Found 3 old panoramic battle ground photos from 1916

[Guest]

Hello, so today I was cleaning out an old garage and came across 3 x official army issue panoramic photos from 1916, one of Adinfer Wood front line which is about 4-5ft long, one of the front at Hendecourt which includes Hameau Farm which is about 3ft long, and the last one is of the village of Gommecourt which is around 10ft long, which includes views of Pigeon Wood, La Brayelle farm, Kite Copse, Rettemoy Farm, Biez Wood, Bucquoy & Rossignol wood ( with the German front line ) & a seperate map of the area, they have obviously been rolled up for some time, I shall try and photo them and post them up over the bank holiday if anyone is interested?

 

2 of them have on them the following - 

 

Third Army, Panorama No. 545 - 14/9/16

Third Army, Panorama No. 524 - 20/5/16

 

also - 

 

1) Panoramas taken solely for military purposes.

 

2) the publication of them in the press will necessarily give valuable information to the enemy.

 

3) This panorama is to be kept with as much security as is compatible with the full advantage of it being taken by our own troops.

 

4) when troops are relieved this panorama should be handed over to the relieving troops.

 

my question is, how many were produced for each location and I’m guessing they are not so common these days? Such an interesting find I’m eager to know more!

 

hope I posted in the correct forum!

 

thanks in advance!

 

Edited 25 May , 2018 by Guest

[caulkheader]

I have previously seen one with Gommecourt, as you say about 10 feet long with a small wooden handle on each end. Is that the same as the one you have?

This would have been about 10 years ago and the dealer who had it was looking for a substantial amount for it then ( cant remember how much, but it was in excess of £100). A fantastic find.

well jells (as my kids say)

[Knotty]

Hi Binocular

 

Firstly a welcome to the Forum, and thanks for sharing your find, but a word of caution from my perspective, please be careful unraveling them. If they have been rolled up for 90 years, as you have suggested in you Adinfer Wood post, chances are the photo paper may have gone brittle with the passage of time, if it hasn’t then good on you and I along with others look forward to seeing the results.

 

There is probably a photo restoration expert on here, or someone who knows of one, that could give you some pointers on how to go about it, as it would be a shame to loose such an important document.

 

John

 

[Guest]

Hi there. I'm in the photo restoration sector. Please don't forcibly unroll the photo. There are ways to unroll without damage, although this depends on the photo, thickness of paper and brittleness. This article will help https://www.image-restore.co.uk/blog/old-rolled-photo-restoration/ but also if you are unable to do this yourself to check with the http://www.conservationregister.com/PIcon-SpecialismSearch.asp?UserType=1 conservation register. Assuming you get to the stage where it can be scanned then the image can be digitally restored. 

[Knotty]

Hello

Welcome to the Forum PhotoRepair, and thank you for reiterating my concerns about attempting to unroll an old photograph.

You might find a flood of inquiries heading to you as many of us on here have those old photographs in various states and would like to see them restored back to an almost pristine condition.