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A bombsite is the wreckage that remains after a bomb has destroyed a building or other structure.
A bombsite is the wreckage that remains after a bomb has destroyed a building or other structure.
World War II bombsites
AfterWorld War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
many Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an cities remained severely damaged from bombing. London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and other British cities which had suffered the Blitz were pock-marked with bombsites, vacant lots covered in the rubble of destroyed buildings. Many postwar children in urban areas shared a common memory of playing their games and riding their bicycles across these desolate environments. There were often abandoned bombshelters of the ' Anderson' type nearby.
In London, Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, etc., across the channel in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and other places these sites were constant reminders of the death and destruction of the war. This was a contributory factor to the European psycho-sociological outlook of the 1950s and 1960s. The German city of Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
suffered a previously unprecedented level of destruction.
In literature and media
The rubble ofViennese Viennese may refer to:
* Vienna, the capital of Austria
* Viennese people, List of people from Vienna
* Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna
* Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city
* Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance
* V ...
bombsites and the remnants of the city's battered infrastructure serve as a backdrop to much of the action in the movie ''The Third Man
''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten), ...
'', written by Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, an author who would return to this bombsite motif again in his 1954 short story "The Destructors
"The Destructors" is a 1954 short story written by Graham Greene, first published in ''Picture Post'' and subsequently collected in '' Twenty-One Stories'' later that year.Photograph: Bristol's last Bomb Site
London Discovery Tours offers walks around the London bomb sites
Photograph: Open spaces in Portsmouth where bombs had fallen
Photographs: World War 2 Bomb Sites
On Google Maps: V2 sites in Walthamstow
Summary of 'The Destructors' by Graham Greene (from litsum.com)
Summary of 'The Destructors' by Graham Greene (from enotes.com)
Other essays analysing Graham Greene's 'The Destructors'
Images of London bomb damage and related material
The Psychological effects of war and violence on children By Lewis A. Leavitt, Nathan A. Fox on Google Books
London Discovery Tours offers walks around the London bomb sites
Photograph: Open spaces in Portsmouth where bombs had fallen
Photographs: World War 2 Bomb Sites
On Google Maps: V2 sites in Walthamstow
Summary of 'The Destructors' by Graham Greene (from litsum.com)
Summary of 'The Destructors' by Graham Greene (from enotes.com)
Other essays analysing Graham Greene's 'The Destructors'
Images of London bomb damage and related material
The Psychological effects of war and violence on children By Lewis A. Leavitt, Nathan A. Fox on Google Books
Further reading
* * * * * {{Cite journal , last=Moeller, first=Robert G. , year=2006 , title=On the History of Man-made Destruction: Loss, Death, Memory, and Germany in the Bombing War , journal=History Workshop Journal, volume=61 , pages=103–134 , doi=10.1093/hwj/dbi057 History of Europe Urban planning Aftermath of World War II Bombs