Illuminations

Dramatic photographs of searchlit skies. 

A Douglas Dakota of the British Overseas Airways Corporation at Gibraltar, silhouetted by searchlights on the Rock, 1940-45. Source

Searchlights on the Rock at Gibraltar, 1942. Source

An Avro Lancaster on the runway before taking off for an air raid, with searchlights indicating the height of the cloud base, 1943. Source

Anti-aircraft searchlights on the Panama Canal, 1939. Source

ATS officers-in-training operate a searchlight, 1944. Source

Crews and a searchlight await the return of bombers on a night raid. Source

St. Paul's Cathedral flood- and searchlit for VE Day, 1945. Source

The US Navy in San Francisco searchlit, c. 1926. Source

Dublin searchlit for the 31st International Eucharistic Congress. Source

An Avro Lancaster on a lit runway, 1941-45. Source

An aerial photograph of a bombing raid on Cologne, 1942-- the streaks are the tracks of searchlights and tracer bullets from anti-aircraft fire. Source

An aerial photograph taken during an air raid on Berlin, with the wavy lines of searchlights and anti-aircraft fire, 1941. Source