Refugees and bombed towns in Belgium and France, 1940

Refugee carts are attacked from the air, a school stands wrecked, an old man walks through ruins, and children ride on laden carts.

An explosion throws up a column of smoke beside a road; a covered wagon with women under its hood rolls through the dust, and people run into the fields as fighters fly in low over the refugee columns. From the air, bombs burst on roads and a river, vehicles burn, and a dead horse lies in a town square. An old man with a stick walks through a bombed street, a village house burns, a blackboard at a damaged school reads Aujourd'hui pas d'école, a girl with a bandaged eye cries in a hospital bed, and small children sit among bundles on the carts. One scene of people running appears to be staged.

In May and June 1940 millions of Belgian and French civilians fled before the German advance, in France alone perhaps eight million. The columns blocked the roads the Allied armies needed, and German air attacks on roads and towns killed many of the refugees.