Seventy-eight years ago today, on January 21, 1947 (December 30, 1946), Europe experienced its coldest winter since 1883. Houses were buried under heavy snow in the second winter after World War II, and thousands more still lived in unheated, water-free, electricity-free temporary housing in the devastated cities of Central Europe. The cold wave that swept through Europe in the winter of 1946/47, with temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius, January was the coldest winter since 1883, which was first and foremost a disaster for these people. Since the beginning of 1947, all the rivers and canals in northern and western Germany have been frozen and therefore cannot be navigated. The Elbe in Saxony is frozen, as are the rivers in Hamburg, making it impossible to get there by boat. The situation was similar in Germany's western neighbors and in the United Kingdom. Blizzards and windblown snowdrifts brought traffic to a complete halt in some places. In Germany, the limited post-war transport sector was disrupted, reducing industrial production by a quarter in early January 1947. The supply of coal stopped, causing many businesses, factories, schools, authorities and other state facilities to temporarily close. The already malnourished and suffering German people were then devastated by severe cold and starvation because of the lack of much-needed food. When the transport sector was still operating normally, the vast majority of them could only receive a maximum of 1,500 calories of food per day. In 1947, 30 people starved to death in Hamburg alone, and hundreds were being treated in hospitals for severe frostbite. Britain cleared snow from railways by firing hot-air cannons, and troops dropped food on areas cut off from traffic