Horror Of The Blitz In London As Never Seen Before (Photos)

Horror of the Blitz as never seen before: Stunning colourised pictures graphically recreate scenes of devastation in London....

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The horror of the Blitz in London has been brought to life after a set of fascinating photographs were colourised.

The chilling images reveal terrified citizens camping inside the now-shut Aldwych London Underground station to escape the aerial bombardment, while others depict chaos amongst the rubble on the capital's streets.

Other photos show a girl sleeping with a doll in a shelter adorned with Christmas decorations, bomb victims being helped from the rubble by rescue services personnel and children sitting among the debris.

Nurses can also be seen collecting blankets from beds in a bombed hospital, while the charred remains of a bus with its roof blown off is also pictured and men are photographed looking at books in a private library.

The photos – which also include a fleet of German Heinkel He 111s flying in formation during the Battle of Britain - are the work of Royston Leonard, who has painstakingly brought the snaps into the 21st century.

The 55-year-old electrician from Cardiff said: 'The pictures show the team work of the men and women fighting to keep things working through the Blitz from saving lives to keeping people in air raids.

'It's a time when we all pulled together and I think it's important to show the work of men and women which can so easily be forgotten in time. I personally find the picture of the nurses collecting blankets from beds in the bombed building really striking, saving even these small items made a big difference.'

The Blitz - a term first used as an abbreviation of Blitzkrieg, meaning lightning war - was a German bombing offensive against Britain during the Second World War from September 7, 1940 to May 11, 1941.