Aerial photographs showing the destruction of Freiburg now accessible online

Aerial photographs showing the shadows of destroyed buildings, around Freiburg Cathedral, are now accessible onine. One of the key air attacks on Freiburg was made by the Royal Air Force on the 27th November 1944. On that night alone over a period of only 25 minutes, over 1,900 tons of bombs were dropped resulting in over 2,000 deaths and the widespread destruction of this medieval city. Despite this destruction, miraculously, Freiburg Cathedral survived the war largely unscathed.

Royal Air Force aerial photographs of Freiburg taken during a photographic reconnaissance sortie over southern Germany, on 19 March 1945, graphically show the impact of this raid. Sortie 106G/4923 also covers places, in modern day Baden-Württemberg, during a pivotal period in their history as the Allied advance through Europe continued.

Its now possible to view all of the aerial photographs on our website in detail using a zoom feature available with our website subscription.