The burning streets of the city of Hannover are clearly visible in this photograph taken by RAAF Warrant Officer Keith Mitchell from a Lancaster during a Bomber Command operation on the night of 8–9 October 1943. The original caption describes this as a raid on an 'important armaments and communications centre between the Ruhr and Berlin'. On that night 504 bombers attacked Hannover, twenty-seven of which were destroyed by the German defences. Conditions over the city, however, were clear and the raid was a success, being described by Martin Middlebrook as Hannover's 'worst attack of the war'. Many lives were saved when air raid units shepherded people into open areas between the fires. Nonetheless, 1200 were killed and 33,345 injured; 3932 buildings were utterly destroyed. [Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, The Bomber Command war diaries, an operational reference book, 1939–1945, pp. 437–438; AWM SUK11581
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