were started"
became a standard feature of wartime
news broadcasts. Here firemen
work on a blaze in the City of London.
106
ABOVE
The photographer Bill Brandt had studied
with Man Ray in Paris before returning to
England to make a series of social records
contrasting the lives of rich and poor. He
worked for the Ministry of Information
during the Blitz: this photograph shows a
Sikh family sheltering in London's East End.
107
1940
108
1940
OPPOSITE PAGE
London Underground stations were used
as air raid shelters. The authorities
disapproved of the practice at first,
but then did what they could to
make them more comfortable, and
life underground soon developed its
own culture. These Londoners are sleeping
on the escalators in one London tube station.
RIGHT
Mimicry of death: shop dummies lie
on the pavement after the London
department store was hit in 1940.
BELOW
At the height of the Blitz most of the
1,500,000 people serving in the various
fire, civil defence, shelter and casualty
organizations were part-time volunteers.
Here a rescue party - with the double
R designation on its steel helmets -
removes a Blitz victim from rubble.
109
1940
THE ITALIANS IN NORTH AFRICA
The Italians had a quarter of a million men under Marshal Balbo
in Libya. Balbo was shot down by his own anti-aircraft guns over
Tobruk and his successor, General Graziani, advanced cautiously
to the Egyptian frontier where he prepared a line of forts.
On December 7, Major General O'Connor began a large-scale
raid on the forts with his Western Desert Force of 31,000 men.
On December 9, the forts were taken and the coast road was
cut between Sid Barrani and Buq-Buq behind them. O'Connor
converted the raid into a sustained advance, overrunning the
whole of Cyrenaica and taking some 130,000 prisoners.
ABOVE
Light tanks of the commanding officer
and adjutant of the 4th Hussars on
their way to Buq-Buq, December 11.
BELOW
The desert was often rocky, and at night
its temperature dropped. These British
troops in a defensive position at Bardia on
December 31, 1940 are wearing greatcoats.
110