the london blitz

PowerPoint Show by Andrew

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On May 11, the United Kingdom marked the 75th anniversary of “The Longest Night,” the final horrible night of the Blitz—an eight-month-long aerial bombing offensive launched by Nazi Germany during World War II.  

More than 40,000 British civilians were killed in the Blitz, 1.5 million Londoners were left homeless, and the city’s landscape was left shattered. Below, Getty Images photographer Jim Dyson recently traveled to locations across London to make comparisons between scenes from the Blitz and present-day images, laying one on top of the other.

A digital composite of a wrecked Humber car on Pall Mall street after an air raid during the London Blitz, October 15, 1940, overlaid on a Pall Mall street scene in Piccadilly on May 1, 2016.

Londoners shelter on a platform at the Bounds Green tube station during an air raid in the Blitz, overlaid on a photograph of Bounds Green underground station on May 1, 2016, in London, England.

This black-and-white overlay image is an eastward view, down the Thames towards smoke rising from fires in Surrey docks, following the first German air raid of the London Blitz on September 7, 1940.

A bus is left leaning against the side of a terrace in Harrington Square, Mornington Crescent, in the aftermath of a German bombing raid on London in the first days of the Blitz, on September 9, 1940.

A composite image of an area near St Pancras Station in London showing the damage caused by a German air raid on September 19, 1940, overlaid on a view of the British Library beside St Pancras hotel on May 3, 2016.

September 14, 1940, a crater and damaged railings outside Buckingham Palace, after the explosion of a German bomb the previous day. Tourists gather outside Buckingham Palace on April 26, 2016.

Then: Bomb damage caused by an air raid on Berkeley Square, on April 29, 1942. Now: The same scene in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, on May 1, 2016.

Soldiers help to clear the debris of Bank Underground Station, after receiving a direct hit during the Blitz. Now: The same scene at Bank junction in front of the Royal Exchange on April 25, 2016.

May 3, 1941, bomb damage in London's Leicester Square Now: A view of the Vue cinema in Leicester Square on May 1, 2016.

A blaze in the Negretti and Zambra building at Holborn Circus, after a German bombing raid. Now: The same scene at Holborn Circus on May 1.

The interior of Westminster Abbey after a German bombing raid in May 1941. Now: A view of the altar of Westminster Abbey, on January 13, 2015.

A police officer and a soldier inspect the aftermath of a German air raid, Portman Street, London, on September 19, 1940. Now: The same scene at Portman Sreet near Marble Arch, on April 21, 2016, in London, England.

1940: A huge hole in the Strand, where a bomb fell in central London. It fell near the Gaiety Theatre, and the church of St. Mary-le-Strand.