Three soldiers picnicking on the grass lookup watching antiaircraft fire. Their easy postures belie their anxiety. This jarring juxtaposition of peace and war in 1940 is Edward Ardizzone’s record of the Nazi air force lightning attacks on the English and French armies.
In 1940, Ardizzone was in Belgium, but with defeat imminent, all English forces were evacuated from France at Dunkirk at the end of May 1940.
See Gabriel White. Edward Ardizzone Artist and Illustrator. New York: Schocken Books, 1979.
Featured Image: Edward Ardizzone. Picnic Outside of Brussels, May 1940. Watercolor. London: Imperial War Museum