1944 Warsaw seen on photos taken by a Soviet spy planeWarsaw Rising Museum
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1944 Warsaw seen on photos taken by a Soviet spy planeWarsaw Rising Museum
The Warsaw Rising Museum has published photographs taken by a Soviet reconnaissance plane which flew over Poland's capital on the 18th of September, 1944. The pictures taken in the middle of the ongoing fights in the city show important buildings, bridges and artillery batteries.
The photographs were taken during a reconnaissance mission by a Soviet plane, which flew along the Vistula river from the south to the north of the city. "These are 33 photographs that put together form a five-metre-long sequence" - said Joanna Lang, the head of Iconography and Photography Department at Warsaw Uprising Museum.
The photographs were spotted at an internet auction, but the seller agreed to cancel the bidding and sell them to the museum in Warsaw. "We've managed to authenticate and purchase them with help from a sponsor - Polish Armaments Group" - Lang said.
She also stressed that the photos were taken in a special time. "The uprising was ongoing, Berling's Army was landing in Żoliborz and Czerniaków, and later that day Americans carried out airdrops. The pictures are very interesting, as they show Warsaw very well" - Lang explained.
Many landmarks of Poland's capital city can be easily distinguished. "Then there is the inner city, where we can see the National Museum, Main Railway Station, destroyed Main Post Office, Saxon Palace, the Old Town already heavily ruined (...)" - said the museum's curator. "One can basically see Warsaw of 1944 street by street" - she added.
Oryginalne zdjęcia lotnicze Warszawy z września 1944 roku