Hitler's War was a bit of a blight, not only on German and Continental European chess, but on the game in Britain as well.  This image, published in a British chess magazine in the early 1950s, shows the effect of what the "British Chess Magazine" described as "a Nazi pigeon (dropping) his mess in our courtyard" in Victoria Avenue, London, 9 September, 1940.  This early Blitz bombing resulted (as is all too evident) in the near-complete destruction of the building housing Britain's National Chess Centre.  The magazine went on to note the particular bad luck suffered by chess centres, and chess-orientated bookshops in the Blitz.  Well, they rose again.  Best regards, JR.

Checkmate, London.

KV-1 tanks in production in Leningrad during the siege.  Many went straight from the factory to the front line - an unpleasant advent for the German besiegers.  Best regards, JR.