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Rotterdam - not yet anywhere at all ...

Unknown private author.

Riverine Port of Rotterdam from the air, shortly before the outbreak of war, 1938-'39. The tiny "old port" - the "dead end" towards the middle-right of the photo, miraculously survived the infamous cock-up that was the German bombing of 1940, and subsequent Allied artillery bombardment in 1945 (I have had lunch there - it has hardly changed). Everything visible around - and much, much more, was burned to the ground (and I mean to the ground) by the German bombing and its consequences, which (unintentionally) involved setting fire to the warehouses clustered around the Old Port, many of which were crammed to the roof with flammable materials such as fabrics and cooking oils and fats. The resulting conflagration, which took fire brigades from all over the Netherlands and much of western Germany, took several days, by which time most of the city centre had been destroyed. Postwar, the area was rebuilt in a variety of "modern" (generally brutalist) styles. Very, very sad. Best regards, JR.