Since the release of Google Earth 5.0, Google has steadily added more and more historical imagery. Today, Google announced the addition of historical imagery from WWII. The new layer of imagery features aerial imagery of 35 European cities bombed during WWII. Among these cities Warsaw, Lyon, Naples, and Stuttgart. To view this imagery and compare it to modern imagery, locate a city in Google Earth then use the timeline slider to view the historical imagery.

Click the screen capture below to read the directions (in full size) for accessing the historical imagery.

For more information about Google Earth’s historical imagery, watch the following video.

Applications for Education
As a history teacher I love using Google Earth for creating and sharing tours of military campaigns. The new WWII historical imagery for Google Earth will be useful for creating WWII tours that have imagery reflective of the time period.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
How to Make Placemarks and Tours in Google Earth
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Google Maps for More than Social Studies