oil on canvas, 61 cm x 51 cm, Iain White £385
Wandering the Streets in Disbelief
On the day after the raid, across the city, people were crawling out from under-stairs cupboards and hastily-made bomb shelters. What they found sent the city into a state of shock and, in some cases, a hysteria that has not been recorded in any other British wartime city. The streets were running with water, there were ambulances and buses taking the injured to hospital - people were all bandaged up. Some were digging to try to help those who had been buried in their homes, others were walking about looking absolutely shell-shocked. They didn't know where they were or where they were going. There were so many houses destroyed that people used to walk out into the countryside at night, then come back into the city to work during the day. The authorities estimated there were 2,500 homeless people.
