|
|
|
An American motorized column passes next to the town and fortress of Bitche, not far from Strasbourg, a place harassed during
centuries by the Franco-German conflicts. The territory of the Third Reich is already at the reach of hand for the Allied armies.
German soldiers breaking into the Allied lines during the counteroffensive of the Ardennes. The operation "Wacht am Rhein" was the last
important offensive in the Western Front. It was the last chance for the Germans to repel the enemy before it invaded the homeland. The
Americans, albeit taken by surprise, managed to desperately resist.
The ruins of Saint Vith under the snow, during the Christmas of 1944. This small Belgian town had the misfortune of being located
in the center of the German counteroffensive across the Ardennes, and so this place witnessed hard combats.
American aviators photographed in a base in England. In the last months of the war, the "carpet bombings" devastated every night
the German cities.
A fighter Messerschmitt Me Bf 109 operating during the night in Germany. As the Luftwaffe was still strong during the last year
of the war it caused serious losses to the enemy bomber groups. After the Allies decided to shift the bombings to nighttime the
Luftwaffe deployed night fighters equipped with radar devices and cannons installed in dorsal position and in oblique mountings,
which would allow to destroy the much slower bombers without having to aim the aircraft nose towards them (since the radar
devices were installed on the nose there was reduced or not space at all for the armament in that part of the aircraft).
The increasing activity of the Allied fighter aviation on German territory and the progressive annihilation of the German
counterpart rendered less dangerous the bombing missions over Germany. On the photograph, a British fighter Supermarine Spitfire.
The remainings of the Ludendorff railway bridge at Remagen, which collapsed some days after being conquered by the Allies.
Crossing over the Rhine, this bridge was the key that opened the door of Germany.
|
An American soldier passes by the ruins of a bombed castle in Belgium.
This is what remained of Darmstadt, a German city of more than 100000 inhabitants, after the Allied bombing of the 12th September 1944. The
Allies systematically tried to destroy the industrial cities of the Third Reich.
A squadron of American heavy bombers B-17 Flying Fortress while flying over Germany. The Allied aviation drastically reduced the
industrial power of Germany and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, but the capitulation was obtained only when Berlin was
conquered, with a high price on lives, by the Soviet land forces.
In a British airfield, during the preparation of bombings, a deadly rosary of bombs advances towards the large bays of the aircraft.
On the month of October 1944 alone, the British Bomber Command released over Germany 51000 tonnes of bombs.
Dresde, February 1945. Military personnel tries to identify the victims of the most infamous Allied carpet bombing happened in
Europe, in which not less than 140000 people died or disappeared. On the background it can be seen one of the many pyres for
cremation of the corpses.
The Allies have entered Germany and can see first hand the destruction caused by the massive air raids. An American soldier looks towards
the spires of the Gothic cathedral of Koln, which emerge from a sea of ruins and debris.
|
|
