Rare military documents and photographs showing the devastation caused by the dropping of the world’s first atomic bomb on Japan in 1945 have been put up for auction.

The bundle being offered by a Herefordshire seller includes chilling black and white aerial pictures showing fire storms raging across Hiroshima just minutes after the nuclear blast.

Blackened pottery and a melted bottle of Sake, which survived the attack on August 6, 1945, are also part of the sobering collection, which is expected to fetch between £2,000 and £3,000 when it is sold at Hansons Auctioneers in January next year.

The documents are one of only 92 original official copies of a military report compiled by a British team in 1945.

It contains four official aerial photos of the bombsite taken by the US Airforce captured soon after detonation fires swept the city.

There is also a damage map, over-printed on an aerial photograph revealing the extent of the devastation, which killed up to nearly 146,000 people in the days following, and many more from the long-term effects.

Another page, entitled ‘Details of Damage’, lists numerous key infrastructures in the city – all with the word ‘Destroyed’ next to them.

They include a large industrial complex, Hiroshima main station, telephone exchange, power station, electricity sub-station and barracks.

A warped Sake bottle and pottery with dirt melted into the glaze are also being sold, alongside a fragment of window glass, melted by the ferocious heat of the nuclear blast with frame nails embedded in it.

The items are believed to have been recovered by a British scientist who was sent to Hiroshima to study the aftermath of the explosion of the bomb, called ‘Little Boy’.

The seller said: “I was given the collection by a close friend who had it for several years. I believe he purchased it from a collector of historical military items.

“I was told that in 1945 a government scientist, unfortunately name unknown, visited

Hiroshima as part of a UK mission to record the effects of the ‘Little Boy’ Atomic Bomb on the city.

“The reports and photographs must have been given to him as part of his work at the time.

“However, the Sake bottle and melted glass were probably picked up as curiosities.

“In later years, after the Second World War, the scientist worked at a British university as a professor.

“I am told he gave the items to an interested student.

“I know similar melted relics have surfaced before - macabre wartime souvenirs picked up by soldiers visiting the city...

“However, the official government photos, reports and maps appear to be items unique to the marketplace.

“The atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were pivotal moments in world history and utterly tragic and horrific. The scale of human suffering was terrible.

“I hope the collection will be viewed and appreciated for the events it represents, and that it will remind people of the horrors of war.”

Auctioneer Charles Hanson said: “With conflicts raging around the world – and, horrifically, threats of nuclear war – I hope this rare and sensitive group of objects will provide a timely reminder of the loss of life and devastation caused by these ferocious weapons.”