Petrol Refinery East of Hanover (1945)

Julius Stafford-Baker

An artist who became an RAF Intelligence Officer with No. 624 Squadron, Julius Stafford-Baker served in North Africa, the Mediterranean and Germany. Months after Allied victory, he depicted Germany’s bomb sites. Evidencing the successes of Bomber Command’s strategic bombing campaigns, his large watercolours were purchased by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee.

This bombed petrol refinery epitomised for him ‘the most successful activity of the war’, or what Hermann Göring called ‘the utmost in deadliness’ – the RAF-USSAF Oil Campaign (1940-45), which deprived German aircraft and tanks of fuel, weakening fighting strength.

87 percent of strikes, however, missed oil targets, claiming civilian lives.