Richard Shirk - Trolley Trip

In May 1945, just days after the end of the Second World War in Europe, many Allied ground-based personnel were taken on aerial tours of Germany in bomber aircraft. The purpose of these flights was to allow such personnel to see what Allied bomber crews had achieved during the war, in part due to their efforts. These flights were known to the British as 'Cook's Tours', and to the Americans as 'Trolley Trips', as they resembled sight-seeing tours.
 
One such Trolley Trip passenger was Richard Shirk. A professional photographer before the war, Shirk enlisted in the US Army Air Force in 1943 and served as a crew chief in the 155th Night Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron. Using his personal camera, he recorded war-ravaged German cities, the bridge at Remagen and Dachau concentration camp from the windows of a F-3 Havoc aircraft. This gallery presents a selection of those photographs.