Aerial photograph of the center of Gdańsk destroyed by warfare

A bird's-eye view of the historical center of Gdańsk after the atrocities of the year 1945 is an image of a sea of ruins. Close to ninety percent of the city's buildings were brought down by fire, explosives and the harsh weather conditions of winter that year. The scale of destruction is a terryfing testimony of evil brought by warfare. The author of the photo was a pilot of the 308 Battalion of the Polish Air Forces during the Battle of Britain. He took the picture in 1947 during a leisure flight over Gdańsk and donated it to the city museum exactly 70 years later.