RAAF airman walks between large concrete air raid shelters in Brunswick, Germany, June 1945. This photograph is part of a series featuring RAAF Flight Lieutenant John Hall DFC, when he visited various centres in Germany in the immediate aftermath of the war, and the man in this photograph may well be him. The RAAF squadrons of Bomber Command raided Brunswick a number of times, the operation of 14–15 October 1944 being, according to Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, 'the worst raid of the war and the old centre was completely destroyed'. That night 80,000 people were bombed out of their homes and a 'sea of fire' cut off rescuers from the public shelters in the centre of the town. When they were finally reached, it was found that 23,000 people had survived in these stout structures and only 200 had perished. [Middlebrook and Everitt, Bomber Command war diaries, p. 602; AWM UK2962]
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