Obtaining aerial photos Zillebeke, Ypres

[marc coene]

Hello, 

some years ago, I ordered some aerial photos copies of the region Zillebeke, Manor Farm, where we live.  Then always had to choose the map grid, pay the needed amount and wait till the photos came in by postal services. Sometimes good and beautiful photos and sometimes even photos of another grid then ordered. Can happen as sometimes wrong grid references may have been given to photos in hectic wartime.

The  British aerials, as far as I know, on glassplates are stored and Duxford and can not be looked at. 

 

So my question is, if somebody knows if meanwhile, now that it is 100 years ago, the plates or digital copies of them are already available to look in, so to order more really what you see? 

Thanks for any info about this. 

Regards, Marc

 

[drumbobs72]

Marc, I have a couple of images you may be interested in. Please provide your email address..Cheers, Paul.

[Howard]

At Duxford they have between 100,000 and 130,000 glass plates, the last I heard there was a team of volunteers cataloguing them. Not sure why as as you say, they are not available to view.

 

The WFA paid for the hardware to scan their maps, most were scanned by a volunteer (me!). We could offer the same deal to the IWM, scan or photograph all the 100,000 plus plates at no cost to the museum. Will they allow that? I doubt it.

 

Howard

[gmac101]

I have a copy of this book:

 

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780300196580?gC=5a105e8b&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkIazz6SC4QIVy-eyCh11xAOZEAkYCCABEgIwyfD_BwE

 

It has many aerial photos of the Ypres salient and Zillbeke appears 8 times in index.  It was partly financed by the Flanders Field museum so they may have a copy in the museum shop.

 

There is a discussion at the back of the book about 6 archives they used to prepare the book, IWM, Australian, Belgian, In Flanders Field Museum US and German

 

They note that the IWM Glass Plates are stored in Duxford but the card index is at the museum in London and this is searchable via map references. You may be able to identify the negatives you want via this index and pay for the IWM to copy them??

 

The Australians hold 16030 aerial photos, many of which are copies of the IWM negatives but they only relate to 1916 and afterwards when the Australians were on the western front.  The Australian War Memorial holds the photos

 

The Americans also hold some copies of the IWM photos