View of the University Library in Leuven  .The wall are standing but inside everything burned out including the roofs and once again hundreds of thousands of books.
Some 36 years earlier in august 1914 German troops set fire to the then centuries old library.Rare handwritings and 300000 books and 800 unique incunabula(=first fruits of the art of  printing) are destroyed.The building would be restored mainly with American funding only to burn again in 1940.

University Library burned out

This photo shows the Station buildings in the background.The statue in front is a remembrance to the WW1 victims.The Germans burned hundred of houses in august 1914.The road leadind from the station to the city center(then called Stationstreet now it's Avenue of the Allies =Bondgenotenlaan) is about 1 km.The railroad and yards and repair factory are just behind the stationbuilding spreading out left and right along the citylimits.So it's understandable that there was a lot of collaterl damage and many civilians killed.

Bombdamage

The “day after” of one of most fierce battles of the WW2. Spring 1944. Victor Sierra