FRAGMENTS | George Roger

During 1940-1941, the Luftwaffe, the German air force, began a series of aerial bombings that were dropped over English cities, first to wreak havoc on industry and then with the aim of harming the civilian population. London alone was attacked 71 times in eight months and from September 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed England for 57 nights in a row ultimately resulting in the destruction of over a million homes and with over 40,000 casualties. The English photographer, George Roger, who at the time worked as a photographer for the BBC, felt the need to document the blitz, and it was this series of photos he took during the attacks that won him a job at LIFE magazine. He spent the rest of the war documenting various areas, including the liberation of Belgium, the Netherlands and France. The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was Roger's last photographic trip, where the scenes of hunger, disease and piles of skeletons and corpses led him to decide to retire from his role as a war photographer.

Images: The Blitz period, also known as the 'Battle of Britain'