Aerial Reconnaissance in World War Two Gallery

Cologne in 1945

Cologne

On the night of 30 May 1942, Air Marshall Harris despatched 1,047 Bomber Command aircraft - consisting of Lancasters, Halifaxes, Stirlings, Manchesters, Wellingtons, Whitleys and Hampdens - on a bombing raid to Cologne. Some 41 aircraft were lost, about 2,500 fires were started, over 3,300 buildings were destroyed and almost 10,000 damaged, over 500 people were killed, and 5,000 people were injured.

The news of the first 1,000 bomber raid astonished the British public, most of whom grimly supported the action, having clear recent memories of their own experiences in the Blitz. The controversial policy of area bombing was to last from now until the end of the war.

This aerial photograph of central Cologne, on 18 June 1945, shows the appalling devastation wreaked upon the city, and also shows the cathedral towers, still standing. Before the war, more than 800,000 people lived and worked in what was then Germany's fourth largest city. By June 1945, only 40,000 people remained.