King Charles remembers the people killed by alliance bombing during World War II.

HAMBURG, GERMANY: During a visit to the St. Nikolai memorial in Hamburg, the ruins of a church that was badly damaged by allied bombing during World War II, King Charles left a wreath in memory of the people who died in the attacks.

The act comes on the last day of Charles’s three-day tour of Germany. It was his first state trip outside of Britain since becoming king last year, and it was meant to improve ties between Britain and the rest of Europe.

It happens just before the 80th anniversary of “Operation Gomorrah,” the allied bombing of Hamburg in July that killed about 40,000 people and destroyed large parts of the city.

In reaction to Nazi air raids on civilian areas in Poland and later London, the Allies dropped about 1.9 million tonnes of bombs on Germany to try to stop German industry. About 500,000 people were killed in the joint raids.

“It is our sacred duty to remember the lessons of the past, but we can only do that if we are committed to our shared future,” Charles said in a speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament on Thursday.

“Together, we need to be on the lookout for threats to our values and freedoms and be determined to deal with them.”

Charles, who became King when his mother, Queen Elizabeth, died in September, will learn more about the port of Hamburg’s use of green technologies and meet with some of the companies involved. This will happen later on Friday. (Reuters)