Germans queuing for food in Pinneberg, 1945

Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two, North West Europe, 1945.

With agriculture and industry in ruins after the war, the population of the British occupation zone of Germany experienced food shortages and rationing for several years. Although the Control Commission mobilised ex-soldiers and civilians to bring in harvests and restart industry, life only improved for most following the creation of West Germany and its subsequent economic revival in the early 1950s.

From an album containing 198 photographs and captions compiled by Major W H J Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), 1944-1945.