None of us can fail to have been shocked and appalled by the scenes coming out of Ukraine over the last couple of weeks.
That there is a brutal war on the European continent in 2022 simply beggars belief.
Looking back, it's perhaps also hard to comprehend that during a time period still within living memory, towns and cities on the British mainland were the targets of enemy bombers and suffered devastating attacks and loss of life.
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This striking juxtaposition of past and present is the latest image shared with ChronicleLive by photographer and local historian Mick Ray.
It shows the aftermath of the infamous World War II bombing raid that brought death and destruction to South Shields in 1941, and the same location today fused into one photograph.
During the early years of the 1939-45 conflict, German air crews would target the factories, shipyards, railways and bridges of Tyneside - a region integral to the supply of ships and armaments for the war effort.
But bombs intended for industrial targets often went astray and civilians became casualties amid the carnage.
Devastating air raids claimed hundreds of lives during 1941 (an especially bad year), injured many more, and obliterated buildings and homes in Newcastle's East End, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Jarrow, Hebburn and Sunderland.
On the night of Thursday, October 2, as around 50 German aircraft appeared in the skies over Tyneside, it would be South Shields turn to suffer.
For whatever reason, bombs were released on to the Market Place and nearby rows of terraced houses. All hell was let loose.
The night air was filled with thudding crashes followed by tremendous explosions as more bombs rained down.
In a sickening direct hit on an air raid shelter, one stray bomb killed several people and maimed many more.
A 60ft pillar of flames shot into the darkened sky from a fractured gas main, and machine gun fire swept the streets.
By midnight, the raid was over and South Shields' Market Place and the surrounding area lay in fiery ruins.
During wartime, newspapers like the Evening Chronicle were strictly required to radically tone down the reporting of bad news, so as not to damage civilian morale or give potential propaganda to the enemy.
But in the final reckoning, 68 men, women and children lay dead or dying, and 117 were seriously injured in the attack. More than 2,000 folk were made homeless
Mick Ray says: "This is a rarely seen image of the morning after, showing the damage caused behind the Market Place and along the riverside.
"The lads from the lorry are in the process of removing the burnt-out cars caught in the attack, and you can also see the damage to the buildings in the background.
"The road you can see running away from cars, was called Thrift Street, and formed a portion of the main road running from the Market Place all the way along the riverside to the Pilot Jetty.
"The small archway leading through to River Drive - next to Wilko’s store in the Market Place - was the start of the road in those far-off days."
Mick Ray hails from South Shields and runs the Facebook group Old Photos of South Shields and the North East. You can find more examples of his photographic work and writing there.
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